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<div class=""> </div></div><div id="opinionator"><div align="left"><span class="" title="2013-02-20T21:14:29+00:00">February 20, 2013, <span>9:14 pm</span></span><h3 class="">Our M.I.A. Surgeon General</h3><address class="">By <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/mark-bittman/" class="" title="See all posts by MARK BITTMAN">MARK BITTMAN</a></address><div class="">
<p>When CBS airs its newly commissioned pilot "<a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/awakes-jason-isaacs-star-cbs-surgeon-general-421642">The Surgeon General</a>,"
Dr. John Sherman - "the most powerful doctor in the nation" - will
become the best-known (albeit fictional) surgeon general since C.
Everett Koop. No one I asked (including a member of Congress) could name
the current one.</p><p>She's Regina Benjamin - and no, I didn't know,
either. In theory, the surgeon general is the nation's doctor, an
independent practitioner whose major concern is our health. In reality,
the position has been eviscerated, and you need not take my word for
that.<br><br>Six years ago, three former surgeons general - Richard
Carmona (who served under the second President Bush), David Satcher (who
spanned the Clinton-Bush years), and Koop (who was appointed by Ronald
Reagan) - <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/washington/11surgeon.html?pagewanted=all">appeared</a>
before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and
declared, in Carmona's words, that the scientific information that they
wanted to bring to the American people was being vetted and censored for
political reasons, and that he was "often instructed on what to say and
not to say."</p><p>"We felt," Carmona told me last week, "that science
was being politicized. And if the surgeon general is not empowered to
state the nonpartisan case based on the best science, then who will?"</p><p>Good
question. Because it's the surgeon general's job - or should be - to
evaluate science and present a considered, impartial recommendation.
(Carmona thinks a "State of the Nation's Health" should be a required
annual report, like the State of the Union.) Lacking that, there is no
official and identifiable spokesperson for the nation's public health,
and the obfuscation and confusion sown by Big Food, along with its
outright lies and lobbying might, has created a situation in which no
one in power will speak the truth: that our diet is making us sick,
causing millions of premature deaths each year and driving health care
costs through the roof.</p><p>One would think these might be areas of
concern for the nation's doctor. (And, of course, for the evidently
gutless Food and Drug Administration. But that's another story.)</p><p>Rarely,
surgeons general have risen to the occasion. In 1957, Leroy E. Burney
announced that there was a causal relationship between smoking and lung
cancer. In 1964 his successor, Luther L. Terry, published <a href="http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/NN/p-nid/60">the critically important report</a>
that gave the anti-tobacco movement the power it needed to save
countless tens of millions of lives in the half-century since then. Koop
- inexplicably and wonderfully backed by Reagan - brought the truth
about AIDS into the light of day, mailing information about the syndrome
to every household in the country.</p><p>But since his term ended, the
best-known surgeon general has been Joycelyn Elders, who held office for
about a year (1993-4) before being fired for suggesting that
masturbation be taught in order to help young people refrain from unsafe
sex. Carmona took flak for his positions in favor of abortion rights
and was "told to stand down" when he wanted to take a scientific
approach to stem-cell research.</p><p>Those are the recent exceptions.
Benjamin, like most of her predecessors, is virtually invisible. Whether
that is a personality trait, a lack of courage (hard to believe - she's
a Catholic who supports abortion rights), a lack of qualification or a
sign of the impotence of her office is something she won't help us
figure out: her representative declined my request for an interview.</p><p>But her most public work, the 2010 document called "<a href="http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/healthy-fit-nation/index.html">The Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation</a>,"
has a decidedly mild Michelle Obama-ish tone. In discussing the obesity
crisis, it lays the blame squarely at the feet of ... the victims: "In
addition to consuming too many calories and not getting enough physical
activity, genes, metabolism, behavior, environment, and culture can also
play a role in causing people to be overweight and obese."</p><p>Put
aside the imprecise, non-grammatical writing. Instead of talk about
curbing the marketing of junk to children, we get a discussion of
"limiting television viewing"; instead of banning soda from schools, we
get "Make sure water is available throughout the school setting." In
short, instead of criticizing the industry for peddling and profiting
from poison, it criticizes us for falling prey to it.</p><p>The data
linking excess refined sugar in food (especially in sugar-sweetened
beverages) and disease is strong, and no one outside of the industry or
its sphere of influence disputes it. More data is being produced all the
time, and we all hear about it from a variety of sources.</p><p>A
strong statement by America's doctor decrying this, and calling for
control of what amounts to a controllable substance, might assure Regina
Benjamin of a place in history equal to those of Burney, Terry and
Koop. It might even make her as famous as John Sherman. It would
certainly help people remember her name.</p></div></div></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br>
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