USDA Symposium on Childhood Obesity: Causes And Prevention

                                            Release No. 0445.98

Remarks
                              of 
               Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
   USDA Symposium on Childhood Obesity: Causes And Prevention
            Jefferson Auditorium -- October 27, 1998

Thank you, Shirley. I want to thank you and all the folks at the Food,
Nutrition and Consumer Services who put this conference together, particularly
Dr. Rajen Anand and his staff at USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and
Promotion. For four years, this center has focused the attention of health and
nutrition folks in and outside of government on the nutrition challenges of
the 21st century. I want to applaud them for choosing the topic that brings us
here today. 

This is the first government conference on childhood obesity, and I am proud
that it is happening at the Department of Agriculture. Yes, we are the
department of America's farmers and ranchers. But we are also America's food
and nutrition department -- fighting hunger and promoting healthy eating and
healthy lives.

Over the past 20 or 30 years, thanks to the work of USDA's Human Nutrition
Research Centers, leading universities and private research, we have come to
understand a whole lot more about the role of nutrition in health. But our
greatest challenge, as policy makers and public health advocates, remains to
translate what the experts know into what people do, and nowhere is this
challenge more daunting or more necessary than when it comes to our children. 

Here in Washington it seems everything we do is for the children   whether
it's protecting the environment or cutting the deficit. Take any major
childhood disease   from juvenile diabetes to leukemia and the campaign to end
it is massive, well-funded and highly public. Everyone wants to protect
children. Yet when it comes to the sensitive issue of childhood obesity, too
often we fall silent. We are here today to break the silence, and lay open for
the country the hard facts and necessary choices we need to make to deal with
what has become a quiet epidemic in America. 

The simple fact is that more people die in the United States of too much food
than of too little, and the habits that lead to this epidemic become ingrained
at an early age.

Everyone here knows the statistics: Obesity and overweightness effect 10
million U.S. children. That's a record, and there's no real sign that it won't
be broken again soon. In the past 20 years, the number of obese children has
doubled, placing more Americans at risk of high cholesterol, blood pressure,
heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer -- all at an earlier age. 
          
Obesity contributes to 300,000 deaths each year. That's close to 1,000 lives
lost each day at a cost to our health care system of $70 billion a year, or 8%
of all medical bills.

And, the problem is literally growing before our eyes. Shirley met a small-
town superintendent in Pittsburgh not too long ago. What was his #1 concern?
Not the quality of education which is  quite high in his district. It was the
growing size of his kids. 

We need to take this issue seriously. For at least one in five kids,
overweightness is not a cute phase that will be outgrown. It's the start of a
lifetime of serious health problems. It is time we elevate this issue to its
rightful place near the top of the public health agenda   alongside cancer,
heart disease and other leading killers of Americans today.

As we talk at this conference about causes and prevention, we need to think
about the roles that each of us can play -- government, doctors, schools,
parents, communities, industry and producer groups, even the media. We all
have an influence, and we all have a duty. That duty is to recognize the
simple fact that it does take a village to raise a healthy child.

The solutions aren't simple, and they can't be heavy-handed. This is a complex
issue because it overlaps with some very sensitive areas: personal choice,
culture, economic status. So we're not here today to impound the Taco Bell
Chihuahua or unplug the Coke machines or ban Happy Meals. We are here to arm
America's families with the facts, and to develop effective strategies aimed
at helping our children live healthy lives and have fun eating right. 

Clearly, USDA -- especially in our work with the schools -- can play a key
role. This Administration's built a strong record to date. In 1997, we
overhauled the School Lunch Program and required that fat be reduced to less
than 30 percent of calories, and that school meals meet the dietary guidelines
for healthy living. We've launched major nutrition education efforts aimed at
elementary and middle school, and we've made nutrition education a staple of
our food assistance programs -- from food stamps to the Women, Infants and
Children Program. 

We are doing a better job of reaching our kids both with healthy meals and
health education, and we are seeing results. Contrary to popular myth,
children tend to eat more fruits and vegetables at school. Why? Because more
are offered. They're readily accessible, and a conscious effort is made to
push healthy food and make it appealing to kids.

