It's odd that the only candidate to show up in person is the candidate with his own weight problem. He ban's fast food in school in NM, which is great, but he hasn't shown restraint in his own eating habits. Obesity is a real health concern, but on this issue Richardson isn't really a great spokesman on the issue. It is pretty much do as I say not as I do.

Meeting was followed by cake and ice cream.

The need for an environmental approach
Obesity is the result of the accumulation of small incremental gains in weight and a normal response to an abnormal environment (Egger and Swinburn, 1997) (Neel, 1999;Brown and Krick, 2001). This goes beyond interpreting obesity simply as a moral or behavioural deviation by the individual, or a medical condition for correction by dietetic, drug or surgical intervention. It envisages obesity as environmentally caused and largely preventable, and suggests a reorientation to the ways in which it is considered and addressed (Chang and Christakis, 2002). Preventing normal weight children from becoming overweight and overweight children from becoming obese presents the only realistic strategy for combating the obesity epidemic currently affecting Britain and America. For a programme to be effective in providing a long term solution, it must tackle at a local level the causal factors behind obesity. Whilst this presents a huge challenge, the scale of this project provides a very real opportunity to make significant progress in combating the underlying environmental causal factors by involving everyone who is responsible for shaping the places in which we live  One immediate challenge is to redefine how we think about the “epidemic of obesity”. Whilst severe obesity is likely to confer clinical comorbidities at some stage in life, the causal factors behind the condition of obesity are social, environmental and behavioural,and not pathological. To “medicalise” obesity is to give it disease status and thus clinical legitimacy, critically diverting attention and resources away from the environmental causal factors, and deflecting the onus away from the custodians of policy and planning that are ultimately responsible for shaping our obesogenic environment. By considering overweight and obesity as a medical phenomenon, it diminishes the responsibility of the parent and detracts from making the right lifestyle choices for themselves and for their children. Medical problems require medical solutions, and medical solutions for obesity on the whole, don’t work.
Educating the individual in healthy eating and active lives remains central to preventative strategies. However, perhaps the major educational challenge lies in the edification of the wider political and professional establishment, as well as the media and myriad of information portals that  people are exposed to. The more obesogenic an environment the stronger the continual negative pressure exerted on its community, as our behaviour is a reflection of our environment. Asking a population to make better choices whilst their environment pervasively surrounds them with high energy cheap foods and encourages them to be habitually sedentary is futile as well as condescending. “Making the healthy choice the easy choice” is easy to say – but hard to deliver. Obesity on this scale is a recent social phenomenon, and it is a reflection of the dramatic changes in society over the last few decades. Central to all of this is planning, policy and attitudes, and decision taking at all levels. The fabric of our environment and the supply of the foods that we consume are the result of layers of decisions taken  from central Government to the home. Collectively we own these decisions, and collectively we hold the solutions. Unless health education messages are supported with commensurate physical, economic and social changes within our environment, real progress on  obesity will continue to elude us.

(The above was adapted from The London Borough of Merton's approach to childhood obesity . I consider it the best piece of writing on Obesity I have ever read )  

Dr Colin Guthrie
Family Physician
The Guthrie Surgery
1448 Dumbarton Road
Glasgow G149DW
Scotland

This is an interesting article.  It's clear that obesity is a problem, our health is declining, and we need to start re-creating our lives.  This starts with a mental change.

One very important factor is to focus on being HEALTHY—physically, mentally, and spiritually.  That means building a LIFESTYLE full of good habits, and thriving on life.

Who cares if you don’t look like a model on a magazine cover?  If you can enjoy life, do the things that you want to do, and are physically healthy, then you’re fine.

And really, the solution is quite simple.  Consume less calories and exercise more.  Why do we have to overcomplicate fitness so much?  Let’s start simplifying fitness.  Start building good habits; start taking control of your life; start thriving!

Stuart Schaefer – Author of Lifetime Physique, a book that reveals:

• Why transforming your body starts with a mental process;
• How to create a mindset that allows you to achieve anything;
• How to dissolve fat away by eating more;
• How to gain strength and create an endless source of energy
• How to transform your body by working out LESS, not more;
• How to build a sensible, sustainable lifestyle;
• How to take control of your mind—and your life.

stu@fitwithstu.com
www.lifetimephysique.com

Oh, good idea, Bill, let's make another protected class! And pass things by executive fiat! (Isn't that what the looney left claims Dubya has done?)

Hey, "Don't Take Away My Junk Food!".....

It's obvious you didn't read the article.  He's lost 30 pounds over the last year.  He may not be slim and trim yet, but he's not a hypocrite either.

Why is it that only CFR-affiliated politicians are allowed to have a voice in public on the issue of the CFR-manufactured obesity epidemic? When will people wise up to the fact that in the 1980s, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (the so-called "food police"), who are funded by CFR-affiliated organizations, actually CONSPIRED with the big food corporations in getting trans fats in the American food supply?

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