Obesity a Serious Epidemic, Health Experts Warn

By Jorge Casuso

June 13 -- Eliminating obesity -- one of the nation's most serious "epidemics" -- may take more than watching what you eat and exercising, health officials warned at a forum in Santa Monica last week.

The forum -- sponsored by State Assembly member Fran Pavley and Saint John's Health Center -- looked at the underlying reasons why 35 percent of Californians over 25 are overweight and why fat cost the State more than $28 million last year.

"This is the first generation that will reverse longevity," Pavley told the audience at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel Wednesday night. "Clearly this is an epidemic and deserves our attention."

Long work days and commutes, aggressive advertising campaigns for fattening foods, packaging that holds ever larger portions, lack of open space for exercise and long hours behind TV sets and computers are all contributing to a society that takes in far more calories than it burns.

"We need to redirect and redefine progress," said Dr. Francine Kaufman, an internationally-known authority on diabetes, especially among children.

"Children (are) glued to TVs and computer screens," Kaufman said. "Let's not think that progress is all technology."

In fact, said Dr. Richard Jackson, the State Public Health Officer, "the biggest threat to America's health is how we're managing wealth and overconsumption.

"Doctors sit at the end of the pipeline," Jackson said. "We desperately underinvest in prevention."

Americans, Jackson said, are addicted to "supersizing."

"We're supersizing houses, supersizing vehicles, supersizing land consumption, supersizing work," Jackson said. "We're loading up kids with food they shouldn't be eating."

American workers, for instance, put in more hours and take less vacation time than their counterparts in other industrialized countries, Jackson said. Americans take 13 vacation days a year, compared to 42 days for Italians, who are more healthy, he said.

One of the greatest impacts on health is rampant sprawl, which eats up green spaces where children traditionally ran and played, spurs huge freeways that increase commutes and generally causes people to walk less and sit more.

"It's really about how we're building our communities, how we're laying them out," Jackson said.

Take Cabrini Green, the infamous public housing project in Chicago. A university study showed that children who grew up at the end that faced green space "functioned much better" than those who grew up on "the concrete end," Jackson said.

Kauffman -- who is author of the recently released "Diabesitiy: The Obesity-Diabetes Epidemic That Threatens America" -- agreed.

"We need to make an environment where there is still an outdoors to enjoy," Kaufman said.

Kids today are drinking far too little milk, depending more and more on rides to school (only seven percent walked or biked) and spending less time playing outdoors, Jackson said.

One million kids are on anti-depressants, and the number is rising by 10 percent a year, he said.

Part of the problem lies in the packaging, Kaufman said. Kaufman recalls that as a girl, her weekly treat was ordering a six ounce coke at the local soda fountain. Today, many people drink 16, 32 and even 64 ounce cokes, she said.

"Snacks have doubled in calories because they've doubled in size," she said.

In America, 18.2 million people suffer from diabetes, said Kaufman, who is past president of the America Diabetes Association.

When the new statistics are announced this week, Kaufman said, the number will have grown to 20 million.