Reshaping Bad Habits

Shaq Takes the Offensive Against Childhood Obesity

Here's one way to get your earphone-wearing, video-game-playing, junk-food-eating kids off the couch and into a healthier lifestyle: Give 'em a Shaq Attack.

That's what Shaquille O'Neal, the 7-foot, 325-pound center from pro basketball's Miami Heat, delivers on his new ABC reality show, "Shaq's Big Challenge."

O'Neal's mission: to transform the lives of six obese children -- none of whom can run a mile -- into fit, active kids with a healthful outlook on life.

It won't be easy with this bunch. One of the boys is addicted to "pizza burritos," and another enjoys bowls of popcorn doused with two sticks of melted butter.

O'Neal, who said he's been physically active his whole life, began to question why "big, husky, chubby kids" were becoming more common. And along the way, the answers became obvious.

"We live in a technological society," O'Neal said. "It's easy for a child to come home and listen to his iPod or play Sega. It's easy just to e-mail friends and eat a whole bag of chips."

But the threat to children's health goes beyond the home, as O'Neal sees it: The abundance of junk food and lack of focus on physical education in the nation's schools also are problems.

"I had mandatory P.E.," he said. "Now, only six percent of schools have mandatory P.E. That's terrible."

O'Neal said he had a lot of fun clowning around with the children on the show. But there's no shortage of drama, especially when the children come to understand that the severity of the problem goes beyond schoolyard taunts. Obese children face an increased risk of developing heart disease and diabetes unless they change their ways.

While ABC is the first broadcast network to have a prime-time reality show devoted to childhood obesity, some cable networks have addressed the issue. TLC's "Honey We're Killing the Kids" is a weekly show that takes parents to task for cultivating poor eating habits, and Al Roker recently hosted a Food Network special on the subject.

But it was Nickelodeon that really first explored childhood obesity five years ago with its "Let's Just Play Go Healthy Challenge."

The series, which began as a group