Clinton Targets Childhood Obesity

Former President Zeroed In On Obesity In U.S .After Heart Surgery

(CBS)  So, Tuesday, at an elementary school in Manhattan, Mr. Clinton announced the launch of a nationwide, 10-year initiative to combat childhood obesity.

"I was very overweight when I was a young child," he told students. "When I was 15, I weighed 210 pounds."

The initiative will focus on changing school lunches, removing junk from school vending machines, and getting parents to put the brakes on fast food.

"We can change this over the next few years," Mr. Clinton asserts.

"How in the world," Alfonsi asked Mr. Clinton, "do you stop that busy mother, who has a minivan full of kids, from going through the drive-through at McDonald's?"

"You don't," he replied. "But even they could cook the French fries in a healthier way."

And that, Alfonsi points out, could seriously reshape the country's kids.

The former president wants to encourage kids to make healthy food choices, something he admits was hard for him to do, even when he was the most powerful man in the world.

"Even in the years I was running 20-25 miles a week, I wasn't overweight, but I was still clogging arteries.

"Do you feel you set bad example?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I was aware of it. I thought I was setting a good example, because I was running every day."

"Running to McDonald's?"

"Yeah, running to McDonalds," Mr. Clinton laughed.

Less than 8 percent of America's schools offer any kind of daily physical education classes. The initiative aims to reverse that trend as well, Alfonsi adds.

And joining Mr. Clinton on the crusade is Arkansas' current governor, Mike Huckabee, who lost 110 pounds while in office after he was diagnosed with diabetes.