Saturday, March 11, 2006
Clinton urges governors to promote healthy eating habitsRobert Tanner, Associated Press, Mar 1, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Bill Clinton, who has acknowledged being a former overeater, urged governors yesterday to embrace an effort to change the nation's culture of too much food and too little exercise.Clinton changed his eating habits after undergoing heart bypass surgery in September 2004.
He warned the governors that failure to change the nation's eating habits would weaken the economy and threaten the lives of children.
''We have a huge cultural problem, and unless we change it, our children may grow up to be the first generation with shorter lifespans than we had," Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas from 1978 to 1980, said before the National Governors Association on the last day of its annual meeting.
His pleas were heard by receptive governors who have embarked on a multistate effort to share ideas and innovations in schools, workplaces, and state offices that target the growth in obesity and diabetes.
Obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years for children and adolescents from ages 6 through 19, raising their risk of type 2 diabetes and a range of other diseases. The rise of diabetes among young people has caused the medical community to change its terminology. The illness that had been called adult onset diabetes is now type 2 diabetes, because it is turning up in children as young as 9, Clinton said.
Halting the rising obesity rates must be part of a challenge to the rising costs of healthcare, he said.
If the country could reduce the nation's spending on healthcare, which now amounts to 16 percent of the gross domestic product, to 11 percent, the most other countries spend, the savings could be $700 billion.
Clinton asked governors to participate in a new school-focused program his foundation has helped to launch. It aims to improve the nutritional value of food served in cafeterias and vending machines, to increase physical activity, to provide health lessons, and to promote staff wellness.
The work will not be easy -- because food, especially premade, processed food -- has remained relatively inexpensive. More research is needed on the role of different ingredients in food, such as the reliance on fructose, or sugary foods, he said. Health insurance can help in prevention and treatment.
But ultimately it comes down to choices. ''No matter what else you say, no matter what different studies show, you've got to consume less and burn more," Clinton said.
