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American Morning
Interview with Jerry Kindela
Aired January 02, 2003 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Houston, we have a problem! That is the message at least from "Men's Fitness" magazine. Its report on America's fattest cities is just out, and for the third straight year, the Texas city holds the heavyweight title. So what did Houston do to deserve this threepeat?
Jerry Kindela, editor-in-chief of men's fitness joining us now with the skinny on the cover story -- good morning, good to see you.
JERRY KINDELA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "MEN'S FITNESS": Good morning.
KAGAN: Or, at least good morning from everybody except in Houston.
KINDELA: Houston has a good chance.
KAGAN: Lots of room for improvement, if you want to put a positive spin on it.
KINDELA: A lot of room for improvement.
KAGAN: Before we put the whole list up there, I want to hear what the criteria was for being named the fattest city in America.
KINDELA: Well, we run 16 various categories across six parameters. The city did worst because of its high TV viewership, its absolute...
KAGAN: Not always a bad thing, we want to say to our viewers.
KINDELA: Not always a bad thing, but maybe except that you don't want to ride your Barcalounger to the hospital is what I am saying. There is also a great degree of love of fast foods. It really hurt the city tremendously.
KAGAN: Well, before we point fingers, let's go ahead and look at what the top ten -- OK, well, I'll go ahead and read them off real quickly. Houston, No. 1...
KINDELA: Exactly.
KAGAN: Chicago; Detroit; Philadelphia coming up four; St. Louis five; Cleveland -- Cleveland, Ohio No. 6; Atlanta, Georgia -- Leon, where we live, No. 7. Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; and No. 10, Charlotte, North Carolina.
KINDELA: Correct. KAGAN: I am trying to look for any kind of geographical trend in terms of fattest cities.
KINDELA: I think there is a trend. When we put push pins -- excuse me -- into a map, we found a blubber belt running from in the mid part of America all the way down to Texas.
KAGAN: Now, we have a lot of viewers that are watching in the middle of America. What would be your message to them?
KINDELA: Get up and move, eat...
KAGAN: Get up.
KINDELA: Eat five servings of vegetables a day. That is absolutely crucial, and that is where most of the cities fell apart on.
Also, enjoy the outdoors whenever possible, and when there is inclement weather, at least take some kind of physical activity like climbing the stairs.
KAGAN: Well, what I thought was interesting -- you brought up weather, and when I saw Houston No. 1, I thought of it being humid and not that great for getting outdoors and exercising, but there were cities that did well in the exercise department that you would not necessarily associate with great weather like Boston, Massachusetts.
KINDELA: Boston, Minneapolis, and they did very, very well. It just speaks to the heartiness of the population. There is a kind of cultural environment there which promotes people getting outdoors, walking around, moving, doing physical things.
KAGAN: The bad news for Houston, we are not just talking fattest city in America this year, threepeat. Third straight year. Any response from the city or from the city leaders when you nail them like that in your magazine.
KINDELA: Well, the first two years, I got hate mail.
KAGAN: You did? From Houstonians?
KINDELA: From Houstonians. People personalized it somewhat. And it wasn't about Houston, per se. We wanted to get America talking about a problem we saw five years ago. This is our fifth survey, and we saw a trend towards obesity.
Right now, the amount of overweight people in America is 64.5 percent, 31 percent obese. Since 1990, we've increased our obesity rates by 74 percent in America, and now their children are being affected. Fifteen percent of the population now of kids is obese, and they are showing adult-related obesity problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, arterial plaquing (ph). These things should not show up until the 40s and 50s.
KAGAN: Very serious problems out there. Did you happen to give the folks in Houston, perhaps the city leaders, any advance notice that they were going to be getting this dubious distinction for the third year in a row?
KINDELA: We have worked with them during the last six months once they had a fitness czar in place. We've helped with their Web site, which is the only bilingual Web site based on promoting health in the country, which I think is a good thing, but they didn't find out about this year's ranking until yesterday. It was a good New Year's gift.
KAGAN: This just in to the folks in Houston. And if folks want to see where their city ranks -- not just in terms of the list, but in the different departments, they can go online.
KINDELA: They can go online, Mensfitness.com.
KAGAN: Mensfitness.com. And then -- is this guy online?
KINDELA: This guy is online. He is available.
KAGAN: He is available. Very good. Well, he definitely does not have a problem with being one of living in one of America's fattest cities. Jerry, thank you so much.
KINDELA: My pleasure.
