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If America is at war with obesity, then obesity is winning.

If America is at war with obesity, then obesity is winning. Three out of 10 adults are obese72 million people with a condition associated with diabetes, heart disease, some cancers and other chronic illnesses. The belt-busting American waistline is becoming as much a political as public health questionand if some politician hasnt already introduced the No Buffet Left Behind Act, he will after this weeks big Weight of the Nation report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are many reasons why we eat so much. In a time of great stress over the economy and jobs people need to find comfort somewhere and often do it with a cheeseburger and fries. In two income families it's often hard to prepare healthy meals from scratch and the healthy meals that are in the frozen foods section of your grocers tastes worse than airline food. Add to all this the fact that Boomers are aging and putting on weight and that American restaurants serve huge portions and you get all the ingredients needed for an obese out of shape, unhealthy population.

Now back to the GSK documentary. First let me say that I applaud GSK for hiring an award winning Director to make the film and that the film is going to be "hard hitting". Americans need a shock about what their eating habits are doing to them and healthcare costs but to say that the film is not a marketing tool ? Remember a little thing called transparency ? It's OK to say that the film is going to be a marketing tool but it is intended to be a disease state wake up call. I have been saying all along that the FDA and the drug companies need to focus more on prevention with shock treatment style awareness. The latest Lipitor campaign "who would have thought" is almost there but if we are going to get American to do something about lifestyle changes than two approaches a needed: a financial incentive to get healthy via lower healthcare premiums and more patient education about what unhealthy lifestyles can really lead to. GSK should have gone to other drug makers to propose their idea and ask that they all pool resources to make this film a great patient education tool from the drug industry because the "best customer is one who never needs to use one of our drugs". The real question though is are Americans willing to sit through a hard hitting documentary on weight loss after their steak dinners?