Unfortunately, in additional to healthy meals, schools also have vending
machines, and open-campus policies that have half the student population
heading to the drive-thru for lunch. These are temptations all of us must deal
with, so the long-term answer is not to dictate what folks eat, but to help
schools fulfill their primary goal which is preparing children for a strong
future through education. 

Schools teach our children the three Rs. We also need to teach the big 'N'
which is why this Administration created Team Nutrition. This program develops
nutrition education materials for the schools that teach kids the healthy
eating basics in a way that sinks in. We've actually had parents call the
schools to complain about this effort because when they went to the grocery
store, they caught their kids slipping the less healthy food back onto the
shelves.       

In the past, we've also had Nutrition Education and Training grants which
worked hand-in-hand with Team Nutrition providing funds to teach the teachers
about nutrition. Unfortunately, Congressional leaders didn't see the value of
this effort. This Administration asked for $10 million. We got not a single
dollar. U.S. businesses spend an estimated $30 billion a year promoting their
food products, regardless of the role they play in a balanced diet, and we
cannot get $10 million to teach kids how to navigate all these choices and
enjoy foods in healthy proportions. That tells me that we have a long ways to
go to overcome the dangerous disregard for this problem that is still out
there.

We at USDA are doing everything we can to make sure the health message reaches
American families. Everyone here is familiar with the Food Guide Pyramid. It's
one of the most recognizable icons in the country   just about as identifiable
to the American people as Mark McGwire. We are now working on a kids version,
so elementary students can understand and apply these principles and adopt
healthy eating habits at an early age. 

I'm also pleased to announce $500,000 worth of nutrition education grants to
efforts in five states to help community food banks, public health centers and
farmers markets help families in low-income areas achieve healthier diets on
their tight budgets. This effort is important because low-income children are
nearly three times as likely to become obese. 

We need to reach more families, and USDA will increase its efforts. In fact,
we will soon begin printing the Food Guide Pyramid directly onto food stamp
booklets, so it's right there when folks go to the grocery store -- an easy
reference as parents make their purchases.

We continue to explore new ways to reach people. Currently, for example,
there's nothing in the WIC program that says anything about physical activity
even though this is the #1 reason for the rapid rise in childhood obesity.
Through WIC, we encourage parents to stop smoking, to get their children
immunized, to eat healthy. We also should encourage active lifestyles. I've
asked Shirley and her staff to take a formal look at all our nutrition
programs to see if there's a way to link diet and exercise and address the
whole problem, instead of simply the food angle.

USDA also has an after-school program that gets healthy snacks to community
centers to lure kids into a safe, supervised environment during the hours when
too many get into trouble. We should encourage these programs to do more than
sit kids down at board games or in front of the TV. Many do keep kids active,
and I'd like to see more follow that example.

The schools can play a greater role, too. Twenty-five percent of children do
not participate in any form of regular physical activity. Back when I was in
grade school, kids got out and played tag and threw a ball around and had
physical fun. We had a name for it, too: Recess. Today, they are rare in
elementary school. Kids simply have a lunch break and sit around and eat. 

USDA also is looking to expand our pilot efforts that help schools buy more
fresh produce from local farmers. And, we are asking schools to offer 1% and
skim milk in addition to whole milk. These efforts are important because if
you look at kids' diets, they eat less fruit and drink less milk as they grow
from early childhood through the teens. Less than 12% of high-school kids eat
the recommended amount of fruit. Less than 12% of young women get enough milk.
Although it's encouraging to note that the percentage of kids drinking lower
fat milk has doubled.

Our challenge is to keep reinforcing the health message. But with milk in
particular, we need to recognize that different kids have different needs. A
child from a family that has trouble putting food on the table gets a
significant part of his or her daily food at school. These kids need the
calories and fat in whole milk. But kids from more economically secure homes
are the ones with the fast food and other high-fat snacks more readily
available. So the lower fat milk is the healthier choice. That's why today in
a joint letter from USDA and the Centers for Disease Control, we are urging
America's schools to offer children a range of milk choices from skim to whole
that support their efforts to manage their weight.

