from The Globe and Mail, A Canadian National newspaper

Washington More Americans soon will be dying of obesity than from
smoking if current trends persist, which would make being fat the
nation's No. 1 cause of preventable death, the government says.

A poor diet and physical inactivity caused 400,000 deaths in 2000, a 33
per ent jump over 1990, said a study released Tuesday by the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tobacco-related deaths in the same period climbed by less than 9 per
ent to 435,000 as the gap between the two narrowed substantially. At
this rate, obesity will claim the top spot, the report said.

"Our worst fears were confirmed," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, the CDC's
director and an author of the study.

An ad campaign that begins Wednesday tells viewers they can lose
midsection love handles and double chins one step at a time if they eat
less and exercise more.

"We're just too darn fat, ladies and gentlemen, and we're going to do
something about it," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson
said at a news conference.

Mr. Thompson, a fierce anti-smoking advocate who has trimmed his own
waistline since coming to Washington, drew parallels between the drives
to stop smoking and to get Americans to eat less and exercise more.

The Bush administration wants to cut funding for the VERB campaign, a
CDC project to promote physical activity among 9-to-13-year-olds, from
$36-million this year to $50-million in 2005. Ms. Gerberding said the
program has resulted in a 30 per cent increase in exercise among those
children.

While Congress rejected limits on lawsuits against tobacco companies,
the House will debate a bill Wednesday that would shield restaurants
and fast food franchises from lawsuits seeking to blame them for
obesity and health problems related to it. The bill was prompted by the
fast-food industry's complaints about a rash of lawsuits that fault
their food for Americans' bulging bellies.

"If you eat a lot of food and you get sick, it's your responsibility,
and not the restaurant's," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

McDonald's has announced it will end Supersize fries and drinks except
for special promotions in its more than 13,000 U.S. restaurants by
year's end.

Several soft-drink makers also have announced plans to offer a larger
number of healthier products.

Many states are making attempts to slow the increase in obesity among
children by limiting their access to unhealthful foods during the
school day.

The CDC study is the latest in a line of research that documents
widespread weight gain, and its consequences, among Americans from
children to the elderly.

The researchers analyzed data from 2000 for the leading causes of death
and for those preventable factors known to contribute to them. Like
tobacco, obesity and inactivity increase the risks for the top three
killers: heart disease, cancer and such cerebrovascular ailments as
strokes. Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle also strongly increase the
risk of diabetes, the sixth leading cause of death.

The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association.

A separate report by the Rand Corp., meanwhile, found that increases in
obesity threaten to erase improvements in health among middle-aged and
older Americans. At current rates, health-care spending on obesity
among 50-to-69-year-olds is expected to increase by 50 per cent by
2020, the study said.

Americans' predilection for fast food, increased use of computers and a
reduction in school physical education programs were cited by Mr.
Thompson and other officials as contributors to the nation's fat
problem. Two out of three adults and 9 million children are overweight
or obese, they said.

Rather than recommend dramatic changes in diet and exercise, Mr.
Thompson said Americans could begin a gradual exercise program. They
could get off the bus a block farther from their homes, he said, and
slowly cut back on unhealthful foods.

The new public service announcements debuted by Mr. Thompson use humour
to tell people they can slowly trim their waistlines. In one ad,
someone turns in a pair of love handles found near the stairs in a
shopping mall. "Lots of people lose them taking the stairs instead of
the escalator," says a clerk at the lost and found.

In another ad, a shopping cart gets stuck on a double chin that someone
lost near a supermarket's fruit and vegetable display.

The Food and Drug Administration also is expected to issue a report on
obesity this week. The FDA has been considering whether to require
restaurants to provide more nutrition information and change nutrition
labels on food sold in grocery stores and other outlets to help
consumers.