Obama smoking while visiting family in Kenya, Africa

President Obama’s signature legislation, Health Care Reform, hasn’t yet passed and the American people probably have heard more about it than it cares to after one year of debate.  One aspect of reform deals with the amount of money that can be saved in health care costs by  implementing preventative care through behavioral modification of lifestyle, but this seems to apply to everyone but the president.

As you mostly likely heard the President had a physical this week, the first since he entered office.  Obama is the picture of health, eats modest portions and exercises regularly, but did receive three admonitions from his doctor:

  • stop smoking
  • moderation of alcohol intake
  • alter diet to bring down borderline high LDL cholesterol levels

These are three behavioral lifestyle modifications that President Obama can do something about and it does reflect a touch of hypocrisy when he projects a policy of, ‘do as I say not what I do.’

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that for healthy men, drinking more than four drinks on any day or 14 per week is considered ‘at-risk’ or ‘heavy’ drinking.

On  the smoking front, Obama signed the Family smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act..  The law allows the Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweet flavorings and block labels such as ‘low tar’ and ‘light’.  Companies are now also required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.

Michelle Obama has been after the president to quit smoking for sometime now.  Obama does chew a nicotine gum to avoid regular smoking, but admits to having seven or eight cigarettes a day at the most.

Now Michelle has launched a program to end childhood obesity.  It is estimated that 1 in 3 children are obese.  Obesity in the United States costs $150 billion a year to treat obesity related illness.  The costs to treat smoking related illness is $185 billion a year and the cost of cholesterol related illness is $53.1 billion a year.

So as you can see the President doesn’t project the behavioral lifestyle that he is asking others to adhere to – a touch of Hypocrisy.