[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 170 (Friday, November 21, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15361-S15362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OBESITY
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise for a few moments to speak to a once
silent, now highly visible epidemic that plagues every neighborhood in
this country. It is an epidemic that plagues our schools. It is an
epidemic that plagues our school grounds. It is an epidemic that
plagues youth in our playgrounds and it plagues older people in the
workplace. It is a plague that in many ways is a new problem--a problem
that is only really 15, 20, maybe 30 years old--but it is a problem and
a plague that is growing. It is one that specifically hurts children,
and, indeed, once it attacks our children, it can destroy in many ways
their future quality of life and their future life in terms of
longevity. This epidemic, this plague, is childhood obesity.
Just this summer, the Food and Drug Administration announced it will
require food labels to list trans fatty acids. Most people do not know
what trans fatty acids are; people do not know exactly what they do.
But they do things which make in many ways food taste better. They make
foods last longer. They give flavor to foods. They increase shelf life.
The problem is that these trans fats contribute to heart disease. Heart
disease is the No. 1 killer in the United States of America today.
For 20 years, before coming to the Senate, I spent my life in
medicine and ended up gravitating to this field of heart disease. It
wasn't as big of a problem in the late 1970s or early 1980s, but it was
there. What bothers me most is that it is skyrocketing today, and it is
increasing faster among adolescents--children--than it is among anyone
else.
It is interesting. If my colleagues are listening to me, the
likelihood is one out of every two of you is going to die of heart
disease--not just my colleagues but on average around the country. That
is how common heart disease is in terms of mortality.
Various food companies really deserve praise for their plans to
reduce the level of trans fats in their most popular products. These
are important advances in public health, and I applaud our food
manufacturers for stepping up and taking this leadership position.
Ultimately, however, the responsibility for this growing,
skyrocketing epidemic rests with all of us--individual consumers,
American consumers--you and me--and all of us because ultimately we
make that decision for ourselves in terms of our shopping, in terms of
how we conduct our lifestyle, how much exercise we get, and what we
eat.
But the point is that we have an epidemic. It is hurting specifically
children. Children are really condemned to a lower quality of life
because of this epidemic. But the good news is that there is something
we can do about it; we can reverse these trends.
Sixty percent of Americans today are overweight. More than one out of
two are overweight. By itself, obesity might be considered just another
choice we have in life, that we just choose, that is what we do, and,
if it hurts us, that is just the way it goes. It is more than just
another choice. It really does come down to what we do, which may not
be a choice in part because there may be even a genetic component to
it. We don't know for sure. But researchers in England believe they
have discovered a gene which they are calling an obesity gene that some
way predisposes some to overeat. It is a choice in terms of lifestyle:
People choose to take the metro or the subway rather than walk. We know
our children in schools today are exercising a lot less. We know that
our kids today are spending a lot more time in front of the television
or at the computer and are less likely to be exercising.
Whether by choice or by some combination of genes and environment, we
know obesity is now a major public health threat in the United States
of America. Obesity contributes directly to heart disease but also to
diabetes. Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in our children
today. It directly contributes to other illnesses, including cancer and
stroke.
There are 300,000 deaths a year that can be directly attributed to
fat. The epidemic is spreading in faster and faster proportions with
our children. The percentage of kids age 6 to 19 who are overweight has
quadrupled since the early 1960s. It is not a static problem; it is
getting worse.
Pick any city in the country. Look at New York City's public school
children, nearly half are overweight; one in four is obese. The problem
is particularly acute among African-American and Hispanic children,
especially Hispanic boys. More Hispanic boys than Hispanic girls are
obese. In my own State of Tennessee, the statistics are even worse.
Nationwide, type 2 diabetes, the kind of diabetes that is associated
with obesity, is skyrocketing. At the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, estimates are that one in three Americans born in the year
2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. One in three Americans
born today will develop diabetes in their lifetime. This is attributed
to obesity. It is attributed to being overweight. Among African-
American and Hispanic children that number is not just one in three
Americans, but it is one in two Americans in those populations that
will develop diabetes in their lifetime.
People say diabetes is bad and that should be reversed. But it is
even worse than saying it is just diabetes because diabetes itself is
the leading cause of kidney failure, which is renal failure. Diabetes
is the leading cause of heart disease. Diabetes is a leading cause of
blindness as well as amputations. It all starts as a child, who, in
this growing epidemic, is led to be obese.
As adults, we know how hard it is to battle the fat or the battle of
the bulge. We all struggle with that in our environment of fast food
and transportation. It is very easy to find excuses not to exercise
four times a week for 30 minutes. But imagine struggling with obesity
when you are just 10 years of age, where this is reaching those
epidemic proportions. Teachers say they see the physical toll on their
students every day. Kids are out of breath walking up the school
stairs. Kids are not able to participate fully in sports. Kids are not
able to participate when they do field trips and go outside, activities
we associate with playing and vigorous childhood activity. Kick-ball,
jumping rope, and climbing trees for many children today, unlike in the
past, have become grueling exercises that, indeed, they try to avoid.
They say they will not participate because they are embarrassed to
participate.
Mr. President, 25 percent of our Nation's children say they do not
participate in any vigorous activity today. That is one out of four
children. Obesity is not only robbing them of those
[[Page S15362]]
everyday pastimes, it is also robbing them of their childhood years.
Obesity is associated with the early onset of puberty among girls.
According to a study from the University of North Carolina, 48
percent of African-American girls begin puberty by age 8; over a
quarter by age 7.
Yes, we are in the midst of a national health crisis. It is harming
our children in ways that we can observe, but the crisis also occurs in
ways we cannot observe. It threatens their future. It also condemns
their future in many ways to the lower threshold of having other adult
diseases if they start as a child being obese. They carry that with
them for the rest of their life.
