New Academic Analysis Identifies Three Barriers to Achieving Healthy and Achievable Policies to Combat Obesity ...( 17th U.S. Surgeon General Richard...),Health

17th U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona Joins the Stop Obesity Alliance as Health and Wellness Chairperson, Says Report Findings May Open Doors to Positive Change

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance today received a new academic analysis that identifies three barriers to combating obesity in America: unrealistic definitions of success, negative perceptions of treatment, and the stigma of obesity. Authored by a research team at The George Washington University (GW) School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) Department of Health Policy, the research examines the disconnect between the mounting scientific data demonstrating the negative health and economic results of overweight and obesity, and insufficient public and private sector efforts to combat those results.

Members of the STOP Obesity Alliance welcomed Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS, as Health and Wellness Chairperson for the Alliance Steering Committee. Dr. Carmona is the 17th Surgeon General of the United States (2002-2006), vice chairman of Canyon Ranch, president of the non-profit Canyon Ranch Institute, and distinguished professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. The Alliance Steering Committee, which includes consumer, provider, business, labor, health insurance and quality-of-care organizations, met with Dr. Carmona this morning before he delivered a keynote address at GW University. In his remarks, he said that identifying cultural and systemic challenges is an important early step in reducing the prevalence of overweight and obesity and helping to prevent chronic disease in America.

"Overweight, obesity, and the conditions they can lead to --- such as diabetes and heart disease --- are very often preventable. But prevention is still a radical concept to most Americans," said Dr. Carmona. "As a nation, we must join together and mov
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