Fed Up

...on the bridge, a little bit slow right now on the lower level.

Upper level looking much better.

Thanks, Al. 8:05 on this Wednesday morning.

Time now for a check of your Mathis Brothers...

The bottom line is, you know, the epidemic here, Susan,

is worse than previously estimated... probably much worse.

We have this new report coming out overnight

from the Journal of the American Medical Association...

...of Doctors has described this week what it calls an emerging epidemic.

Military leaders called that a threat to national security.

If it doesn't affect you personally,

it will affect you indirectly by someone you know, someone in your family.

- - It is just going up

much faster than we thought.

The problem just keeps getting worse.

This is a terror from within.

It is a global epidemic. Epidemic.

Clearly something's gone wrong.

Kids are being told the biggest lie they will ever hear in their lives.

She cannot... literally cannot calm herself down.

In the past quarter century,

the number of overweight children has grown from

one in 20 to nearly one in five.

Used to be you'd have one or two heavyset kids in a class.

Now we get eight or 1 0.

This year, for the first time in the history of the world,

more people will die from the effects of obesity than from starvation.

This has ramifications far beyond obesity itself

It is worse than even smoking. The cost of this is about...

Half a trillion dollars in additional health care cost...

half a trillion.

The American Academy of Family Physicians

partnered up with Coca-Cola.

Isn't this a conflict of interest?

Hope that the American Academy of Family Physicians

is looking for...

Researchers say obesity is causing more and more cases of cancer.

and is now catching up to smoking as the leading cause...

It started out as a small story,

I had no idea I'd be talking about

weight gain and obesity my entire career.

We've been covering the problem and solutions for over 30 years.

It's sweatin' time.

In that time, entire industries have ignited over the weight problem.

I will never look like that again.

First came the magazines, then the talk shows-

And how was the diet for you?

This is the miracle we've been waiting for.

And now our epidemic is entertainment on network television.

How is this still an issue,

much less a worldwide epidemic

We get new solutions every day

Everything in the grocery store is made with less fat and fewer calories

and yet our kids keep getting bigger and sicker.

It makes no sense.

ls there a link between our ever-expanding waistlines

and the government's own dietary guidelines?

And that got me thinking,

what if the solutions weren't really solutions at all?

The Bush administration is resisting a plan

from the World Health Organization to fight obesity...

What if they were actually making things worse?

There are a very high percentage of young people overweight

because of a number of things that have happened in our country

in the last several years.

What if our whole approach to this epidemic has been dead wrong?

Sorry. Okay.

Uh, let me fix this.

You know, one person told me

that fat people were just made to be fat.

And l don't think that's true.

And l know it's hard, 'cause l'm still overweight.

And right now l feel like l always will be.

Why do you not eat vegetables, Taylor?

- 'Cause l do not like them. - Why?

- l don't. - Why not?

'Cause l don't.

You just say you don't, but you don't have a reason.

- Yes, l do. - What's the reason?

l don't.

Being in the South, we eat a lot of fattening things.

We eat macaroni and cheese, fried cube steak, fried chicken.

And that's what we're used to. That's what l've grown up doing.

l've done what my parents done. My parents have done what they've done.

lt's passed on from generation.

And once you start overeating,

it becomes the worst habit, and it just grows.

The first time that l think he ever mentioned

the teasing... calling him fat or something,

l think it was probably around the age of eight.

Some girls told him they wanted to see how fast he could run,

and he ran.

And later, another girl came to him and told him..

that they were laughing at him,

and they just wanted him to run so they could see his fat shake.

He stayed upset about that for so long.

- We ready to eat, Mama? - Mm-hmm.

l'm 1 5, and l weigh around 21 5 pounds.

lf you like it that way.

l'd like to lose about 50 to 55 pounds.

l could do so many more things.

Maybe l could play football or play baseball.

l've always had an interest in baseball.

We talk about it a lot... about, you know, the weight thing and

l've always been overweight. And l was overweight at his age.

And l don't want him to be having to obsess about weight his whole life.

You know, l want him to be able to focus on other things that are more important.

l really think he wants to lose weight.

l just think he doesn't know how to do it.

Everybody else doesn't look at it the same way as l do.

l look at it as l'm failing,

and they just look at it as he's just another fat kid

Kids are obese for two reasons...

They have voracious appetites, and they don't exercise enough.

Americans view overweight people as lazy,

unambitious and lacking willpower.

All we have to do is have people eat less and exercise more.

Not a very big problem.

The subtle message is "lt's your fault you're fat."

All you need to do is eat less, exercise more.

lt's all about personal responsibility, about willpower.

That's the message that's been pushed on us.

l want to see you all moving, all right?

Forget about it.

"Eat less, exercise more".

has been the common sense answer to unwanted weight

for more than half a century.

This was the science.

And it started with a mouse.

The year was 1 953.

Up until this point, exercise had been considered taboo.

Doctors even warned it would cause heart attacks and diminish your sex drive.

Then came Dr. Jean Mayer,

a French physiologist

who would become the foremost expert on obesity in the U.S.

He noted that large lab mice

ate virtually the same amount as smaller mice.

But the big ones weren't nearly as active afterwards.

Mayer's conclusion,

lack of exercise must be related to weight gain.

His finding sparked a fitness revolution.

This is where you come and punish yourself for fun...

or rather, for your health.

Here we go now. We're gonna step apart together

To the right. Apart...

By the time Jane Fonda became the face of fitness,

Americans were spending billions of dollars trying to lose weight.

But as more and more people began exercising,

more and more waistlines grew out of control.

Between 1 980 and 2000,

fitness club memberships more than doubled across the United States.

During that same time, the obesity rate also doubled.

A decade later,

two out of every three Americans

were either overweight or obese.

So how is it possible...

that the enormous rise of the fitness revolution.

almost exactly mirrored the rise in obesity rates.

Something is making that happen.

The question is, how is that happening in Malaysia, Saudi Arabia,

Sweden, Norway, South Africa and everywhere else.

And we have obese six-month-olds.

You want to tell me that they're supposed to diet and exercise?

So, how our politicians can continue

to espouse this same mantra...

"Diet and exercise, you are what you eat, it's your fault"

is absolutely beyond me.

l am 1 2 years old, and l weigh 21 2 pounds.

My doctors have said that l am a statistic.

l don't really know what it means.

l think it has something to do with my weight.

They normally say that l'm just supposed to eat healthier

and exercise a lot more,

which is what l am doing.

l swim four days a week

and then walking my dogs on the weekends.

We didn't really start to worry about it until l think she was eight,

um, when the doctor wanted us

to seek a nutritionist to kind of address the issue.

And l just remember at that time

we called the nutritionist that he wanted us to

and we were told, "We don't see children that young."

lt has to do a lot with their self-esteem,

especially with girls once they hit their teenage years

because, "Oh, l'm the fat kid,

and l always have to consciously watch what l eat."

My doctor, um...

he told me to join Weight Watchers,

um, and l can't, because l'm not old enough yet.

Then we stopped at that point and said, you know what?

We know... We have the tools. We know what we're supposed to do.

Let's just try and do it ourselves.

Some of the things that l do when l look for healthier choices

is doing the reduced fat...

lt's got more fiber in it. lt's made with more whole grains.

l look at the fat content, but cereal, by its very nature,

is generally pretty low in fat.

So cereal's a good go-to for pretty much any meal replacement.

l know what my family will eat,

and l try and consider that when l'm purchasing things.