Issues in American presidential politics tend to be collective ones — defense, education, environment — but in the 2008 campaign health care could be discussed in disconcertingly concrete terms: Individual obesity.

Face it, parents. You’re part of the problem.

Applications are now available for UnitedHealth HEROES program. UnitedHealthcare and Youth Service America (YSA) are seeking schools and community-based nonprofits that want to fight against childhood obesity.

Youths across Arizona once again have the opportunity to become “Health Heroes” by learning about childhood obesity, designing programs to address it and implementing the programs in their communities.

Dan K. Thomasson, guest commentary

As their peers cheered them on, campers at a Mesa school this week raced against one another in a relay designed to increase their heart rates and get them moving.

Ahwatukee resident and retired profess Chuck Corbin is taking the content he used to teach at Arizona State University and trying to combat a national epidemic.

TOPEKA, Kan. — The memory still bothers Ken Keller: A panicked ambulance crew had a critically ill patient, but the man weighed more than 1,000 pounds and could not fit inside the vehicle. And the stretcher wasn't sturdy enough to hold him.

CONCORD, N.H. - It's not just fast food restaurants that have Supersized the way Americans eat — cookbooks share the blame.

TRENTON, N.J. - In a new and disturbing twist on the obesity epidemic, some overweight teenagers have severe liver damage caused by too much body fat, and a handful have needed liver transplants.

WASHINGTON - Loosen the belt buckle another notch: Obesity rates continued their climb in 31 states last year. No state showed a decline.

State health officials say they’ve always suspected that obesity in Arizona coincides with where people live and the value of their homes. Now they have proof.

LONDON - While being fat increases your chances of a heart attack, some studies suggest a puzzling paradox: Obese people seem to have a better chance of surviving one.

Chris Lineberry stood in front of hundreds of seventhgraders at Apache Junction’s Thunder Mountain Middle School, holding a long glass tube containing 39 grams of sugar.

CHICAGO -- Is it OK for doctors and parents to tell children and teens they're fat? That seems to be at the heart of a debate over whether to replace the fuzzy language favored by the U.S. government with the painful truth - telling kids if they're obese or overweight.