>> people who are spiritual have a tendency with health their

prayer partners. not just pray for world peace, but for the discipline to change their lifestyle and prevent disease. >> you think taking a spiritual approach is more effective or can be more effective and make a stronger impact than all of the health warnings and all the plik education campaigns that have been waged. >> more an issue of support groups. we've documented in the literature, if you have a support group -- the church is a natural support group. the problem is we don't have any way to pay forxl you already have a prayer partner. your prayer partner has to be the person you talk to when you're about to turn into one of those fast food restaurants. that's when you call your prayer partner and ask them to pray you on to the health food store or home to cook your own food. we're going to ensure that the

prayer partner has that role. praying with a purpose. >> we're going to talk more about the battle of the bulge challenge when we come back. stay with us. don't wait for awesome... totino's pizza rolls... ...gets you there in just 60 seconds. go bold with flavors that kick. release a devastating avalanche of taste on your tongue. bury yourself in the flavor full of sweet icing and filling. call off the hounds! rescue is unnecessary. pillsbury toaster strudel, the snow day of breakfasts.

welcome back. we're talking about the battle of the bulge challenge being issued to churches all over, not just in maryland, dr. hall. but tell us how you've dealt with the issue of obesity among your congregation. >> over the years, as god has given me a vision that new beginnings should be a church where faith and fitness converge for the glory of god, we've had exercise classes, various types of instruction, and a number of those things didn't have any lasting outcome and so when i met dr. hurley i realized that this commitment that we have to

not only the church being a place for spiritual support and guidance that we needed something more substantive, something that had more measurable results and accountability. so we decided to get involved. >> dr. hurley when you're talking about the african-american church, we've got culture there which impacts or eating habits, childhood memories and lifestyle. talk about the challenges of tackling the issue in thek c african-american church. and is it any different with any other group? >>(pev well, church people, there's an issue of church food. there are a lot of activities that are surrounded by food, and no one wants to do anything healthy because they don't want their reputation as a good cook to be affected by healthy food because someone has put out a rumor that healthy food doesn't taste good. when healthy food is prepared

properly, it's difficultly shows, delicious. that's been one of the issues, you put out the information, we're in the going to have this, we're going to have this and they'll say they forgot it and have the white rice out which dr. davidson says no not to eat the white rice. they'll have all the macaroni and cheese, white rice everything all the same, hamming, turkey fried chicken, fried fish. you have a buffet full of food and there's no encouragement not to do that because they figure people are going to come out and eat. >> dr. davidson talk about that, there's a lot of psychology there. >> i think the african-american community has probably culturally some of the most unhealthy food. that comes from the fact that we were given the scraps as slaves and we turned them into delicacies. that whole concept has gone on for centuries. we need to begin to turn that

around. we have enough chefs, and even the chef shows they or not doing healthy foods and chefs are capable in teaching us to cook in a way that's healthy and tasty. even the chefs shows show some of the most un4e8 think food. we will be showing people how to make foods they haven't tasted before. we just need to recognize some foods cause disease. if a food is going to have to cause you a disease and kill you, you have to make a decision as to whether it's worth eating. you have to make a decision between your life and what you put in your mouth. if you consider yourself a tellable, it should be something that keeps you alive. >> there was a report recently published that showed maryland's adult obesity rate is just over 28%, up from 21% in the past decade. why has maryland's obesity rate been so stubborn? >> i think in many staelths the obesity rate is rising.

a lot of that has to do with the immigrant and african-american population both of which have rates of obesity over 60%. if you have a population growing that's higher than the natural average, that also has to do with the poverty rate too, which involves the white population. so if you see that over 50% of our children in public schools have to have subsidized meals, then that means our poverty rate is growing and poor people cannot ooel eat healthy foods. there's nothing wrong with a $1.99 full meal as far as they're concerned because they need to eat and feed their family. they will be eating the most unhealthy food and they don't have access to the healthier food. they go to the nearest grocery store which also doesn't carry healthy things. most of the fruits and vegetables will more expensive and not even be good quality. withxl county having most of the restaurants fast food restaurants, over 70%, you can

see how people choose those kinds of good because they taste good. also food is addicting. the food industry has learned to make the most unhealthy food, that's the food that's the cheapest to make. if you don't have much income, you end up buying that particular food. as our poverty rate goes up and people have problems attaining food and the food banks stretched to the maximum, you'll see people eating whatever they can eat. >> we've got to take a break. we'll continue right after this.

