Harkin to fight obesity
Quad-City
Times Saturday,
March 13th, 2004 - Obesity is all the rage these days. Earlier
this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fat and
inactivity is fast closing in on tobacco as the nation's top killer. The
U.S. House passed a bill Tuesday to shield restaurants from obesity-based
lawsuits. And on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, said it will
ask food manufacturers and some restaurants for better labeling. Obesity
is a big issue, and one of the legislators pushing to make it a front-burner
topic across the country is U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. Harkin
is no stranger to health issues. He's
well-known for championing alternative medicines and has long been a fan of
chiropractic. Now
he has a new target: fat. Harkin
announced in January that he will make wellness and disease prevention a top
legislative priority for the year. Last
month, Harkin introduced a bill that would require chain restaurants to include
nutritional information on their menus. And he proposed Thursday an amendment,
which failed, to increase the amount of federal money the government spends on
public health programs by $6 billion. He would have paid for it with an increase
in the cigarette tax. Aides
say Harkin has other plans to try to bring the problem of obesity to the
forefront. "We
need a new paradigm in American health care," he said in January, "a
prevention paradigm." In
Iowa, he said, the health-care expenses attributable to obesity total $783
million. That is just a slice of the nationwide $79 billion cost, according to
the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC. This week, the agency said, nearly a
third of Americans are overweight. It also said that 400,000 people died from a
poor diet and inactivity in 2000, up 33 percent over 1990. Some
critics question the veracity of those figures - especially the dramatic
increase - but Harkin says they point to the need for a substantial change in
health policy. Over the next few months, he plans to roll out legislation to
"give Americans access to preventive care" and to give people
"the tools they need to stay healthy." Allison
Dobson, a spokeswoman, said future legislation is still being drafted, but there
are a number of options. "It
could be anything from limiting the kinds of junk food kids can get in schools
or the hours they can get them," she said. Already, a Harkin-sponsored
pilot program has given selected schools money for fresh fruits and vegetables. He
also may propose incentives for businesses to make workplaces healthier.
"What would it look like if we gave tax incentives to businesses which gave
their employees gym memberships or built a gym in their offices?" she
asked. "We
just can't ignore obesity any longer." The
restaurant industry has resisted Harkin's proposal to require nutrition
information on menus. "One-size-fits-all
legislation to mandate menu labeling is simplistic, doesn't make allowances for
customized orders and turns the federal government into the food police,"
the National Restaurant Association said in a prepared statement. Meanwhile,
a spokesman for the Center for Consumer Freedom said Friday that legislation to
require restaurant labeling, like similar legislation introduced in the U.S.
House, could lead to lawsuits against restaurants. "There's
certainly a problem (with obesity), but there's also a lot of hysteria being
promoted by groups that have an agenda, like trial lawyers who see the food
industry as their next big cash cow," said Mike Burita, a spokesman for the
center, which is in Washington, D.C., and is supported by restaurants, food
companies and consumers. He said the group sees inactivity as the main culprit. The
FDA's plan to combat obesity, which was unveiled Friday, includes asking food
manufacturers to offer consumers dietary guidance and restaurants to provide
nutritional information at the point of sale. In
a statement, Harkin said it did not go far enough, and he reiterated the need to
place requirements on restaurants to offer nutrition information. He also urged
that the Federal Trade Commission be given jurisdiction over the marketing of
"junk food" to children. During
a conference call with reporters, Harkin was asked whether people in farm states
such as Iowa - where food production and processing is such a big part of the
economy and the heritage - would stomach his proposals. "I
don't think farmers will be opposed to eating right, drinking right and being
healthy," he said. Ed
Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com. |