KAGAN: And good luck to the folks in Houston in getting their act together.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 2, 2003 - 08:40 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Houston, we have a problem! That is the message at least from "Men's Fitness" magazine. Its report on America's fattest cities is just out, and for the third straight year, the Texas city holds the heavyweight title. So what did Houston do to deserve this threepeat?
Jerry Kindela, editor-in-chief of men's fitness joining us now with the skinny on the cover story -- good morning, good to see you.
JERRY KINDELA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "MEN'S FITNESS": Good morning.
KAGAN: Or, at least good morning from everybody except in Houston.
KINDELA: Houston has a good chance.
KAGAN: Lots of room for improvement, if you want to put a positive spin on it.
KINDELA: A lot of room for improvement.
KAGAN: Before we put the whole list up there, I want to hear what the criteria was for being named the fattest city in America.
KINDELA: Well, we run 16 various categories across six parameters. The city did worst because of its high TV viewership, its absolute...
KAGAN: Not always a bad thing, we want to say to our viewers.
KINDELA: Not always a bad thing, but maybe except that you don't want to ride your Barcalounger to the hospital is what I am saying. There is also a great degree of love of fast foods. It really hurt the city tremendously.
KAGAN: Well, before we point fingers, let's go ahead and look at what the top ten -- OK, well, I'll go ahead and read them off real quickly. Houston, No. 1...
KINDELA: Exactly.
KAGAN: Chicago; Detroit; Philadelphia coming up four; St. Louis five; Cleveland -- Cleveland, Ohio No. 6; Atlanta, Georgia -- Leon, where we live, No. 7. Columbus, Ohio; Dallas, Texas; and No. 10, Charlotte, North Carolina.
KINDELA: Correct. KAGAN: I am trying to look for any kind of geographical trend in terms of fattest cities.
KINDELA: I think there is a trend. When we put push pins -- excuse me -- into a map, we found a blubber belt running from in the mid part of America all the way down to Texas.
KAGAN: Now, we have a lot of viewers that are watching in the middle of America. What would be your message to them?
KINDELA: Get up and move, eat...
KAGAN: Get up.
KINDELA: Eat five servings of vegetables a day. That is absolutely crucial, and that is where most of the cities fell apart on.
Also, enjoy the outdoors whenever possible, and when there is inclement weather, at least take some kind of physical activity like climbing the stairs.
KAGAN: Well, what I thought was interesting -- you brought up weather, and when I saw Houston No. 1, I thought of it being humid and not that great for getting outdoors and exercising, but there were cities that did well in the exercise department that you would not necessarily associate with great weather like Boston, Massachusetts.
KINDELA: Boston, Minneapolis, and they did very, very well. It just speaks to the heartiness of the population. There is a kind of cultural environment there which promotes people getting outdoors, walking around, moving, doing physical things.
KAGAN: The bad news for Houston, we are not just talking fattest city in America this year, threepeat. Third straight year. Any response from the city or from the city leaders when you nail them like that in your magazine.
KINDELA: Well, the first two years, I got hate mail.
KAGAN: You did? From Houstonians?
KINDELA: From Houstonians. People personalized it somewhat. And it wasn't about Houston, per se. We wanted to get America talking about a problem we saw five years ago. This is our fifth survey, and we saw a trend towards obesity.
Right now, the amount of overweight people in America is 64.5 percent, 31 percent obese. Since 1990, we've increased our obesity rates by 74 percent in America, and now their children are being affected. Fifteen percent of the population now of kids is obese, and they are showing adult-related obesity problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, arterial plaquing (ph). These things should not show up until the 40s and 50s.
KAGAN: Very serious problems out there. Did you happen to give the folks in Houston, perhaps the city leaders, any advance notice that they were going to be getting this dubious distinction for the third year in a row?
KINDELA: We have worked with them during the last six months once they had a fitness czar in place. We've helped with their Web site, which is the only bilingual Web site based on promoting health in the country, which I think is a good thing, but they didn't find out about this year's ranking until yesterday. It was a good New Year's gift.
KAGAN: This just in to the folks in Houston. And if folks want to see where their city ranks -- not just in terms of the list, but in the different departments, they can go online.
KINDELA: They can go online, Mensfitness.com.
KAGAN: Mensfitness.com. And then -- is this guy online?
KINDELA: This guy is online. He is available.
KAGAN: He is available. Very good. Well, he definitely does not have a problem with being one of living in one of America's fattest cities. Jerry, thank you so much.
KINDELA: My pleasure.
KAGAN: And good luck to the folks in Houston in getting their act together.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
