U.S. teens fatter than those in any other industrialized country

According to a National Institutes of Health survey,

U.S. teens are more likely to be overweight than are teens from 14 other industrialized nations, according to survey information collected in 1997 and 1998 by two agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services as well as institutions in 13 European countries and in Israel. The study appears in the January issue of The Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. . . .

"Overweight adolescents have an increased likelihood of being overweight during adulthood, and adult overweight increases the risk for such health problems as heart disease and diabetes," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the NICHD.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out some of the reasons why. Here's one:

A recent national survey by the Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) found that 71 percent of parents with school-age children reported walking to school when they were young but only 18 percent of their children do so today.

Other studies show that walking and bicycling are declining dramatically in the U.S.

Mark Fenton of Walking Magazine gives some advice for reversing this trend:

"We're essentially socializing kids to be inactive," he said. "Kids naturally want to be active" . . .

"We encourage people to make a walk part of their daily life -- to intentionally keep a post office box and walk down there to get the mail, or walk to the video store or to the place where you get your milk or newspaper," he said.

And kids? How do we get them to walk more?

"Role modeling is a very important thing," Fenton said. "If you're the kind of parent who actually suggests to their kid that you need not drive the car everywhere and that maybe they could walk back from band rehearsal with a couple of friends instead of you going to get them, that can help set the tone a lot."

Ellen Creager of the Detroit Free Press has these ideas:

• Emphasize vigorous activity in daily life rather than separate exercise time.
  
• Encourage citizens to demand communities that make it a pleasure to be active. . . .
  
• Keep encouraging people toward active living, not perfect bodies.

Ideas like this aren't just hot air--they've been endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control, which now considers overweight and obesity to be serious health threats of epidemic proportions, among the top two or three national health problems in the U.S. Dr. William Dietz, fitness and nutrition chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says

We have to build opportunities for physical activity into everyday life.