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Clinton: Other nations face obesity

Former President Bill Clinton said Monday that other countries besides the United States are facing the issue of childhood obesity, a problem that threatens efforts to improve health care and cut health-care costs.

Clinton said electronic medical records and other cost-saving measures will be less effective if a rise in obesity and associated health problems weren't stopped.

"All these things people want to do to help the health-care system in our country and increasingly in other countries will be eroded, and I worry about that a great deal for our children's future," Clinton said.

The former president addressed 170 teachers at the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Health Schools Forum at his presidential library in Little Rock. Clinton detailed efforts that his foundation in partnership with the American Heart Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation were taking to address childhood obesity.

Clinton announced criteria that will be used to reward schools for promoting health. Those involve food served at cafeterias, physical education programs and physical activities.

The criteria are being used for a pilot program involving 202 schools from 12 states that will receive hands-on technical support, Clinton said.

Clinton also announced a partnership with the nonprofit KaBOOM! organization to provide playgrounds at some of the pilot schools participating in the alliance.

Clinton said the United Kingdom and India were also addressing a rise in obesity. Economic conditions including the low cost of meals, particularly at fast-food restaurants, have contributed to the epidemic, he said.

"The only thing that's gone up less than the rate of inflation in the last decade are clothes, consumer electronics and food," Clinton said. "In some cases, a meal out is the only vacation working people have."

The forum began Sunday and continues Tuesday with an address from Gov. Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, who lost more than 100 pounds after being diagnosed with diabetes, has partnered with Clinton in the Alliance.

Jim Marks, senior vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, introduced Clinton as the "most famous ex-fast-food fan in the United States." Marks noted that two of the most high profile advocates in the fight against childhood obesity, Huckabee and Clinton, are both from Arkansas and Clinton was governor of Arkansas before becoming president.

"This is the only state in the country where they shrink the size of government and the size of their governors," Marks said.