One fact stands out in the national report on obesity that came out this week: If the U.S. could get a handle on the fatness problem, that alone would take care of a significant part of the increased costs of health care in this country.
"F as in Fat," produced by Trust for America and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, says: "The sharp rise in obesity has accounted for 20 to 30 percent of the rise in health care spending since 1979."
As congressional leaders and President Obama search for as much as $1 trillion to overhaul the country's health care system, reducing the obesity rate seems like an obvious place to get some of the money required for reform.
One in four adults in Alaska and in America as a whole are considered obese. And fully two-thirds of us are either overweight or obese. Those numbers come mostly from studies of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Alaska, we have the 18th-highest adult obesity rate of any state, at 27 percent, and worse, we have the 12th-highest rate of overweight and obese youth, at 34 percent.
The reasons the U.S. obesity rate has risen over the decades -- from 15 percent in 1980 to more than 25 percent now -- are many, according to the fat report. We eat more calories now than then, and the food is not as nutritious. We walk less and drive more. We watch more TV, play video games or use computers in place of more active pursuits.
We can't return to a time before computers and video games were invented, but we can moderate these trends.
Some influential Alaskans clearly believe it's worth trying:
• U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski recently sponsored legislation to require chain restaurants to list the calories of offerings on menus so people know what they're eating.
• Gov. Sarah Palin sponsored a budget that included $923,100 to fight childhood obesity, with a program similar to successful anti-tobacco campaigns.
• The state Department of Education has launched an effort to set standards for physical education, which is currently not covered in Alaska education standards.
• The Anchorage School District under Superintendent Carol Comeau increased P.E. class time in elementary schools from 60 to 90 minutes per week this year. The district took junk food out of vending machines in 2006 and added health teachers to elementary schools in 2007.
Much more needs to be done. Anchorage's city plan should be focused on making it easier for people to get places on foot or by bicycle -- to school, the grocery store, a park, even work.
The city should invest in the bus system, which also involves more walking and gets people out of cars.
The state can require healthier school lunches.
Parents can limit screen time, take their children to parks, and go on bike rides with them.
Obesity, and the associated health risks, are a big enough problem that our city and state governments should come up with a comprehensive plan to tackle it. The health savings will be worth the effort.
BOTTOM LINE: The U.S. government wants to decrease costs and increase effectiveness of health care. Better diets and more exercise will get us part of the way there.
Not-so-free speech
Maybe D.L. Squier had too much to drink March 9, 1918. He definitely had too much to say. And the patrons of the Railroad Cigar Store in Fairbanks didn't like what they heard when he offered his views on the great war raging in Europe.
Somebody called the marshal -- and Squier went to jail.
In the words of his indictment, Squier "hoped the German army would defeat all of the allied armies in Europe and would compel them to holler for peace, that he hoped the Kaiser would defeat them all and that all of the American soldiers and the soldiers of her allies in Europe would be killed."
Squier was charged with using seditious language. He was convicted and on April 1, 1918, sentenced to a year in jail, plus a $1,000 fine.
A number of sedition cases can be found in Alaska's territorial records. They are striking because the offenders were convicted on the basis on words and words alone.
Prosecution of the cases seems arbitrary. The manager of the cigar store could have told Squier to shut up or leave. The marshal could have done the same. Instead they transformed Squier from a man with unpopular opinions into a criminal.
President Woodrow Wilson and his allies in Congress were merciless in pursuing sedition -- criticism of American participation in World War I. In by far the most famous example, the government jailed socialist leader Eugene V. Debs for "obstructing and attempting to obstruct the recruiting services of the United States." At an Ohio picnic, Debs praised socialists opposing the draft.
Anthony Lewis tells the story of the Debs case in the July 2 New York Review of Books. It's a compelling tale.
Surprising too. Wilson, the reformer Democrat, could not bring himself to free Debs even with the war over. But his successor, Warren Harding, a conservative Republican, commuted Debs' sentence Christmas Day 1921. Harding then invited the aging socialist to the White House, greeting him with "I have heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now very glad to meet you personally."
America had changed dramatically since D.L. Squier walked into the Railroad Cigar Store in 1918.
-- Michael Carey