>> good morning. welcome to "vice presideewpoint" this morning we are battling the budge. i have so many friends who are working out and dropping pounds more than ever. others are still struggling to reverse the effects of unhealthy lifestyles. our guests are here to help. dr. patricia is here, reverend doctor gertie hurley is founder and representative of the group taking executive action. and senior pastor of new beginnings community church. welcome all of you. welcome back we should say.

reverend hurley, september 26, wellness day 2016. how do you plan to celebrate that day? >> we will have dr. davidson there giving good advice about how to live a healthy life. we will also have have dr. rodney ellis there. this time we decided to break it down so that the men had their own private session because sometimes men won't come to things because they don't want women to be around to hear some of the things they ask about. youth 12 and over. we will have all kinds of activities. games, food demonstrations, others will be there doing eye vision screenings, and blood pressure screenings and we will have a cooking demonstration. and it's going to be an enjoyable day. >> sounds like a fair and sounds like a lot of fun. >> it's more than a fair. it's where they're going be empowered with some bit of

knowledge when they leave. we give them a pre-test before they start and a post-test to see how they fared. >> statistics show that maryland has the 29th highest adult obesity rate in the nation. is maryland losing the battle of the bulge? >> i don't think they're losing but nationally we're seeing a trend of childhood obesity decreasing partially due to our first lady's effort. she's been the only person who has been successful where many organizations have tried. she is the first person who the food industry has been brought to their knees to feel guilty. she is really the first person to do that. we're losing somewhat in many different areas. we have close to 70% obesity rate among african-american women and mexican women so we still are losing.

we still see a trend where food is a big issue. poor food, bad food, and calorie dense food that's not healthy is still being heavily marketed in our community. prince georges county has less healthy food stores and an awful lot of fast food. people have not gotten away from that and people still feel that this is punishment when they can't go into the fast food restaurants and we have to get people to the point where food is considered a gift and it can keep you alive or it can kill you. >> punishment? >> people consider this to be punishment if they have to give up their fast food. yes. they consider it punishment. and so, it's -- and basically they're saying that this is more important than their life. sometimeous have to put it in those terms, but it's just like

an addiction. food is made to be addicting. there is something where the food industry tests subjects and different recipes and then the ones where all the participants say this is the best, that's the one they produce, the one you can't eat just one. the food industry makes sure that their food is addicting. people need to recognize that it's an addiction just like alcohol or heroin and they have the same withdrawal symptoms. if you have to give up sugar, you will have the same withdrawal symptoms as somebody who is coming off of crack. you will be irritable, shaking, demanding, searching for something to eat. same with a crack addict. so it may not be as extreme but you get some of the same symptoms. people need to acknowledge the fact that they are addicted and they were made to be addicted by

the food industry and they have to fight. that's one of the reasons that working with churches is good because we hope that those in the church will have another way to help discipline themselves. >> your church is located in prince georges county where more than 60% of deaths are due to chronic disease and nearly 70% of adults are obese or overweight. what is your church doing to address those numbers? >> we're committed to this battle of the bulge movement and we're doing it as a matter of change in lifestyle not just for a season. what we have been doing is we have been offering classes on tuesdays. we have had battle of the bulge sundays. we have a family and friends sunday every third sunday and we have featured the battle of the bulge. we have had speakers come and share about health concerns. we have had dr. davidson, dr. hurley is there. we are basically committed to

educating people and giving them the training and information that they need. focus on energizing them, bringing them to a place where they are ready to take effective action. after that what we want to do is encourage them. let them know that it's sustainable. it's sustainable and they should never give up, never give up. we're committed to a healthy culture in our church. as a matter of fact, we have a vision for this movement called new beginnings where faith and fitness converge. >> all righty. we are battling the bulge here on viewpoint this morning. stay with us. we will be right back.

