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American Morning

White House Holds Fitness Fair

Aired June 20, 2002 - 07:21   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: Talking about being physically fit and getting Americans in better shape, a shocking number to look at this morning. Over 60 million Americans, according to the U.S. government, that's a third of the population, are overweight. President Bush wants to do something about that. He is holding a fitness fair at the White House.

And that's where we find our Dr. Sanjay Gupta hanging out today, not in your sweats, but in your proper suit and tie.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no.

KAGAN: Good morning, Sanjay.

GUPTA: I wish -- good morning to you. I wish I was in sweats, because you've got to look around here, Daryn. It's just an amazing place, an unusual looking South Lawn on a beautiful day. A batting cage, pitching cage. You've got NFL football. You've got soccer. Everyone's focused on health today, and for good reason. It's the first day of the Healthy U.S. initiative. President Bush, Secretary of Health Thompson are initiating that today. They're going to appoint a new council on fitness and exercise with a full event here in just a little bit. Lynn Swann is here, Emmitt Smith, Mia Hamm, Marion Jones, a lot of very fit people, I might add.

The president is also going to be heading down to Orlando tomorrow to talk with a bunch of seniors also about fitness. And then back and they're going to lead a three mile run. The first day he's going to lead a 1.5 mile walk.

But as I look around here, Daryn, the theme today definitely is fitness and health and everyone seems to be pretty engaged.

KAGAN: When you look at the information and at what they're trying to get Americans to do here, Sanjay, they're talking about people being overweight. They want you to exercise to lose weight. It doesn't seem like ground breaking stuff until you look at the effect this could have in terms of health care just in even dollars in the U.S. if people are in better shape.

GUPTA: Yes, there's no question. Yes, I was thinking the same thing, Daryn, exactly. It's about $117 billion a year in obesity related costs. Incidentally, obesity is related to just about every chronic disease known and leads to about two thirds of the deaths every year in this country.

But you mentioned just eating right, and yes, it's the food pyramid. We've heard that since grade school. But here's an interesting statistic. Only three percent of people on a daily basis actually abide by the food pyramid, actually eat the right quantities of all the different food groups.

So I think it is worth it getting the message out again, having the president obviously very engaged in this issue. With a lot of school kids and other folks here today, I think it's going to be a pretty neat event.

KAGAN: Well, let's call on your expertise in your other world, when you're not hanging out with us here at CNN, Sanjay, your life as a neurosurgeon. You do a lot of spine surgery. What kind of effects do you see obesity having on people's backs when you operate on them?

GUPTA: Yes, no question, Daryn. Obesity is related to so many chronic diseases. Spine disease is a very good example. Certainly people who are overweight will have all kinds of chronic lower back and upper back problems as time goes on. That sometimes can lead to just not being very mobile, but also lead to sometimes some very big operations later on down the road if they're even, if they're not too obese to actually qualify for those operations.

So it can be a very, it can be a very debilitating problem. I think the most interesting thing about obesity certainly is that for the most part it's a very controllable problem, a very preventable problem, and that's something the president's going to be talking about today, as well.

KAGAN: So, you mentioned this three mile run. Are you going on that, too?

GUPTA: That's actually on Saturday.

KAGAN: Ah, right.

GUPTA: I won't be here. So maybe I'll do my own three mile run back near home, though.

KAGAN: All right, you've committed to it on national television. We will see you in the next hour. Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the White House.

GUPTA: Good seeing you, Daryn. Bye-bye.

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