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welcome back. dr. hurley, the battle of the bulge is designed to reach boys and girls 14 and older really the families. >> the families.

if just one member of the family comes, they can help with the other members. >> your group has worked with and promoted wellness programs through the years. >> yes, we have. >> tell us about those. >> some of them have been sunrise wellness program at 6:00 a.m., one and a half hours before they go to work with them getting a carry-out breakfast healthy breakfast. we've done one-on-one, and we've done groups we've done support groups in churches. we've done the annual conferences, two annual conferences. so we've just done everything we can to do a newsletter. we've done everything we can. it's something you just have to keep doing you have to just keep going to church keep hearing the message. the message is the same basically. so that's what it is. the message is still the same. people know the message but they need to hear it. >> dr. hall, i just want to touch on something that was alluded to earlier about dr.

davidson said call your prayer partner when you turn into a fast food restaurant. and in prince george's county for example where 60% of deaths are related to chronic illness such as cardiovascular disease. you live in prince george's county. choices, do you live in a% neighborhood where you have access, you or inclined to go out of your way to get healthy food? what do your members do about that? >> the choices sometimes are difficult for the reasons that dr. davis has already mentioned and some of the things dr. hurley has alluded to. but there are better choices, but it comes down to retraining our taste buds, retraining our bad habits and our relationship with food. when i go out i try to make those healthy choices but they're difficult to find, but they're there. so there has to be a desire to do better. >> do you preach about the fact that you can stand in a prayer

line and ask god to heal you, but if you can change one of your bad habits, then perhaps you're helping god. >> yes. we believe we have a responsibility, a personal responsibility. in other words, god does his part, but he needs us to do our part. that takes cooperating with god, and that means we have to get to a point of understanding what our role is and the choices that we make and commit ourselves to the renewing of our minds. that's what we're going to try to do through this battle of the bulge. we're going to begin with renewing minds as it relates to relationships with food, what's good for you, what's not good for you, what you will love, but not in love with you, and all those kinds of things. >> dr. davidson, what would you say are the three most critical things we all need to know, whether they're african-american, whether they live in prince george's county or alaska? the three most important things

we all need to know about cardiovascular disease? >> the most important thing you can do to save your life is walking, any type of activity, walking is the simplest and the cheapest. 30 minutes a day a 50% reduction in heart attack, stroke and cancer. >> just walking. >> whatever you choose to do. 30 minutes a day of aerobic activity, 50% reduction in heart attack stroke and cancer. this is heart month coming up. you need to know what your blood pressure is, what your sugar is what your glucose level is, all of your cholesterol components the good cholesterol the bad cholesterol and the triglyceride to know if you're at goal.f you ideally want your bad cholesterol to be under 100 good cholesterol over 50 and your triglycerides under 150. everybody should have these numbers. you need to make sure your sugar is under 99 on the fasting level, and you need to get your body mass index under 25.

if it's over 25 you're going to die from your weight. you have to decide whether, whatever you're doing is worth your life. that is the choice. swrou to begin to say my life is worth it. if you know your numbers and begin to do the simplest, cheapest thing which is walk you'll prevent most of the diseases we die from. >> how about an easier question. what would you say are the three easiest unhealthy habits to break, and make it really easy. >> easiest unhealthy -- the ease just one is not exercising. everyone can get up and walk. >> whether you have problems with your÷czzñ knees. >> if you have problems with your knees you have chair exercisesment our fitness person has wonderful dvds on how to do chair exercises. that's what he'll be doing because everybody will be sitting down.@ you can do a vigorous aerobic workout in a chair. you can do that even if your knees are in bad shape, and the loss of the weight will end up

