Sun, The (Lowell, MA)
September 3, 2006
Section: Today's Headlines
The Real Skinny on Obesity
DAVID PERRY, Sun Staff
Following a summer of Big Dig tragedy and a Red Sox swoon, there is some good news for Bay Staters. Gas prices are dropping, perfect for more driving instead of walking.
Oh, and our waistlines aren't expanding as quickly as almost everyone else. We're less obese than almost everyone in those other states, especially the South.
According to a state-by-state survey (which includes the District of Columbia) by Trust For America's Health (TFAH) released this week (and conducted before rotund Sox hurler David Wells was traded), Massachusetts ranks 49th in rates of adult obesity, with 18.6 percent rate.
We're second only to Colorado and Hawaii.
Mississippi weighs in on top, with a belt-busting 29.5 percent rate, and Colorado waves the banner as the least-heavy state, with a 16.9 percent adult obesity rate. The South is particularly fulsome, with nine of the top 10 most-obese states.
Don't run out to buy a cake to celebrate just yet.
Eighteen states were statistically the same as in 2005. Every other state, including Massachusetts, saw rates increase. Last year, Massachusetts was also 49th, but with a 17.8 percent rate.
We're getting fatter, just not as fat as everyone else.
Not one state met the national goal of reducing obesity levels, in all states, to 15 percent by 2010.
Obesity leads to an array of serious health problems, including Type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Jeff Levi, executive director of TFAH, said upon the report's release that America's obesity problem "continues to get worse." Quick fixes, fad diets and limited government programs aren't working, he said. "Government must step up and provide sustainable funding for sound, long-term policies that produce significant results."
But is there the will to lose?
Lowell 's health director, Frank Singleton, said a Massachusetts legislative bill promoting proper school nutrition (H1457) attempted to attack poor nutritional choices in schools.
The bill recently died in session.
Sponsored by the Massachusetts Public Health Association (on whose board Singleton sits) the bill would have pulled sodas from schools replacing it with water and low-fat milk and juice. It would have set standards for fat and sugar content in snacks served and sold in schools and made fresh fruits and vegetables available in cafeterias.
Singleton doesn't know "how much you can change an adult's behavior with legislation or otherwise," but he says limiting school kids' choices to healthy ones are a good start for the future.
"And for the schools, these soda vending machines are profitable for them. In some cases, schools were against it."
Yet doctors are reporting rising incidence of Type 2 diabetes among children, causes by poor diet and lack of exercise.
"The bill died in session," says Roberta Friedman, director of education for the Massachusetts Public Health Association. "But we're really committed to this issue. We're not done."
At what point will people need to see Roy Shen?
Roy Shen, a Lowell General Hospital bariatric surgeon, treats some of the most morbidly obese patients.
"Almost every state now had an obesity rate greater than 20 percent," says Shen. "And it's getting worse every single year."
"We try to help the people who come to us, which is a small percentage of the morbidly obese, with surgery.
"But it's at an epidemic now. People diets are not changing. You go to McDonald's and there are Big Macs, everything is big. When you order in a restaurant, you get a large plate of food. Large. In Europe, you order a steak and you get a small one. There's this abundance of food.
"Everything," Shen says, "is super-sized.
"But even in China they're talking about eventual obesity. People have one child, who is more spoiled, and the western diet is being introduced. In another 20, 30, 40 years, there will be a problem."
And it will be a simple formula that causes it.
"Less exercise," he says, "and more calories."
"I think the biggest thing is serving sizes and portions," says Nia Jones, a dietitian at Lowell General. "Twenty years ago, the size of a muffin was very small compared to what it is now."
As is the level of physical activity.
"We drive everywhere we go, and sit on our rears at the computer and send e-mails rather than walk down the hall to talk to someone."
Typically, it takes an alarm to get people to see her.
"Something has to be serious. Diabetes, a heart attack. It's something really difficult that gets people to change."
Karen Bell , owner of The Club Fitness, Health & Spa on Middlesex Street in Lowell, says she is heartened that more and more customers are coming in with doctor's orders.
"Neither diet nor exercise work alone," Bell says.
Her customers "tend to be older" than some gyms, and that "we work to mix exercise and diet as a way to keep weight off."
"I see more people being told by their doctors that they have to exercise. That's encouraging. They'll tell them you have to exercise and that's it. And some have told patients they won't do that hip replacement until they lose 15 pounds."
According to the report, it costs billions each year to treat health problems associated with obesity.
It says $5.6 billion could be saved in heart disease treatment of just 10 percent of Americans began regular walking programs.
David Perry's e-mail address is dperry@lowellsun.com.
(c) 2006 The Sun ( Lowell, MA). All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.
