WASHINGTON -- The government is ratcheting up its campaign against obesity, which it says is now the nation's second-leading cause of preventable death.

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The Food and Drug Administration's Obesity Working Group has issued a report containing a number of recommendations, including one requiring food labels to display calorie counts more prominently and to use meaningful serving sizes.

Other recommendations include encouraging restaurants to provide nutritional information, stepping up enforcement actions concerning accuracy of food labels, and starting a consumer education campaign with the message that calories count.

The FDA says the education program is based on the scientific fact that weight control is mainly a function of caloric balance.

"Our report concludes that there is no substitute for the simple formula that 'calories in must equal calories out' in order to control weight," said Dr. Lester Crawford, FDA deputy commissioner. "We're going back to basics, designing a comprehensive effort to attack obesity through an aggressive, science-based, consumer-friendly program with the simple message that calories count."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 64 percent of all Americans are overweight, including more than 30 percent who are considered obese. About 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 are overweight -- almost double the rate of two decades ago.

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