Word: soft
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...easy to be pessimistic about how soft and fat Americans have become. It's not healthy to be obese, and if we keep going the way we're headed, the long-term medical costs may be more than we can bear. The case for optimism is harder to make, although there are signs that the tide may be turning. Preliminary data suggest that 2003 was the first year since 1998 that the percentage of Americans who are obese did not increase. But that doesn't include kids, and it still leaves us at epidemic levels. What can be done? That...
...plenty of reason for hope. Researchers are hard at work trying to understand the basic biochemistry of hunger and fat metabolism; policymakers are pushing for better labels and nutritional information; school boards are giving their cafeteria menus a closer look and reconsidering vending-machine contracts with makers of sugary soft drinks; urban planners are rethinking our cities and towns to get us out of the car and onto our feet; Americans in record numbers are putting themselves on low-carb and low-calorie diets; and more and more foodmakers are beginning to see increased awareness of the obesity epidemic...
...help individual patients battle the bulge. It has become a crusade to change the way Americans live. The nation's landscape, they argue, is littered with junk food masquerading as health food, candy and candylike cereals featuring kids' favorite cartoon characters and toylike packaging, schools that shamelessly hawk soft drinks and snack foods, and multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns to promote such unwholesome products. Schools, in particular, "have become nutritional disaster areas," says Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard pediatrician who directs the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston. Experts like Ludwig and Brownell are equally worried about what's missing...
Nothing infuriates the obesity warriors more than dietary conditions in public schools. "We as a society have really abdicated responsibility for teaching kids how to eat right and how to have an active lifestyle," charges Ludwig, who wants to eliminate "junk food, fast food and soft drinks" from schools. "Students are a captive audience," he says. "Promoting their physical well-being should be part of the school's educational mission." The first step is getting rid of soft drinks, which "are basically candy," says Nestle. "Get 'em out of the schools." Tackling soft drinks alone could make a remarkable difference...
Increasingly, school officials across the country are coming around to this point of view. Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City and numerous smaller districts have taken steps to ban the sale of soft drinks during the school day (although New York has made the dubious decision to replace soda with sugary Snapple beverages). California and Texas have issued statewide bans on soft-drink sales in elementary and middle schools...