It affects what we call their morbidity, the relationship to other
disease patterns. It affects their longevity in terms of length of
life.
There is a lot we can do. We cannot just talk about it. The Surgeon
General, Dr. Richard Carmona--for whom I have tremendous respect--is so
alarmed, this month he urged the American Academy of Pediatrics to step
up the fight against childhood obesity. In the Washington Post
yesterday, Rob Stein wrote an article ``Obesity on FDA's Plate'' and he
pointed out the Food and Drug Administration has launched an initiative
to determine how and in what way it can play a role in helping to fight
obesity, which, as the article points out, has reached epidemic
proportions in this country.
In that article from yesterday, FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan--
again, a physician for whom I have great respect and with whom I have
worked in many capacities before; he is doing a great job at the FDA--
said:
The issue of obesity challenges us in every aspect of our
efforts to protect and advance the public health, and that is
why it needs to be front and center of our public health
agenda.
The good news to all this is that there is action in government that
obesity is both treatable and preventable, which means there are things
we can do to reverse the epidemic. We can reverse the trends. We must
reverse the trends. It is now time to put our minds to it in this body.
I am gratified by the action of the HELP Committee which unanimously
approved recently the IMPACT Act, the Improved Nutrition and Physical
Activity Act. I urge my colleagues to look at this piece of
legislation. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I hope
we can bring it to the Senate floor in the near future.
Very briefly, this act takes a multifaceted approach. It emphasizes
youth education to jump-start healthy habits. We know if they begin in
their early years, they are carried through life. It funds
demonstration projects to find innovative ways to improve health,
eating, and exercise and includes vigorous evaluations so we can learn
what works best in reversing this epidemic. It does not attempt in any
way to control what individual Americans eat or drink. It does not
outlaw so-called bad foods. It does not try to replicate the $1 billion
diet industry that we know exists. It does not try to replicate the
fitness industry, which is actually doing a wonderful job around the
country.
It does have a modest pricetag reflecting on the appropriate role of
the Federal Government to set this platform to combat this epidemic.
There is no single solution to the growing epidemic of obesity. I
believe we must increase awareness of it first and then implement
programs we know will have an impact; look at the medical consequences.
That is why I come to the Senate floor to share the medical
consequences that are totally avoidable if we act, if we educate, and
if we adopt practices that we know will work.
We do know the consequences of obesity today. We can and should keep
our kids safe by keeping them fit. I look forward to working with my
colleagues on this very important issue. It is a new problem, a growing
problem, a problem we are obliged to reverse.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I wish I listened to the speech before I had
lunch.
On a serious note, Senator Durbin is here and he will start talking
about the Medicare bill that will soon be taken up in the Senate. I
think the leader would agree that people should come now and start
talking about this most important piece of legislation.
Senator Durbin is in the Chamber to talk about it. I think we should
invite all Senators because the time later could be a little more
constrictive.
I also say, on a serious note, about the speech the distinguished
majority leader just gave, one of the reasons the leader has such high
respect on both sides of the aisle is we know of his background. It is
not often we have someone of his medical talents come to this body. In
fact, no one has ever had the same background. He uses it in such a
dignified way, in his charitable work when we are on break, doing
things for the less fortunate in Africa and other places. And here, it
is always good for us to know that when we do deal with health issues,
he is here.
So I speak for the entire Senate when I say this presentation he just
delivered on obesity is something we should all pay attention to
because I know this is not a speech that someone prepared for him; this
is something he spoke to with his knowledge as one the finest
physicians in America.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I appreciate the comments, through the
Chair, from the assistant Democratic leader. One of the great things
about these issues is we do have the opportunity here to work together
on both sides of the aisle on issues which affect people broadly. I
very much appreciate his comments in that regard.
I do also add the point, and reinforce the statement the Senator
made, that over the course of the afternoon we would like to shortly--
and, hopefully, a little bit after 2 or after the appropriate comments
are made on Medicare--go to Healthy Forests. We are waiting on some
final agreements, but hopefully we can address that today.
But what I really want to say is, this is exactly the way to handle
it. I encourage people right now to come and make their statements and
make their points and have the debate on Medicare. The bill is out. The
bill has been filed. People have access to that bill. I think everybody
should take that opportunity, this afternoon, through tomorrow, and
through the weekend, to come to the floor to begin talking about that
very important issue.
We want to make the very best use of time today, tomorrow, and
Sunday, in all likelihood, and Monday, on that issue as well as others.
It may be confusing to people. We will be going back and forth because
we have a lot of business to do. So we will be on Medicare, and then we
will take up Healthy Forests, and then I encourage people to come back
and begin Medicare.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coleman). The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Thank you, Mr. President.
I join my friend and colleague from Nevada, Senator Reid, in saying
to Senator Frist, thank you for your leadership. We disagree on issues
from time to time, but we agree on some, too. You have been an
exceptionally good leader on the Republican side. I have said this to
you privately, and I want to make it a matter of public record: I think
you have been eminently fair to the minority in this Senate. And that
is, I am sure, not an easy task. There are certainly forces at work in
your party, as there are in our party, calling for a different outcome.
But I applaud you for your fairness in allowing the minority on this
side of the aisle an opportunity to debate, offer amendments, to
express our points of view, and bring an issue to a vote. I do not
think a member of any legislature--national or State--could ask for
anything more. I think you have worked long and hard to make that a
hallmark of your leadership.
As a member of the minority, let me say to the Republican leader,
thank you for your service to this institution. You have been a great
asset to our Nation and to this body.
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