Health Experts Urge New Approach to Fight Obesity

July 1, 2008— -- With obesity levels on the rise, a major medical association said on Monday that a new approach is needed to fight the country's growing weight problem.

A new American Heart Association scientific statement, published in the journal Circulation, urged a comprehensive approach to reducing obesity in the United States that incorporates population-based initiatives to prevent excess weight gain in adults and children.

"We're not talking about creating a dieting society, but more about looking at the choices in front of people daily," said Shiriki Kumanyika, professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia and chair of the working group that composed the statement.

"Society has changed in ways that [make it] hard to control your weight," Kumanyika said. "There is more technology, more labor-saving devices, more tasty food, larger portions and so on. The weight creeps on, and there isn't much opportunity to lose it."

The solution, Kumanyika said, is to ensure that those who need to lose weight do not have to go it alone. A population-based prevention of obesity approach would complement individually oriented strategies, including clinic-based prevention and treatment programs. According to the statement, a broad range of policy and environmental strategies at the local, state and federal levels can help people adopt healthy behaviors, such as being physically active and eating right.

The approach resonates with diet experts, who note that if nothing changes by 2015, two in every five adults and one in every four children in the U.S. will be obese. With these increases in obesity, many fear, chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are also expected to increase.

"We need to be very concerned," said Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "Obesity is the most pressing health problem for Americans because it is a gateway to many of our chronic health problems.