How Utterly Obese Can This Problem Become?

What's healthy? Working for a medical device company, I've quickly come to realize how those of us who are healthy take that little aspect of life for granted. It takes something like a chronic disease or other major life problem that impacts our health to get us to snap to and recognize that it is really all we have...our health that is.

Consider obesity, for example. There have and always will be fat people in society. But when America's fascination with getting larger increases year after year (even the bloody Brits are now a healthier society than those in the U.S.), something has to give.

I wonder if most people understand the deeper meaning behind President Clinton's actions. He's taken the basic step to get soft drink companies to agree they should only sell diet soft drinks at schools throughout America. The goal is to help kids make better decisions and ultimately reduce their odds of becoming obese. It's a small step toward better health.

But when, in 30 years, we no longer have to read news headlines about the latest 1200 pound man, who's so large he can't get on a commercial airline flight to receive life-saving gastric bypass surgery, we'll be a better society. Sure, taking sugar-laden sodas out of high school cafeterias isn't the only answer to America's obesity epidemic, but it's a start. Thank President Clinton for firing the first shot across public school's bow. If we left it up to the "dietary" experts, kids would have mini corn dogs and 20-ounce servings of Mountain Dew on their trays every day.

Now it's the parent's turn to take action at home. As summer draws near, time to put away the Playstation and hand kids the keys to their bikes, rollerblades and skateboards. Time to unplug the TV and take that valuable walk around the neighborhood with junior. What harm could it do? Perhaps, you moms and dads who are so busy with life and work, could have a conversation with your kid that runs deeper than the cursory, "What did you do today?"

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