Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise Act (LIFE)

Floor Speech

SPEECH OF HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON
OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2007

* Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today I introduce the Lifelong Improvements in Food and Exercise Act (LIFE), a national initiative to attack grhttp://www.thomas.gov/owing problems of overweight and obesity now found in Americans of every age, race, and major demographic group. The LIFE bill would provide $15 million in funding to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for a major effort to reverse increasingly sedentary lifestyles and diets that are high in fat and sugar.

* I introduce the bill today because of the startling and steadily increasing rates of obesity among adults and children in the United States. Currently, 64.5 percent of adults, aged 20 years and older, are overweight and 32.2 percent of adults (over 66 million) are obese. According to the National Women's Health Information Center, 50 percent of women aged 20 to 74 are overweight or obese. Young people are no better off--the percentage of children who are overweight has more than doubled, and among adolescents the rates have tripled since 1980 increasing from 5 percent to 17.1 percent. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that Type 2 diabetes, considered an adult disease, is now widespread in children. The health care system is already paying the price, and the consequences to kids will follow them throughout their lives. These kids, ages 10 to 15, have a 80 percent chance of being overweight adults, with the health conditions that follow, such as high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer.

* The LIFE bill directs the CDC to pursue obesity and sedentary lifestyles in three ways: train health professionals to recognize the signs of obesity early and educate people concerning healthful alternatives, such as proper nutrition and regular exercise; conduct public education campaigns to teach the public about how to recognize and address overweight and obesity; and develop intervention strategies to be used in everyday life in worksites and community settings. This important legislation is the minimum necessary to address this major health care crisis. Already, chronic diseases, many of which are caused or exacerbated by overweight or obesity, account for 70 percent of all deaths in the U.S., which is 1.7 million each year and 60 percent of U.S. medical care expenses yearly. According to the Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity, the cost of obesity in the United States in 2000 was more than $117 billion.

* A focused national health initiative is necessary because unhealthy lifestyles have become a normal part of everyday life. Participation in high school physical education classes has dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 33 percent in 2005, accounting at least for part of the reason that one-third of young people in grades 9-12 do not regularly engage in physical activities. National data show an increase in unhealthy eating habits for adults and no change in physical activity. Changes in nutrition are equally critical because 60 percent of young people consume too much fat, a factor in the doubling in the percentage of overweight youth.

* I urge my colleagues to join with me in support of this important legislation to mobilize the country now before entirely preventable health conditions that begin in children overwhelm the nation's health care system.

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