Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, December 5, 1994                   TAG: 9412060035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HEY, COUCH POTATOES, YOU'D BETTER SHAPE UP

Shape Up America, a nationwide program to promote better eating habits, more exercise and a raised consciousness about obesity, will get its official start Tuesday in a White House news conference with Hillary Rodham Clinton and C. Everett Koop.

Being overweight is not only a problem of looks, it's also a serious national disease that contributes to more than 300,000 deaths a year, Koop said in a telephone interview Friday.

More than a third of all adults are obese, he said - 32 million women and 26 million men - up dramatically from 25 percent in 1980.

Similar to Koop's war on smoking, which beefed up warnings on cigarette packs and helped push smokers out of offices and airplanes, the Shape Up campaign will focus on the workplace, schools, doctors' offices and even on cereal boxes.

``This is my last crusade, a populist effort,'' Koop said. ``We want the Shape Up America logo to be as common as the logo for the Olympics.''

There are plenty of reasons to launch such a campaign.

As much as 97 percent of non-insulin diabetes, up to 70 percent of heart disease, 11 percent of breast cancer and 10 percent of colon cancer in overweight Americans can be attributed to excess weight, Koop said. Excess weight also causes a third of all cases of hypertension, about 70 percent of gallstone cases and is associated with a significant amount of osteoporosis, gout and other disabling conditions.

Most researchers categorize people as ``obese'' when they are 20 percent or more above the ideal weight for their age and height.

The Koop campaign kicks off the same day that the National Academy of Science Institute of Medicine releases its report on weight-loss methods. That report analyzes and evaluates various ways of dealing with obesity, including diets, exercise, appetite-suppressing drugs and surgery.

Titled ``Weighing the Options'' and compiled by a committee of obesity researchers, the report recommends that all weight-loss programs should inform consumers of their total cost, the credentials of their staff and how much weight clients can expect to lose, as well as the program's success rate.

Much of the report's information will be incorporated into the Shape Up America campaign, Koop said.

Obesity is not just a health risk. The cost to Americans adds up to more than $100 billion a year, Koop said, including $45.8 billion in direct expenses such as hospital and doctors' bills and $33 billion more in weight-reduction products and services. He puts the indirect costs at $18.9 billion in lost output caused by death and disability from weight-related diseases.