WHAT DRIVES US - American Heart Association

Every day, Dr. Lenna Liu gets a close-up view of the link between child obesity and
economic factors.
Like the time she advised a family to eat healthier dinners together, only to learn the
family didn’t have a dining room table. Or when she drives through neighborhoods
where her young patients live and sees no safe, accessible play areas.
“The kids I see are mostly from low-income communities, environments that make it
tough to avoid weight gain,” said Dr. Liu, professor of pediatrics and physician-lead
of the Obesity Program at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “Some families are running
out of money, so they buy fast food because it’s cheaper and makes you feel fuller.
It’s also higher in calories and fat.”
Dr. Liu knows willpower alone can’t solve an epidemic that has led to more than one in
three youths becoming obese. And that’s what drives her work to find long-term solutions.
“A lot of people see obesity as a matter of individual responsibility, but based on my
experience I don’t see it that way,” she said.
Dr. Liu is working as a You’re the Cure volunteer with the American Heart
Association to help change public policy to “make the healthy way the easy way.”
For example, she advocates for mandatory physical education and limits on highcalorie
soft drinks and snacks in schools. She supports opening school recreational
facilities for public use after hours and more sidewalks in neighborhoods to
encourage exercise.
Dr. Liu also advocates patience.
“If we get together like we did several decades ago in the public health effort
against tobacco, I think we can achieve results,” she said. “I am just one among
thousands of doctors across the country who are focused on this issue, so I know
there is a collective will to get something done. But this is not going to happen from
one day to the next. It is going to take generations.”