The message of the night was to get fit and start exercising to ensure a healthy life.

Healthful living is important in today’s society, said C. Everett Koop, the former Surgeon General who spoke to kick-off Mary Greeley Medical Center’s challenge to the Ames community to pursue personal well-being.

“Too many Americans are too big,” Koop said to an Ames audience at C. Y. Stephens Thursday night. He called obesity an epidemic that is “costing us and killing us.”

As an epidemic, obesity is second only to tobacco in deaths caused each year. Koop said that obesity takes 300,000 lives each year and costs the nation $40 billion in health care costs.

Koop defined obesity as carrying around 20 percent more weight than recommended for a person’s height and body frame.

Obesity causes fatal conditions and illnesses such as heart disease and high cholesterol. Koop said “70 percent of these burdens of illness are preventable.”

In the last decade, Koop said, the percentage of obese American adults has risen from 25 to 33 percent. He said women are especially prone to obesity. Koop said 50 percent of African-American women and 45 percent of Mexican-American women are obese.

Obesity affects people’s ability to perform at their jobs. Koop said obese people are 30 percent more likely to spend time in the hospital for illnesses and are 20 percent more likely to be home sick for a week’s time.

Adults are not the only obese Americans. “We have more overweight children in America today,” Koop said.

Many parents believe the school systems take care of physical activity, but many do not, he said. Illinois is the only state that mandates physical activity in its education system, Koop said, so parents need to take on the responsibility to make sure their children are getting an adequate amount of exercise.

Despite the discovery of the obesity gene, Koop said, the means to achieving personal well-being rests primarily in daily habits.

Koop said we know that “thin people arrive to the shores of America and grow fat.” Therefore, he said, diet and exercise are the keys to healthy living and people are not destined to be fat.

Three simple steps Koop listed to combat obesity include: losing a few pounds, being more active and helping someone else to do the same.

“Physical activity can be a lifesaver,” he said.

Koop is urging America to “shape-up” in his national campaign for health. He said people do not have to break a sweat to fulfill their exercise quota. Rather, moderate exercise will prove to be valuable.

Koop also mentioned problems with reforming America’s health care system. He said there is “no single magic bullet” because the system is very complex.

Economics is the fuel to the engine of health care, and not ethics, Koop said. “We must agree on the classic values and ethics before health care is reformed.”

Until the system can be reformed — which, he joked, would not occur in God’s lifetime — Koop recommend Americans use the system as little as possible, take care of themselves and get fit for their future.

He made it clear that obesity and health are issues the entire nation has to address and work through.

Koop concluded by saying, “I think we can together do it. My final words are, ‘Shape-up America.'”