Obesity: A looming national threat?

POSTED: 10:25 a.m. EST, December 29, 2006

By Manav Tanneeru
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(CNN) -- Four years ago, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee weighed around 300 pounds.

"The only reason I don't have an exact figure is because my scale stopped at 280 pounds," he said. "I had to kind of guess at that point."

The weight, on his 5-foot-11-inch frame, posed dangerous health risks and made daily life difficult and sometimes embarrassing. He recalled a humiliating meeting that made him realize his weight was a problem.

"[The staff] all stood like they typically do and I went to my chair at the head of the table, and as I sat down the chair collapsed," he said. "I dusted myself off and got up and tried to make light of it and said that they just don't make chairs like they used to. But it wasn't the chair that needed rebuilding, it was me."

The epiphany, however, arrived when he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2003. Huckabee's doctor told him that without a lifestyle change he had about 10 years to live.

"It was a real wake-up call," Huckabee said.

Over the past two years he's lost about 120 pounds, embarked on a crusade against fat and has become something of a national example of the growing threat of obesity -- and a success story for battling it.

I think huckabee wrote a book about it too. 

He's done a lot of work to help get kids healthy in the state as well.  It is one of the most unhealthy states in terms of obesity, diabetes, etc.  Some of the things are really great like parent education, making school lunches healthier etc.  Some would have devastated me, as a fat kid, such as regular weigh ins by the school nurse and having weight noted on report cards/school records... Regardless of our political views, congrats to him for the weight loss and his sincere efforts to keep/get kids healthy.