Bipartisan effort against obesity important for national security
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/12/06
BY DEWAYNE WICKHAM
Now this is the kind of bipartisanship that ought to impress people.
The Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. have teamed up with former President Bill Clinton and wannabe president Mike Huckabee to do something about one of the greatest threats to our national security: obesity.
Coke and Pepsi have fought a long-running battle for dominance of the soda industry. They skirmished for audience attention with dueling ads during ABC's coverage of this year's Super Bowl.
They've dueled for exclusive fountain sale rights at fast-food restaurants and engaged in the corporate equivalent of hand-to-hand combat for control of soft drink sales in foreign markets.
But now they've found common ground. So have Clinton and Huckabee, two other strange bedfellows.
While both men are from Hope, Ark., and have served as the state's governor (Huckabee still holds the position), they were far more different than alike until recently. Clinton is a moderate Democrat with a huge fan base among the party's liberals. Huckabee is a conservative Republican who is a favorite of the right wing.
Under attack from parents and health advocates — and urged on by Clinton and Huckabee — Pepsi, Coke and Cadbury Schweppes have agreed to sharply reduce the sale of sugary soft drinks in the nation's schools. They will stop the sale of sodas in elementary and middle schools and offer only diet sodas and low-calorie sport drinks, fitness waters and flavored waters in high schools.
That's a good thing because the consumption of sugary, high-calorie sodas is a contributing factor in childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity gives rise to obesity among adults, which Surgeon General Richard Carmona told a congressional committee in 2003 is "the fastest-growing cause of disease and death in America." It is also, he said, "completely preventable."
Reducing the number of obese children is an important step in cutting the number of adults who die from the effects of obesity. Two of every three Americans are either obese or overweight, and that threatens our national security, Carmona said during a 2003 speech in San Diego.
Clinton and Huckabee both battled obesity in their own lives.
Back in 2003, Huckabee weighed roughly 280 pounds and was diagnosed with diabetes. His doctor told him he would be dead in 10 years if he didn't shed the fat from his 5-foot-11 frame. Huckabee has dropped 110 pounds and has become one of the nation's leading advocates for a healthy lifestyle.
In 2004, Clinton, whose weight and cholesterol levels were concerns during his White House years, had a quadruple bypass. Such a wake-up call comes too late for many Americans who develop bad eating and exercise habits at a young age.
That's the problem Clinton was trying to address when he asked Huckabee to join him in co-chairing a national campaign to reduce childhood obesity. The campaign is sponsored by the American Heart Association and the Clinton Foundation.
While Democrats and Republicans in Washington have largely hunkered down in their partisan foxholes to lob verbal barrages at one another, Clinton and Huckabee have found a way to bridge this political divide.
This nation can't maintain its dominant position in the world if it doesn't reverse the obesity trend. Generations of obese children will breed a nation of lethargic people who are robbed of their natural energy and are doomed to an early death.
Clinton and Huckabee understand this. For this cause at least, they've put aside their political differences and joined forces to fight a greater threat to our national security than Osama bin Laden and his brood.
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