NEWS--No flabby excuses: Take responsibility

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Posted on Fri, Dec. 30, 2005

No flabby excuses: Take responsibility

By Rick Berman

Sometimes it seems as if life is conspiring to prevent us from

exercising. We all know it's good for us. And yet there's never any

time.

Our parents and grandparents didn't have any time, either. But they

never worried about going to the gym. And they were a lot less

concerned about gaining weight.

The difference is that we have steadily engineered physical activity

out of our daily lives. Since 1960, the proportion of trips to work

by walking has declined more than 70 percent. Once we get to work,

we send e-mail to coworkers instead of getting up and going to talk

to them. We use electric staplers. Few can remember the time when

people cranked the mimeograph machine.

The typical woman who spends 14 years in a sedentary job will gain

an extra 20 pounds compared with women in the least sedentary jobs,

according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic

Research. And the Urban Institute reports that the number of workers

involved in physically demanding jobs has dropped from 20 percent in

1950 to 8 percent today.

Things have changed at home as well. We burn 20 percent fewer

calories on housework than a generation ago. Rake sales are down,

while leaf blower sales are up. Push lawnmowers gather dust in the

garage, while we drive mowers with engines more powerful than the

ones in early automobiles.

How about travel? I'm old enough to remember people actually lugging

their luggage rather than rolling it. And when did airports get

moving sidewalks?

It might not be technically true that grandpa got to school by

walking three miles in the snow, uphill both ways. But a generation

ago, 80 percent of children walked or biked to school, at least

occasionally. Now, more than 80 percent never do.

Today's kids are six times more likely to play a video game than

ride a bike in a given day. Meanwhile, just a quarter of high-

schoolers are enrolled in PE class at any one time. No wonder there

are increasing numbers of pudgy kids.

We are now seeing more and more policy proposals to address this

falloff in physical activity. There's talk of subsidizing gym

memberships and redesigning communities to encourage walking. Some

think that planners and architects should submit " obesity impact

statements " along with their environmental impact statements.

But even proponents recognize that this is just nibbling around the

edges. The changes in our lifestyle are so profound that, short of

mandatory boot camp, no regulation will make any real difference.

Realizing this, some activists and academics concerned about obesity

are inclined to regulate food. They discuss extra taxes on snacks

and candy, zoning restrictions on where restaurants and convenience

stores can locate, mandatory portion size reductions, and minimum-

purchase ages for candy akin to those for cigarettes and alcohol.

Even if you aren't worried about the implications for personal

responsibility, it's easy to see that these proposals won't take a

real bite out of our waistlines. You can eliminate super-sizing and

subsidize broccoli all day long, but if I can hit the all-you-can-

eat buffet and then buy chocolate syrup for less than a dollar a

pound on the way home, it won't make a lick of difference.

Times have changed. You can go a month without ever breaking a

sweat. Buying tasty food is easy and inexpensive. Those in the

growing ranks of former smokers tend to gain weight (CDC researchers

estimate that about a quarter of our weight gain can be traced to

smoking cessation).

Lest it be forgotten, these changes are, for the most part, good

things. Hunting and gathering may have kept us slender, but few

would wish to go back.

Short of a magical pill, foolishly encouraging everyone to take up

smoking, or abandoning the conveniences of modern life, top-down

solutions to obesity just aren't going to work. We can't legislate

our way out of this problem.

Weight gain can best be tackled person by person, family by family.

Take the stairs. Break out the push lawnmower. Choose diet soda. In

short, take responsibility. It's not just a good way to go. It's the

only way.

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Rick Berman is executive director for the Center for Consumer

Freedom. The Center for Consumer Freedom (www.ConsumerFreedom.com)

is a nonprofit coalition supported by restaurants, food companies,

and consumers promoting personal responsibility and protecting

consumer choices.