Newsweek
Dean Ornish M.D.
May 27, 2008
The childhood obesity epidemic has been called 'the terrorist threat from within.' Now researchers armed with $500 million are taking aim at this public health disaster.
If you want to see something really scary, go to the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which has been tracking the rise in obesity. You can see the obesity epidemic spreading like cancer, metastasizing across the country from 1985-2005. It looks as though an alien force or a conquering army is taking over the United States, state by state, year by year.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, obesity may account for 300,000 premature deaths a year, almost as many as deaths from cigarette smoking. People who are obese have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of premature death from all causes compared to those who are not overweight, including heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and some cancers.
Even though today's numbers offer some hope, it's much too early to assume that the problem has been solved—this may still be the first generation in which kids have shorter lifespans than their parents. According to former U.S. surgeon general Richard Carmona, "As we look to the future and where childhood obesity will be in 20 years … it is every bit as threatening to us as is the terrorist threat we face today. It is the terrorist threat from within."
Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey decided to do something about it. Under her leadership as president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the group has committed $500 million to reverse the rise in childhood obesity.