The Huffington Post – Linda P. Fried
“Childhood obesity in America has reached epidemic proportions. We have long known about the troubling trifecta of insufficient exercise, processed food, and marketing that targets our most vulnerable consumers and their parents. In the last few months, however, new research has become available to help us see more clearly the evidence behind this growing crisis, and the public health solutions we need to design right away. More than one third of U.S. children and adolescents were overweight or obese in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the past 30 years, obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents. The consequences of childhood obesity, which include diabetes, heart disease, and other illnesses, are also rising. As this research indicates, overweight and obese young people have a very high probability of becoming obese adults, with all of obesity’s heightened health risks. This extraordinary prevalence constitutes a public health emergency more troubling than a new infectious disease: it puts at risk the health of those just getting started, a generation that will struggle against multiple chronic illnesses for their entire lives. Here at the Mailman School at Columbia University, our Obesity Prevention Initiative has been conducting vital research into childhood obesity. Several recent studies are especially illuminating.”(more)