Remarks at "WE CAN"/Association of Children Museums Event

Remarks as prepared; not a transcript.

RADM Steven K. Galson, M.D., MPH
Acting Surgeon General
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Remarks at "WE CAN"/Association of Children Museums Event

Thursday, November 29, 2007


"Physical Activity and Good Nutrition Make a Difference"

Thank you, Lou, for that gracious introduction. (Lou Casagrande, President and CEO of Boston Children's Museum).

(Other dignitaries in attendance will have been previously recognized by Dr. Casagrande. They include Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni; NHLBI Director Elizabeth "Betsy" Nabel; and Janet Rich Elman, Executive Director, Association of Children's Museum).

My boss, Department of Health and Human Services (H-H-S) Secretary Michael Leavitt, and I extend our greetings and best wishes.

I am truly pleased to be here today in the great and historical city of Boston to help mark an exciting, broad-based collaboration.

I am quite confident that this partnership - among the Federal government, the We Can! Program, the Association of Children Museums (ACM) and civic leadership at every level - will ultimately lead to thousands of physically active, healthier young people.

I commend everyone responsible for making this day happen, for your cooperation, and for your ongoing contribution to creating a more health-conscious Nation.

Your message is one which the Administration, H-H-S, and the Office of the Surgeon General is pleased to embrace.

The message is one which needs to resonate widely if America is to make truly sustained progress in reducing overweight and obesity.

The message that we herald today - physical activity and good nutrition make a difference - could not be timelier.

Our society has become more and more inactive and is seeing a rise in obesity rates. And chronic diseases have become a quiet catastrophe.

Chronic diseases cause 7 out of 10 deaths every year - and the costs are staggering.

Obesity has become an epidemic.

Food is abundant, portion sizes have increased, and society has become increasingly sedentary.

Trends among America's children are most disquieting of all.

Our kids are growing up with unhealthy lifestyles, the consequences of which could be with them for the rest of their lives.

During last 25 years, the proportion of overweight kids ages 6 through 11 more than doubled, while overweight in adolescents tripled.

Some 18 percent of all school age children are now overweight.

Physical activity rates among our youth are disturbing: just a quarter of high school students were moderately physically active for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week-half the time needed for youth, according to the federal Dietary Guidelines.

Much of the time, our kids are playing computer games inside with their thumbs rather than outside on the playing fields.

Because the factors contributing to overweight and obesity are complex, reversing the epidemic will take concerted action by researchers, providers of care, educators, civic leaders, employers, fitness professionals, our public health colleagues, indeed by all sectors of society.

Expenditures for health care in the United States continue to rise.

And yet, each year millions of Americans die from preventable causes.

As a nation, we are spending too little on preventing these conditions, and we are losing too many lives.

That's because right now we've got it backwards.

We live in a treatment-oriented society. We need to change to a prevention-oriented society.

We wait years and years, doing nothing about unhealthy habits and lack of physical activity, until people get sick.

Then we spend lots of money on costly treatments to try to make people well, often when it is already too late.

We need to refocus our efforts on preventing disease, illness, and injury.

The good news is that most of the illness, disability, death, and resulting economic and human costs can be entirely prevented by effective public health programs.

The We Can! Program offers an excellent, real-time illustration of how to foster the cultural shift to prevention.

The WE of We Can! is reflected by the number of community organizations and partners working together both at the local level and at the national level.

With over 25 national partners and 15 corporate partners We Can! is making strides to bring a common message about the need for children to maintain a healthy weight through a variety of channels.

Professional societies include the American Dietetic Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, along with Action for Healthy Kids and, of course, the Association of Children's Museums.

Just as important is We Can's! focus on reaching parents and families as a primary group for influencing young people.

We Can! is a model for success in meeting the challenges of childhood overweight and obesity: its partnerships are demonstrating how physical activity and sound lifestyle choices change lives.... And, how communities can work together with families to make those lifestyle choices real.

It offers a roadmap for progress on a larger scale as well.

To the extent that we in the public health arena succeed in stemming childhood overweight, we would expect to see:

• obesity, as well as its social and economic costs, steadily decline;
• physical activity, and appreciation of its benefits, increase;
• community health and fitness programs now in place serve as models, their popularity and numbers increase, and they become routine in every state;

All of these benefits will cascade from our success in motivating children and young people to become and remain physically active.

There is no mission of greater importance.

That's why I am especially eager to move forward in leading the Surgeon General's coordinating council to prevent childhood obesity.

As the lead for the Department's childhood obesity prevention initiative, I can assure you that we at HHS intend to work pro-actively to identify interventions effective in addressing overweight and obesity.

I am confident that by working together we can make a difference in children's lives.

Childhood obesity is among the most critical challenges which we - whether policy maker, scientist, public health professional, or parent - face.

Reducing obesity, and improving the health of millions of kids, is our task.

Its achievement is OUR imperative, the gold standard for which we must reach, a national necessity with profound implications. We all have a stake in the outcome.

The ultimate result may not be apparent for years or even decades: a fitter, healthier, more physically active Nation in which the epidemic of childhood overweight and obesity is on the wane, due to the day-to-day efforts of programs like We Can!, community sites, partners and countless others who care.

Together, we can make it happen.

Together we can work for a happier, healthier nation

Thank you.

###

Last revised: December 30, 2008