[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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