Posted on 05/08/2012 6:45:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Federal agencies should step in if industries that promote high-calorie foods to children do not implement common nutrition standards within two years, the influential Institute of Medicine (IOM) said Tuesday.
The recommendation came as part of a 478-page IOM report on the U.S. obesity epidemic that outlined broad policy changes the panel says are necessary to stave off a healthcare crisis.
The changes are aimed at a complete overhaul of the United States's "obesogenic" environment, the panel wrote.
"People have heard the advice to eat less and move more for years, and during that time a large number of Americans have become obese," panelist Shiriki Kumanyika of the University of Pennsylvania said.
"That advice will never be out of date. But when you see the increase in obesity you ask, what changed? And the answer is, the environment.
"The average person cannot maintain a healthy weight in this obesity-promoting environment," she said.
Strategies like a possible soda tax and new zoning laws to encourage walking and biking are designed to "reinforce one another's impact to speed our progress," said panel Chairman Dan Glickman, a former secretary of Agriculture.
The food and beverage industry, as well as its marketers, must cooperate or face possible federal intervention on issues like childhood nutrition standards, the panel warned.
Schools and employers also have a part to play, the report says, recommending students spend 60 minutes each day exercising and that workplaces expand wellness programs.
The report stated that obesity-related illness has an estimated annual cost of $190.2 billion, and a study released Monday by researchers at Duke University forecast that 42 percent of Americans will be obese by 2030.
"Obesity is both an individual and societal concern," said IOM President Harvey V. Fineberg in a statement, "and it will take action from all of us — individuals, communities and the nation as a whole — to achieve a healthier society."
The IOM is part of the National Academies and makes recommendations on health issues to the federal government.
The study, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, comes during three days of Centers for Disease Control meetings on the topic of obesity.
I think I see the problem.
Sad.
Why don’t we just humiliate obese people.... you know, tease them in front of their peers, call them fatty, piglet or
as was MY case ... butterball.
Well, it worked for me. I was so fat in Jr.High, I couldn’t get both feet off the ground on the rope climb. I couldn’t jump high enough to reach the top of the climbing wall. I couldn’t run 100 feet without stopping.
And the gym teacher (who was a friend of my father)made fun of me in front of everyone in gym class.
So I quit taking 3 helpings and quit deserts.
And I ran..and ran..and ran.
When 1972 rolled around, I’d run 2 marathons and was voted most physically improved in my school.
I say bring on the degradation and shame fat kids and their enabling parents into some self respect.
Where is it in the Constitution that Obesity is any of the Federal, much less any of the governments business?
“Federal agencies should step in if industries that promote high-calorie foods to children do not implement common nutrition standards within two years”
I guess promoting low-calorie foods would be the answer, hey? Low calorie foods like sawdust, straw, and dirt come to mind. People wouldn’t be fat if they ate low-calorie foods like that, right?
The Federal Government, run by both political parties, suffers from morbid fiscal and monetary obesity.
“let’s start the war against obesity right after we win the war on drugs.”
Indubitably.
Mon-Fri, up at 0500 to fight the WOD, then the WOB. And the WOP (War On Poverty) time allowing.
And there’s the WIN (Whip Inflation Now) campaign, WTF (Win The Future) death struggle, and the DFA (Death to Federal Acronyms) battle.
No lunch for revanchist slackers, parastic hyenas and lazy non-running dog, former capitalist blood-suckers!
Then, comrades, we spring into action `Forward!’ for five hours of political lectures and I think we’ll be ready for a dinner break.
Some cool down with carrots, baby spinach, raw beets, bok choy, legumes (and other foods that food eats) chased by tap water, 5 minutes to digest, some sweaty calisthenics in front of the televiewer, and live `man massages’ taught by Vinnie Barbarino and Rosie O’Donnell, then a series of two hour videotaped nutritional indoctrination lectures by a well-fed, hairy First Wookie, or her designee. 2200, lights out!
Saturday, Sunday: Back to work training for the Big One: The WWM (War on Wahfer-thin Mints).
First, a short film on the horrors of nutrition prior to AmSoc and the ascension of Big Bro:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXH_12QWWg8
Lunch: a celery stalk. A 20 mile forced march with singing. Readings from `Dreams of My Fathers.’ Flavored tofu tastings, then `Ho Ho Ho-ing With Michelle’ a short documentary ..... meditation/breakdown time
Purge the gene pool!
SHOOT THE FAT!
SHOOT THE FAT!
SHOOT THE FAT!
SHOOT THE FAT!
</end uplifting exhortation>
Don't forget the insidious "capitalist roaders" and "gold bugs" -- and the always-evil, deceptive "wreckers"!
Long live Ingsoc! Death to Goldstein! Victory, victory, victory!!!
I thoroughly approve of healthy living, but I cringe at the thought of the federal government creeping into yet another aspect of our lives. We already have far more government than any sane person wants.
Time to wage war on arrogant, overreaching panels like this.
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