Former President Bill Clinton, a reformed overeater, urged the nation's governors on Tuesday to embrace a long-term effort to change the nation's culture of too much food and too little exercise.

Clinton changed his eating habits after undergoing heart bypass surgery in September 2004.

He warned the governors in Washington that failure to change the nation's eating habits will weaken the economy and threaten the lives of its children.

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"We have a huge cultural problem and unless we change it our children may grow up to be the first generation with shorter lifespans than we had," the former Arkansas governor told the National Governors Association at the last day of its annual winter meeting.

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