- guardian.co.uk, Sunday June 23 2002 02.52 BST
With a punishing week of diplomacy ahead of him - a summit of world leaders in Canada and an expected Middle East peace initiative - Bush chose to turn his nationwide radio address down a novel path for a head of state and inform Americans that 'exercise is a daily part of my life, and I urge all Americans to make it an important part of your lives'.
'I insist,' said Bush of his own staff, 'that they take time off, out of their daily grind, to get some exercise'.
Bush is one in a long line of jogging, health-conscious Presidents - including his predecessors Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter - on top of which he has a daily regime of weight training. At 55, he can bench-press five repetitions of 185lb and run a six-and-three-quarter-minute-mile for three miles.
'Regularly hiking through a park can add years to your life,' Bush said in his weekly radio address. He said Americans should eat fruit and vegetables rather than fatty foods and refrain from smoking and excessive drinking.
'I know you're a better worker if you exercise on a daily basis. I know you'll help keep the healthcare costs down in America if you exercise on a daily basis. I know your life will be more complete if you exercise and serve a neighbour in need.
'Our message is simple, but important,' Bush said.
The President's address, which followed a speech last week in which he announced a team of athletes and doctors for a President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, focused on exercise, with no mention of the packaged-food companies that donate to his coffers.
However, the presidential address cast light on a serious crisis in a country where obesity has reached pandemic proportions.
About 300,000 people died in the United States last year from obesity-related illnesses, which are also estimated to cost $117 billion (£73bn) in healthcare.
Just over half of Americans are above their recommended weight, with 20 per cent qualifying as obese. About 14 per cent of teenagers and children are overweight (the rate in the Seventies was 5 per cent) and the problem correlates directly with poverty and ethnicity, being particularly serious among African and Native Americans.
In response, Congress is considering a tax on junk food aimed at children and specific packaging codes and health warnings - modelled on those for cigarettes - for high fat and high sodium products.
But the powerful trade group, the Grocery Manufacturers of America, has members with sales adding up to $460bn and urges a Congres-sional panel on obesity not to blame America's health ailments on over-eating.
The big junk and packaged food companies are afraid that they could be next in line for lawsuits of the kind levelled at the tobacco industry. As a result, they have tried to launch 'social-marketing' measures, such as school programmes and commercials on fitness and eating in moderation.
Philip Morris, which already owes $100bn to 50 states in the tobacco settlement, is nervous because it owns Kraft foods, a leading manufacturer of cookies, hot dogs and other junk food.
