The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation takes $500 Million bite of the Obesity Pandemic--Will it help?

Dear Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:

I attended the ABC News/Time Magazine ObesitySummit put on by the RWJF in Williamsburg VA a few years ago. I watched as authors/leaders in the field of Obesity sat on a panel discussing dieting and what the solution to Obesity is. Each argued that their diet was the answer; Agaston/SouthBeach, Treager/Atkins, Katz/The Way to Eat, Brownell/Food Fight and Ornish/Vegetarian--the ONLY point that they all agreed on is what is missing from the existing solutions--lifestyle change! Yet not one of their programs emphasizes lifestyle transformation and change.

Each of their books--and every other "diet" book--still has "Day One menu/diet"--they very reason that makes an Obese person fail. The existing approaches attempt to take a person who's daily routine consists of unhealthy foods in excess portion; fast food, soft drinks, candy, cookies and little physical activity to a sticking to a portion controlled 1200 calorie 'diet' of healthful foods and 30 minutes of exercise a day. Too much change, too soon--as illustrated by the attached cartoon I commissioned.

The obese person is excepted to exhibit super-human willpower by immediately changing all of their "vices" simply because it is "Day One" of their "diet". Most can't stick to it. 38% confess to breaking their diets DAILY and another 33% breaking theirs weekly, so we know that 71% of well-intentioned dieteres fall off their diets to consume their beloved fast food, soft drinks, candy, baked goods, etc.

The ONLY way to make an impact on the Obesity Pandemic is to rid people of the control that these diet vices have over their lives.

You respected Dr. David L. Katz, MD enough to have him speak at the summit, it is my hope that you read the review he wrote for my book, The Vice Busting Diet, and then listen to the message contained in the book.

To end the Obesity Pandemic, we MUST help people rid their lives of sugar filled beverages, unhealthy fast food and to get active; or rather Bust the 3 major Vices which contribute to the crisis; Soft Drinks, Fast Food and Television/Sedentary lives. But, we must also help the individual to do so gradually, consistently and permanently if we are to ever see an end to this problem before it is too late and our nation is bankrupt, our people dying well before their time and their quality of life significantly compromised.

Can I get a grant from the RWJF to help people? No. I am not wasting time and money and research looking for a pill, spending money educating women to breast feed nor am I handing out bikes to children who's parents are going to allow them to stay inside and play video games.
I am one lone voice trying to spread the only effective solution and I have to shout pretty loudly if I am to be heard over the millions of dollars spent by McDonald's to assure us that we are "Lovin' it!" or by Coca-Cola to encourage us to "drink, choose and live".

Did you know that Coca-Cola's MyCokeRewards contest is open to 13 year olds and encourages them to drink enough Coke to gain 75 pounds just to win a Rawlin's baseball glove? Or to win "Sing like an Idol" that they heavily promote on American Idol, one would need to drink 2160 12 ounce 12 pk containers, consume 4,000,000 calories and gain around 900 pounds?

I do. www.drinkchooselive.com

You want to make a difference?
Rather than commit $500 million dollars, why not speak out about the reality of drinking Coke? of eating at McDonald's? of spending hours watching TV.

We can end this Pandemic, but it will take making some major corporations change; really change. Not just appear to be the good guys. 2010 for the "voluntary" removal of sugar filled soft drinks from our schools? What about the NEXT time they refill them only adding WATER? NOPE! The American Beverage Association dances around that questions, saying the bottle sizes etc...take time to change, and the schools have to agree, etc. Despite the fact that water is already in most of the machines so that argument doesn't wash. They don't want to remove them, and when they do, they will put Gatorade and "energy" drinks in their place and those are even worse. Not to mention the fact that their aspartame punch/diet soft drinks are going to allowed to be offered to our CHILDREN!

You want to reverse Childhood Obesity? I have just given you two places to start: McDonald's and Coca-Cola.

And, I will join you as your spokesperson in this initiative as a volunteer; saving you $500 MILLION dollars in wasted research, studies and bikes that won't solve the problem nearly as effectively as getting kids off of Coke and Happy Meals!