By DAVID USBORNE
NEW YORK - The bathroom scales tell them every day and so do their consciences. But increasingly, central and local governments are joining the chorus of admonition to millions of overweight Americans: you have to do something to shed kilos.
This year has brought a surge of initiatives and laws, mostly at the level of state and city government, aimed at trimming the national waistline. The trend is likely to be accelerated by recent findings by the Centres for Disease Control that two out of three Americans are either obese or overweight.
New York City has moved to ban fizzy drinks, hard sweets, potato chips and doughnuts from vending machines in its schools.
Louisiana passed a law making it mandatory for schools to teach physical education. Arkansas and Mississippi approved similar laws to encourage exercise classes. Until now, Illinois has been the only state to make physical education obligatory in schools.
Arkansas has instituted body-mass-index testing - which measures weight-height ratios - in six schools. The results are sent to parents and those with children at risk from obesity are urged to cut their food intake.
Louisiana has taken arguably the most startling initiative in offering state government workers free gastric bypass surgery - stomach stapling - to help the most rotund beat the bulge.
The sharply rising cost of providing healthcare has prompted some states to take action. West Virginia, for example, believes the cost of treating obesity among state employees has more than doubled since 1995.
A public health programme recently launched in the state includes billboards with pictures of sagging stomachs and a slogan that urges people to cut back on what they eat and to exercise: "Put down Chips & Trim those Hips".
- INDEPENDENT
US lawmakers rally to fight fat epidemic
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