Obesity epidemic

Everyone should know by this time that too many Maine children are overweight. The standard proposed remedies are better eating habits and more exercise. Leading health specialists believe that’s not enough.

One of them is Andrew F. Coburn, director of the Institute for Health Policy at the University of Southern Maine’s Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service. Dr. Coburn interrupted a recent session of the Maine Health Care Performance Council in the Bangor City Hall to say so. He objected to what he considered too casual an attitude, an assumption that obesity is simply a problem of individual health behavior. “It is an epidemic,” he declared.

Elaborating afterward, Dr. Coburn said that, while fatty and sugar-loaded foods are not necessary addictive, manufacturers and their advertising are almost creating an addiction in children. He said, “The food industry is poisoning our kids with unhealthful food.” (He acknowledged later that the word “poisoning” was a bit of hyperbole.)

Dr. Paul H. Campbell, president of the Maine Center for Public Health in Augusta, adds to the urgency and agrees with the epidemic label. He lays most of the blame on television, which children watch for an average of four hours a day. He says TV takes the place of physical activity and subjects the children to a constant stream of advertising, much of it for high-calorie, fatty foods. Computers take up a child’s time, too, he says, but they are less pernicious since they don’t include the same level of harmful advertising.

These matters will get close scrutiny next month at a workshop by the Maine-Harvard Prevention Research Center. Participants from Harvard and all over Maine will meet all day on Dec. 5 at the Senator Inn & Spa in Augusta.

The title of the workshop is “Preventing Childhood Obesity: The ‘Skinny’ on Soda and TV.” It should tell us plenty about this epidemic among our kids.