welcome back to viewpoint. we're talking about battling the bulge, and we are talking about celebration of life which takes

place on september 26 in prince georges county. i want to pick up on a point that reverend hall just made about the convergence of faith and fitness. the goal of your celebration is to help change people's unhealthy behavior but doesn't that start with changing people's attitudes and their beliefs? >> yes. and we start off by telling them what to do how to do it and why. then we give them a demonstration and then we have some people say some empowering words to them so they feel all charged up and they can do that. that's what we do. >> and you hope that charge lasts. dr. davidson? >> it doesn't. you talk about people being in denial. talk about, you know, that wall and that -- it's really a mountain for so many people to climb. >> people will not associate their lifestyle with the disease process. so that's why when i do my lecture, i spend an awful lot of time trying to make people understand that 90% of what

afflicts us they have control over. and they don't want to admit to that because when you end up having certain diseases that are acquired by your lifestyle, you stay in denial. and so the way we eat causes us to have the hyper tension, the obesity, diabetes and clogged arteries that we have and that's what most of us die from. if we survive that, the cancer, the way we eat has some role because obesity has a higher risk of cancer. but, the higher the weight, because fat cells are more susceptible to become cancer cells. when you have people understand from the very beginning as a child, the food that we feed our children and the activity levels play a significant role and the whole process of clogged arteries begins in the first decade of life. >> and food addiction, to start very young, when you see mothers

who have babies with bottles hanging out of their mouths and bottles are filled with juice and soda. >> yes. and you see children always have a bag of something in their hands of some kind of junk food. chips or twists or there is always something that i consider junk food, which is high salt, high refined carbohydrate and high sugar in their hands and they can't go shopping for long period of time, and the stores have something for them to eat. usually like a hot dog on a white bread bun and all the things like we cannot go longer than 30 minutes to an hour without eating and we keep feeding our children all day long and it's not healthy food that we're feeding them and the food industry knows this and they're ready with all of this inexpensive food. we have to get to the point where we understand that this food that we pick can either

kill us or sustain us. you have to honor your temple or you can destroy it. we hope that by working with churches they can take that extra step in understanding that concept. >> and reverend, to come back to fitness, she talked about the relationship people have with their food, and talk about physical fitness. are you seeing more churches incorporate physical fitness as part of a ministry or activities where they are encouraging members to get together to do? >> yes, i think we see a ground swell going on in the christian community in a variety of different ways and at new beginnings what we're trying to do is again to put together a movement again that is sustainable. in other words we don't want people to be committed for a season just for a period of time just to lose a certain number of pounds. we want healthy lifestyle changes. in other words we're committed to giving them what they need to

live longer and to live better. and so, we really see this as part of the fabric of the church. let me put it this way. we talk about in christian-dom about putting god first. if we put god first, we can't say we are going to put him first but we can't really until we make our health a priority. we say god has plans for our lives, jeremiah 29:11 but we can't fulfill that plan unless we have a healthy body. the bible tells us in i cori corinthians 6:19 that our body is a temple of the holy spirit. all of these things can't have the intended impact without making health a priority. healthy lifestyle hab its. >> first things first. >> first things first. >> celebration of life coming up on september 26th. we'll talk more about that

celebration and the battle of the bulge. stay with us.

welcome back to viewpoint. heart disease and cardiovascular disease are the number one killer of people of all races in this country. reverend hurly, you're going to zero in on that issue at the celebration of life. talk about your focus. >> dr. davidson is going to talk about cardiovascular disease as well as dr. ellis. and also the demonstrations will be centered around heart healthy foods. we're giving away a cook book and a kit with everything else about heart healthy eating and cooking. know your numbers. control your portions, get up

and move. and those are the things -- take time and rest, meditate and all of those things. we have a meditation cd we're giving away as well. >> dr. davidson, many people don't think about their hearts when they're planning their meals. i tally fat grams and cholesterol because i know my health history. the cdc has identified four common causes of chronic disease and one of them is poor nutrition. the other is lack of exercise. you say that it doesn't matter what the culture is, heart disease is still the big mountain that we all have to climb? >> number one killer of all americans. >> because of lifestyle in america. >> all americans, both genders, correct. and it is definitely the lifestyle. when they stay here long enough, for instance in the latina population, mexican americans have the same risk factors that

african-americans have so their rates are higher than cubans and things like that. it's not a homogenous population. it's how long you have been here and adoption of the american lifestyle. it's mostly the refined carbohydrates that we want the food to look better, cook faster, and all the nutrients are gone and we're eating straight sugar. so when you eat a bowl of white rice you're eating a bowl of sugar. when you eat your french fries that's a bowl of sugar. white bread, that's a stick of sugar. these are the foods that people when they come into this country they had to bake their bread and do those kinds of things and now they are able to get sliced white bread. they are taking food that is not as healthy because it looks better and tastes better, too. and we think it tastes better and then they have foods that drive them towards diabetes and they end up gaining weight.

