After campaigning actively for the last several years on issues concerning removing vending machines from our public schools, I had the opportunity to see how the federal government approaches the issue of obesity. And, considering a Republican administration is in office, I was pleasantly surprised!

"Obesity and the Built Environment: Improving Public Health Though Community Design," sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and two related entities, was a compact, well-designed conference held May 24, 25, and 26 at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel in Washington. The conference was attended by approximately 300 people, most from federal agencies and universities and a scattering from community groups and non-profits.

The "built environment" is defined as buildings, spaces, communities and transportation systems–everything constructed or modified by people. The conference objectives were to encourage interagency coordination, raise public awareness, and inform public and academic players of current research and demonstration projects taking place on the subject of obesity, which is now officially considered an epidemic.

I was fascinated to learn that, for instance, General Motors is conducting a "wellness program" aimed at its 1.1 million employees, since its health insurance costs have gone through the roof; that Gatorade’s parent company, PepsiCo, has formed a $4 million partnership with the University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health, aimed at controlling obesity; that Nike, Inc. is willing to openly criticize Ohio’s public schools for their failure to provide enough Physical Education classes–which average only 3.5 minutes of actual exercise per 30-minute class, anyway. (Nike has taken positive steps as well, such as reaching at-risk minority kids through its African Dance and Hip Hop Parade and other innovative programming.)

Then there is the mind-blowing statistic that one-third of the U.S. population enters a Wal-Mart each week. Some shoppers are now greeted by corporate-sponsored in-store education programs with tips for parents on exercise and good health. But most fascinating to me is that sugar consumption has gone from 28 pounds a year per person in 1910 to 300 pounds a year today!

The dangers are clear and present, especially in minority populations. For example, 50 percent of all black and Latino children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes. Obesity is linked to 22 debilitating, life-threatening diseases, including hypertension, heart disease, asthma, cancer, kidney disease, and depression. Taxpayer yearly costs are staggering–$117 billion a year. Fifty percent of African-American women over 50 are in the obese range. And, most startling: an estimated 300,000 (and rising) preventable deaths per year are attributable to obesity.

The scientific community questions whether we can actually get the American population to lose weight. Maintaining weight seems a more realistic goal, since the causes of obesity are known, and we can modify behavior, environment, and eating patterns through planning and policy.

Conference speaker James Hill of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center pointed out that there is a mismatch between our genes and the environment. Historically, humans needed to spend all their energy just to get through a day. So, our genes say, "eat when food is available, and rest when you don’t have to be active." We’re wired for sloth, gorging, and the long trek. Sitting in front of computers or in a classroom all day is not a part of our evolutionary past. Social policy and urban planners never took this physiological history into account when they were planning sprawl, limited public transportation and neighborhoods without sidewalks, bicycle trails, or playgrounds.

To be sure, access, safety, costs, and motivation have to be taken into account when discussing obesity. Most teenagers, for instance, just don’t have access to healthy food, whether in schools, in their homes, or at popular restaurants. And simply building biking, hiking, and jogging trails isn’t enough. Unless safety and a destination are provided, people won’t necessarily use them. Stairways in buildings aren’t accessible, safe, attractive or well-labeled enough to be used regularly. And role models, whether they’re sports or movie heroes, are employed by corporations to market the worst possible foods and lifestyle to children.

So, how to reverse the trends over the last 40 years? Mis-education, propaganda, negative societal programming, and the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars by fast food and drink companies needs to be halted. The citizenry has to raise the outcry that it’s wrong for corporations to feed us a diet that makes us sick and shortens our lives.

The federal government and policymakers need to realize that it is not in our best national interest to promote and subsidize the agricultural commodities (sugar, simple carbohydrates, corn syrup, etc.) which slowly kill us. The placement of fast food joints near schools has to be questioned by the community. Schools need to serve fresh, attractive, and healthy foods based on nutritional needs, not items that are low in price or high in profit, such as chicken nuggets and similar frozen junk foods supplied by Sodexho and other corporations. Policy makers and school authorities have to focus on self-esteem and motivate interest in physical activity.

Elected officials have to be prodded and reminded that community planning and healthy people mean lower taxes, less societal burdens, and lower long-term costs. And professional personnel in health, nutrition, and education have to be more sophisticated in their approaches. Simply pointing to the agribusiness-driven Food Pyramid is not enough. We have to pay attention to cultural and ethnic differences, and develop appropriate behavior modification programming and counter-propaganda media efforts to affect any real change.

But we can’t accept the Bush Administration and corporate game plan of placing sole responsibility on the individual. None of this can be effectively achieved if corporate America continues to spend billions a year aimed at getting us to eat everything that is wrong for us.

So, what can we do locally? Many of the suggestions below come from speakers at the conference and represent ways in which we as a community can modify our behaviors and activities toward more healthy approaches wherever possible.

1. Encourage more use of stairs by making them more visible, lit, safe, and attractive.

2. Encourage walking from short distances–for example, near Metro stations–by building attractive, safe, and well-policed pathways.

3. Encourage our county councilmembers or our county executive to meet with health insurance companies and develop incentives which reward individuals and families with average or below-average body weights–similar to the "safe driver discounts" given by auto insurance companies.

4. Encourage county and state employers to subsidize employee memberships in health clubs and YMCAs. And encourage employers to be positive role models. (Many CEOs take a 30-minute walk each afternoon and invite all employees along.)

5. Insist that all county and city events, festivals, and fairs make available healthy, fresh, and appealing foods, and that consideration be given to limiting soft drinks (especially those with high fructose corn syrup which is linked to diabetes). Vending machines in county buildings should be stocked with waters and fresh fruits–studies have shown that such healthy alternatives will be consumed if the junk isn’t there.

6. Provide more room for bikes at Metro stations, and place bike racks in shopping centers.

7. Re-establish kitchens at schools and prepare healthy lunches and attractive salads.

8. Demand that our elected officials and the city planners hired by those officials plan from a more health-conscious perspective. This means creating smart-growth, non-sprawl communities with safe and accessible hike/bike trails, and putting resources into remodeling our communities towards this goal. Our neighbor, Greenbelt, is a great example of such a community. In the 1930s, Greenbelt was planned around many walking and bike trails, to insure that their children could walk to school without crossing streets and that residents could walk to stores, restaurants, and movies!

9. Start by eliminating junk foods from our homes that contribute to the obesity epidemic. Coke and Pepsi, even as diet products, ought to be kept out of the homes of people who are concerned about good health.

References: "Obesity in the 21st Century" and "Obesity: a Weighty Issue for Children" from Environmental Health Perspectives, Journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Oct., 2003. See National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (www.niehs.hih.gov/dfcpt/ceoconf/) for conference summaries and report.