LINCOLN, Neb. -- There are more overweight people in the world than hungry people, according to the Associated Press. About every fourth person on Earth is too heavy. Overweight children and adolescents have a 70 percent chance of being obese as adults. For those with overweight parents, the likelihood of obesity in adulthood increases to 80 percent.

In Nebraska, more than 55 percent of us fit the definition of "obese." We also have the undesirable distinction of being the least active people in the country, ranking 50th among the 50 states in fitness.

"We're just too darn fat," says former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Thompson. "Americans are sitting around eating themselves to death. Obesity is closing in on tobacco as the nation's Number One preventable killer."

But what accounts for why we succumb to this deadly health problem? And why has it become one of the most-reported topics in the media today? This Nebraska Connects live call-in program attempts to answer these questions. The program is aimed at empowering overweight children and families to take steps to regain their health.

This live call-in special makes a special effort to reach out to families and young people suffering from obesity. The most immediate consequence of being overweight for children is social discrimination. Ostracism by peers often results in problems of poor self-esteem, depression and feelings of profound isolation.

"The burden of childhood obesity is one created by adults and borne by children," writes Elizabeth Weil for the New York Times. "Complicating matters, self-discipline is typically not a hallmark of the school-age years. When you talk to children about losing weight, you see a blank stare. They hear you, but there's really not anything they can do."

Americans are inundated with irresistible round-the-clock messages to eat, eat, eat. To resist the pull of instant gratification for adults is difficult. For children, nearly impossible. And the messages are often contradictory - glamorous images of rail-thin models juxtaposed against the mouth-watering image of a Whopper and fries. What's a kid to do?

The forces bearing down on the child within the home, school and community conspire to produce failure on a grand scale -- psychologically, physically, spiritually. "We 'force feed' our children like geese for foie gras in this country," says Mary Pipher, nationally renowned author of Hunger Pains and Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls, "and then we blame each individual goose for being overweight." The solutions, Pipher and others believe, rest on changes in the culture at large, as well as within the family home and heart of the individual.

As the final element of NET Television's nine-month-long "Nebraska Connects: Healthy Living -- Healthy Eating" project, "The Big Fat Question: A Nebraska Connects Special on Obesity" originally aired Thursday, March 17, at 7 p.m. CT (6 MT) on NET1 (the new name for the Nebraska ETV Network).

NET Radio's Nancy Finken hosts the hour-long call-in special that reaches out to families and young people suffering from obesity. A panel of experts addresses such issues as social discrimination, poor self-esteem and depression, as well as medical ailments such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and breathing problems.

Panel members include Lynn Marcus, MA, certified professional counselor specializing in eating disorders/obesity; David Finken, MD, assistant clinical professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC); Valda Ford, director, Community and Multicultural Affairs (UNMC); and Morris Bates, Santee School Superintendent.

The program also includes a taped interview with psychologist/author Mary Pipher, and segments on school lunch and gym/exercise programs.

A videotaped broadcast of "The Big Fat Question" aired on NET2 on Saturday, March 19, at noon CT (11 MT) and Tuesday, March 22, at 8 p.m. CT (7 MT). NET1 rebroadcast the program Tuesday, March 22, at 10:30 p.m. CT (9:30 MT).

NET Radio presented a special interview with psychologist/author Mary Pipher on the issues of childhood obesity on Thursday, March 17, at 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. CT (5:30 & 7:30 MT) during "Morning Edition."

The "Nebraska Connects: Healthy Living -- Healthy Eating" project is a collaboration of NET Television and its community partners -- the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, the One World Community Health Center in Omaha, UNMC, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cooperative Extension and the Nebraska office of the American Diabetes Association.

"The Big Fat Question: A Nebraska Connects Special," underwritten in part by Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Saint Elizabeth Medical Center, is a production of NET Television for broadcast on NET1 and NET2.

PROGRAM CONTACT: Mel Bucklin, 402-472-9333, ext. 472