belly fate is around the pancreas. that is where it's the most harmful. so you have to start measuring your waist. you reach menopause and your waist size starts increasing. you want your waist to be 35 for european women. and so all of these little things begin to happen and our -- what you see older women, especially after menopause, they are overweight because they didn't keep up the same exercise level and they continue to eat the same food that they did when they were 17. we have to change what we eat as we age and recognize who we are and change our exercise level. i like to describe people as starch is for athletes. and if you're not an athlete,

that's their form of sugar that they need to swim for six hours, run their marathons, play tennis for six hours otherwise they will crash. if you're not an athlete you can't eat like an athlete and we all eat like we're athletes and as a result we all become diabetic. >> the cdc also mentions in addition to diet and the lack of physical activity. what about alcohol consumption? is that part of the american lifestyle? >> yes. people are very conscious of it. unfortunately the industry came around with the e cigarette. we all think we can switch to that including teenagers. there is always something that the industry comes up with. nicotine is one of the most damaging of our risk factors because that truly damages the artery wall. and nicotine especially damages all of the arteries including

the legs. you won't see a lot of clogged arteries unless they're a smoker. smoking is one of the deadliest of the risk factors for heart disease. people think of lung cancer but it is heart disease that affects the most and tears up our arteries and allows the plaque to form. that is on the decline. young teenagers are still beginning to use it too much. a tremendous effort and we now know the cigarette industry was lying to us. alcohol keeps waxing and waning. and you know that's a big problem especially with drunk driving. it's a lot of things we have to work on. alcohol is not as damaging to the heart, by the way. it increases the good cholesterol level. the damage is when you become drunk and start carrying out illegal activities. but the damage of alcohol is not to the heart unless there is so

much of it that you damage your heart muscle. but a small amount is good for the artery wall. >> time to take a break. we will be right back.

welcome back. reverend hurley, you have got a lot of sponsors working with you. >> the first people we want to thank would be nbc 4 for the outreach help. we have wegmans, physicians care, health spas, whole foods, the fresh market, ready clinic, rite aid and johns hopkins are nice enough. we are getting a lot of volunteers to come from united faith ministry.

>> and to register, do you need to register? what time is the fair and tell us exactly where it takes place. >> it starts at 8:00 until 12:30. and then there's no screenings after 12:30. register at new beginnings center, 6512 -- and they can register online at t-action.org. >> we have been showing that on our screen. reverend, the bible says train up a child in the way they should go. >> yes. >> tell our parents how to train up our kids. >> get them committed to a healthy lifestyle. get them used to moving more and eating less. and get them to understand the power and the benefits of living a healthy life. if you live a healthy life you will live a longer and better

life. >> cardiovascular disease, it's preventab preventable. is it reversible? >> yes, but you have to eliminate your risk factors. we don't have actual numbers for reversing but we have a trend towards reversal if you can get your bad cholesterol under 70. everybody looks at the total. bad under 70 and there's a trend towards reversal. get your sugar down, blood pressure under 120 over 80, your bmi under 25 and you will have a chance to reverse your disease. >> all right, dr. davidson, dr. hurley and my last guest, thank you so much. and thank you for being with us today. 0bóñóñçoñl@ú

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"news4 today" begins with breaking news. >> that breaking news in suitland, maryland, first. we're working to confirm whether anyone was hurt in a crash on suitland parkway. >> this video in to our newsroom a few hours ago. you can see two cars were involved here. one had its door ripped right off. we'll continue to stay on top of that story for you as the morning continues on and as the story develops. i want to welcome you in. good morning and welcome to "news4 today." i'm adam tuss. >> good morning to you. i'm kristin wright, in for angie goff today. day two of a heat wave is upon us. >> yeah, you know, it's hot, but the humidity is not there, right, amelia? >> exactly, adam. if you like yesterday, today is very similar.