Bono makes push for obesity legislation
Bill to fund community programs on healthy eating has passed Senate
Faith Bremner
Desert Sun Washington Bureau
September 15, 2006
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It was during a visit to the Magic Mountain amusement park three years ago with her two teenage children that Palm Springs Republican Congresswoman Mary Bono had an epiphany about eating and health.
Bono, a fitness enthusiast since her days in college, was already aware that children today are less physically fit and less active and eat more fast foods than when she was a kid.
"I was sitting there on a hot day, watching people go by and seeing how unfit these kids were," Bono said Thursday, before the start of a Capitol Hill rally and press conference held to promote a bill targeting obesity and eating disorders. "That's when I finally said I want to do something about this and I partnered with (Senate Majority Leader Bill) Frist on the bill."
Frist is a medical doctor.
The bill is the Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity, or IMPACT, Act. It would provide $60 million over five years for community programs that promote healthy eating and exercise and educate medical professionals, teachers and others about obesity and eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
Local children seem to be suffering from the national epidemic. The 2005 California Physical Fitness test, administered to all public school students in grades 5, 7 and 9, showed that up to 80 percent of students at some Coachella Valley schools aren't able to meet six basic measures of fitness - and that could mean early signs of obesity and the devastating physical and social complications that accompany it.
Overall, students at less than half of the Coachella Valley's public schools are meeting statewide physical fitness goals, according to the report from the test.
In the three years since Frist and Bono introduced their bill, it has passed the Senate but has yet to get a hearing in the House. Bono is pessimistic it will pass this year, given the election-year battles going on in the House. But she's not giving up.
She encouraged a cheering crowd of about 100 members of the Eating Disorders Coalition to lobby as many lawmakers as possible during their day on the Hill.
"We're your friends, we're already on your side," Bono said, flanked by the House bill's co-sponsors, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., and Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn. "Seek out lawmakers that don't yet know about the fight that we're talking about today and make your voices heard on the hill."
Bono and others laid out the grim statistics - 31 percent of adults and 16 percent of children are obese; as many as 3.7 percent of all American women will suffer from anorexia nervosa and as many as 4.2 percent will suffer from bulimia nervosa during their lifetimes. About 10 percent of eating disorder victims die from complications caused by the diseases, such as heart and kidney failure. Eating disorders are more common in women than men.
Minnesota mom Kitty Westin said she didn't know the warning signs or the seriousness of anorexia when her daughter, Anna, developed the disorder. Anna died from it six years ago at age 21.
"I didn't know that Anna's obsession with emaciated models like Kate Moss was dangerous, or that her perfectionism could have been an early warning sign," Westin told the crowd. "I didn't know that her restricting a few foods would eventually lead to restricting all foods.
"I didn't know that her intense fear of being fat and her constant comments about the size of her thighs were red flags that people should have picked up on. And lastly, I didn't know that Anna's decision to go on a diet when she was 14 would be fatal."
Obesity Legislation