So government can play a significant role in encouraging healthy eating
habits, as can teachers, doctors, nutritionists and more. But unless families
get involved, this epidemic will continue. 

After all, the rise in childhood obesity, however alarming, should not shock
us. Why? Because we can't simply scapegoat Al Bundy. Our kids soak up the
wrong lessons not just from TV, but also from the one in three adults who are
overweight. The apple isn't falling far from the tree, here.

Who is one of the most recognizable father figures in America? Homer Simpson.
He sits on the couch, watches TV, drinks beer, eats chips, and falls asleep.
Why's he funny? Because he has no shame, but also because   despite his
cartoon status   Homer Simpson is a very familiar figure. As parents, we need
to take a hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves: Are we setting the Homer
Simpson example? If so, maybe we need to work on this as a family. 

The only way kids will succeed is if they have access to healthy foods, there
are less temptations, and there are role models that set the right example
both with eating habits and exercise. Success almost always hinges on changing
the whole family's eating habits   which is good for everyone.

We also have to be careful not to make the problem seem insurmountable.
Research has found that kids who break the challenge into small manageable
pieces are most successful at managing their weight. And, since obese children
lose and maintain their new weight much more effectively than obese adults, we
have every incentive to reach our kids early. 

Breaking the challenge down begins with separating the factors we can control
from those we can't. We all know that person who can eat anything and stay a
bean pole. We all want to be them, but we can't because most folks' genes
don't work that way. Studies show that many obese children don't eat more than
their thinner peers. They simply need less food and more activity.

But genetics alone can hardly account for our rapidly expanding waistlines.
Poor diet, family lifestyle and other factors often play the deciding roles. 

Take the main reason we're here -- television. Children are spending more time
than ever glued to the tube. And, they're watching not just cartoons and sit-
coms, but advertisements. Eighty percent of the commercials on children's
programs is for food. And, we're not talking broccoli and spinach.

This media barrage clearly contributes to kids eating habits. Fast food
restaurants are the most frequent source of food outside the home for teenage
boys. They're about even with the school cafeteria for girls. Two-thirds of
teenage boys drink three cans or more of soda a day. Two-thirds of girls down
two.

Among the 75% of kids who say they eat at least one vegetable a day, the most
popular vegetable is -- a potato ... usually in the form of a potato chip or a
french fry. Next comes tomatoes. When you get to the most nutritious veggies,
like the dark greens, less than 7% of kids touch them.

The truth is more kids in high school fret about the quality of oil they put
into their car than the fuel they give their own bodies. They change the oil
and rotate the tires and do all these things to keep that car in good
condition. But they don't have that same respect for their own bodies. 

Turning that trend around won't be easy. Any cook will tell you: kids eat what
they like and leave what they don't. They also often are averse to new foods.
And, we know that the old 'you can't leave the table until you eat your
broccoli' can backfire because it teaches kids to tune out the internal voice
that says, 'I'm full.' 

And, when it comes to curbing bad foods. Well, any parent knows what's likely
to happen when you tell a teenager not to do something. I can just see the
next ad campaign: a stern father wagging his finger and saying, 'Don't you
dare eat those brussel sprouts, young man.'

One trick is to get at kids early. That's why our nutrition education efforts
-- that concentrate on elementary and middle school -- are so important. We
can even start younger. Some studies show that kids in day care that see other
kids eating veggies tend to give them a go themselves. We see this in infants,
as well. What do parents do when the hanger doesn't open for the airplane?
They take a bite to show just how yummy those peas are.

But my point is, we have to be innovative and creative, and recognize that our
goal isn't to dictate to our kids, but to encourage them to make informed
choices and adopt a healthy, active lifestyle that will dramatically enhance
their quality of life. 

I want to thank our many distinguished speakers who are leaders in this field,
and have worked hard to elevate the issue of childhood obesity. I want to
thank everyone who has joined us here today for what I hope will be the first
of many gatherings. And, I encourage all of us to think of this not as a one-
day academic exercise, but the beginning of a long and important mission that
we can only complete together. 

It is a mission to protect and improve our children's future, and if
successful, our reward will be generations of Americans who grow up to lead
long, healthy, productive and enjoyable lives. 

Thank you.

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