giving significant relief to your knees as well. every pound you lose is worth two millimeters of mercury on your blood pressure. if you say you're 140 and you drop five pounds you'll be 130. >> i said three unhealthy habits. one is not exercising, what are the other two quickly? >> smoking is probably one of the most difficult to do. one of the easier things to do is pick your foods better. you go into the store, pick the green vegetables. green has the lowest amount of sugar and try to stay away from white food. white food has the highest amount of sugar, that's your white pasta white bread, white rice. if it's white, you probably don't want to eat it. and cauliflower is beige so that doesn't counted. you want green food and make sure the protein that you pick is either no cholesterol or very low cholesterol. that's your animals that fly and your animals that swim without

the skin because they're the simplest animals and have the lowest amount of cholesterol. the animals that walk on land and walk on the bottom of the ocean are highest in cholesterol. >> all right. let's take a break. you just heard it from the doctor. got that? we'll be right back. ring ring!... progresso! it's ok that your soup tastes like my homemade. it's our slow simmered vegetables and tender white meat chicken. apology accepted. i'm watching you soup people. make it progresso or make it yourself you say avocado old el paso says... zesty chicken and avocado tacos in our stand 'n stuff tortillas . (record scratch) you say stand n' stuff tortillas old el paso says... start somewhere fresh

talking about the battle of the bulge challenge which dr. hurley, begins sunday, february 15th 10:00 a.m. at new beginnings community church in bowie maryland. you'll give people printed information as well as the book. >> this book, seven easy steps to improve your health. everyone is getting a copy, at least the first 100 / copies of this book for coming to the kickoff. >> your goal is to get churches all over the county and all over

the state involved. how do they get involved? >> well, they can contact us at new beginnings church in bowie maryland on central avenue, çzk[ 310-249-0 77. they can also go on our website as well as on the website of dr. hurley. >> you're using your pulpit to kick this off, and you're setting the example yourself. you're a fit, healthy pastor. >> thank you. >> talk about your responsibility to promote healthy living as well as spiritual life. >> i think we have a responsibility in churches and pastors in particular to understand we play a significant leadership role. in other words, when the leaders lead and the people offer themselves that's when we best honor god. therefore, i think we need to be that kind of example.

for seven years i worked out with a personal trainer. after that relationship ended i started doing it myself because i learned so much from him that i was able to start doing it on i could also sustain a healthy eating lifestyle or food make better choices with food, and that's what i've been incorporating. but i always still feel i have improvement opportunities. i think we need to be the example from the pulpit. >> dr. davidson? >> know your numbers, begin to realize that the fork is the deadliest weapon in america, so use it for self-defense and not self destruction. >> when you stand before a congregation as a physician, and a very successful physician at that you actually appeal to their spirit. you tell them whether they're fit or to fight in the army? >> i will tell them you have to be fit to fight in the u.s. army but people don't feel they should be fit in god's army to

save people. >> what's their response totally? >> a lot of ohs, a lot of open mouths. >> the battle of the bulge challenge open to all churches again starting february 15th at )= 10:00. we know this is going to reach a lot of people and hopefully change a lot of unhealthy habits and make a big difference in their lives. >> yes. >> thank you so much, dr. patricia davidson, dr. michael hall and dr. hurley. the program is the battle of the bulge challenge, and we want ever bod toy take it. >> right. and close the gap. >> thank you so much and thank you for being with us. that's "viewpoint." i'm pat lawson muse. "news 4 today" continues.

super bowl super bowl! >> super bowl sunday has finally arrived. fans are pummed for the countdown to kickoff. our jim handly has been in action all week $i,jy morning. he's going to bring us a taste of the nfl. >> storm team 4j$sx radar tracking no sun but lots of rain for your game day. chuck bell is timing when it will come down the hardest and it's possible you could see a few snowflakes out your window. chuck bell will join us with more. what's going on chuck? >> we have a few snowflakes showing up on storm team 4 radar this morning. if you're one of my twitter followers or have snow reports, send it