Economist John Kenneth Galbraith has said that more people die in this country of too much food than of too little. It's an appalling notion — but an accurate one. As of 1999 more than 60 percent of American adults were overweight or obese — and obesity among children was increasing faster than among adults. In 2000, 22 percent of U.S. preschoolers were overweight and 10 percent clinically obese.

Nevertheless, there are many who consider obesity an individual responsibility. Writing in the Los Angeles Times in December 2001, Brian Doherty ridiculed former surgeon general David Satcher's "fat war." He called on taxpayer-funded agencies to think twice about spending Americans' money to lecture us on what he considers a matter of private health. He believes obesity is a condition "caused by freely chosen behavior" and maintains people can simply cure themselves of obesity by eating less and exercising more.

Fair enough. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. But you have to wonder if Mr. Doherty has done any research on this issue — or if he's simply speaking as someone who personally has a handle on his own "love handles." If it's the latter, he's to be congratulated for his self-discipline — but rebuked for not digging a little deeper as a journalist. After all, if the majority of people in this country have a weight problem, we need to look into the reasons why. If there are now nearly twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as there were in 1980 — and it previously took 30 years for the number of overweight American children to double — we have to admit that something, somewhere, is very wrong.

Certainly, we all wish the problem would just disappear — that it wouldn't be our problem at all. Who at one time or another hasn't wished for a simple solution to the predicaments that plague us? In this case, if everyone just took personal responsibility for her or his own weight gain, we wouldn't have to spend $100 billion dealing with obesity. And there's no doubt that personal responsibility is a good thing. But David Satcher tells us this is "the most overweight, obese generation of children in our history." Exactly whose responsibility is that? Let's think about it.

Without even taking into consideration the $100,000 paid to schools by soft drink companies to fill our children's bodies with empty calories, there's still the issue of recess and physical education disappearing from the schools. Who's making the decisions to eliminate all physical activity from the school day (where children spend most of their waking hours) despite mounting evidence that children need to move — for the health of both their bodies and their minds? Not the children. Given a choice, they'd happily choose to mix some movement into the day.

There's also the matter of loading children's days with activities that preclude "exercising more." Given a choice — and the opportunity — children might well opt to spend more of their time running, jumping, and breathing hard. But they're not being allowed to "choose freely." Rather, the adults are choosing for them — the very adults who are supposed to know what's best for them and who have been entrusted with their care and protection.

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