Health Care Obesity and the FDA

Sometime between Supreme Court nominations, automobile bailouts, Pakistan, and the torture debate, the Obama Administration will hone in on his campaign promise to radically change the health care system in this country. This looms to be a major fight, and already in the pre-fight background the battle lines are being drawn. If the first few months of the Obama Administration proves to be an indicator, his plan will draw fire from both the right and the left. I have been both amused and disturbed by the attacks from the left especially when too often they developed alacrity to fight old battles rather than move forward.

However, I will be watching the health care debate not with interest on the political battles that are waged, but rather the manner in which President Obama uses this issue to speak to perhaps the most insidious health issue facing this country – obesity and the role of the Federal Government to protect the American food consumer. Part of the Obama message throughout his campaign and after his election has dealt with accountability. Well let the truth be told, we as a nation cannot ignore the manner in which we have allowed the combination of poor eating habits, and sedentary lifestyle to be the breeding ground for disease, and burgeoning health costs.

In 2003 the Office of the Surgeon General released a report titled the Obesity Crisis in America. In his opening remarks, then U. S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, called obesity the fastest cause of disease and death in America, and implicated obesity in one out of every eight deaths in America. His report went on to report that in the year 2000 the cost of obesity was $117 billion dollars – that’s billion with a “B”. To be far, in the last few years there have been efforts on several fronts to reduce obesity, but clearly this is a war that in many ways threatens America more than the far away and costly battles in Afghanistan, and Iran.


In a 2004 report by health watchdog organization Truth for American Health went further, stating that America lacks “aggressive and coordinated” strategies to combat this crisis, and as a result deepens the impact of this crisis. In 2004, the FDA created an Obesity Task Force, designed to put emphasis on the issue, yet there are many who think the FDA’s relationship with the food industry undercuts their role as a true advocate for health. One such critic is Byron Richard founder of Wellness Resources, who authored - Fight for your health: Exposing the Betrayal of the FDA. Mr. Richard is not alone in his criticism of the FDA. All which makes any effort by President Obama to wage war on obesity much the tougher. To wage a successful war will require a national strategy that involves community, industry, medical, and educational system to be on the same page, but that war will also include an Obama administration to review with diligence the relationship between the FDA and the food industry.


It is irrefutable that burgeoning health care cost are both intolerable and unsustainable, but to approach health care cost, solely from the delivery side, and ignoring a basic human maxim, “you are what you eat”, is a flawed health care policy. Changing generational and societal lifestyle patterns will take time, and is subject to the reality that there are many Americans who utterly refused to change unhealthy eating and lifestyle choices. However, the government can and must be proactive in managing the nation’s food supply.

That is the job of the FDA. The FDA is under the direction of the Department of Agriculture. It wasn’t too long ago that Bill Clinton’s secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy was indicted for taking bribes from Tyson foods, one of the most powerful and influential food processing companies. That long arm of influence by the food industry, should give pause. In December of 2008, Nicholas Krisof of The New York Times suggested that an overhaul of the Agriculture Department was needed. In his OP Ed Piece Titled “Obama’s Secretary of Food? he cites - In the Defense of Food author, Michael Pollan who wrote “We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food…all at taxpayers expense.”

Mr. Obama still has considerable political and populous wind in his sails, and plans to take a very assertive, and proactive approach to health care, as he wants little confusion that this Health Care plan is an Obama plan. That is a very practical and strategic approach. In the months of Obama Presidency he has delivered very straight talk, in his recent speech in Cairo, President Obama left no stone unturned as he methodically spoke to the key issues with respect to Islam and America. As President Obama begins to make his public case for health care, I am certain that an open discussion on how his Administration plans to make sure that the Agriculture Department is working for the American consumer, not the food industry would be a welcome addition to the debate. President Obama plans to bring all the “players” to the table in bring his health care plan to fruition, it is my hope that he understands without “change we can believe in” within the FDA, his Health Care plan is not playing with a full deck.