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HOOKED on remote controls, fast foods and video games, an increasingly large number of Americans have slumped down on their couches and stopped moving--literally. And it's costing them their health.

This sluggish trend, which threatens the future of all Americans, and especially Black Americans, is being actively challenged by a new Black family, which is willing, ready and determined to stay fit with healthy eating habits and a regular fitness schedule.

"It's not good enough for mom or dad to be physically active if the children don't see them doing it," says Dr. Reginald Washington, a pediatric cardiologist at Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver. The majority of his young patients are referred to him because their parents have had heart attacks or stroke, often due to hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity and physical inactivity.

To prevent such illnesses, he advises families to begin by "taking short walks" together. "That kind of thing would instill the notion that parents believe that it's important to be active together," says Dr. Washington, who is a member of the Association of Black Cardiologists and the American Heart Association.

Among the modern families who are active together are the Gores of Chicago, the Gordons of Los Angeles and the Banks of South Holland, Ill. In various ways, these families and others spend time participating in organized and leisure sports--as a unit--to ensure hard bodies and healthy, long lives.

Tax attorney Lauren W. Gore and her husband, Leonard Gore, a computer software salesman, are committed tennis aficionados. The Chicago couple chose their last vacation spot based on the number of tennis courts available, and they could hardly wait until their three children, Leonard Jr., 9, Landon, 7, and Lesley, 4, were out of diapers before introducing them to the sport.

"Naturally because of our interest in tennis, we thought of getting the kids involved. They watched us play and eventually expressed an interest," says Lauren Gore, who plays tennis for a local team as does her husband. Both are age 36.

Although the Gores aren't as emphatic about nutrition (We're not nuts about eating healthy foods," Lauren Gore says), they maintain a relatively healthy diet.

Leonard Gore echoes his wife. "We're not obsessed [with fitness], but we strive to be healthy," says Leonard Gore, who finds exercising to be an invigorating, yet relaxing way to unwind. It's a lesson that they hope their children--who already play little league baseball and group tennis--will cherish.

It's a sense of parental responsibility that motivates the Gores to take action. "As with every other educational process that goes on in the home, whether it's about a healthy body, a healthy mind or a healthy relationship, [my husband and I] always try to present a united front," Lauren Gore says.

West Coast couple John and Melanie Gordon also present a united front when it comes to introducing the fundamentals of physical fitness to their two children, Nikki, 14, and Chad, 12. "We've been exposed to all of the literature and we know that the things to take care of most are your brain and your body," says John Gordon, a 54-year-old pilot for a commercial airline. "A lot of people are careful to educate themselves," he says, "but they forget they need the body to take them through life."

# posted by Medical Information : 1:14 AM