BroDeal said:
You thought the adults were fat. The children are even fatter.
* 37.1% of the children were overweight
* 19.4% were obese
* 6.4% were extremely obese
http://children.webmd.com/news/20100318/kids-not-only-obese-but-extremely-obese
I am confused with the obesity definitions using percentiles of the population rather than body fat percentages.
for many years i have made my living in health education. i DO understand the formula used for this analysis. combining height/weight chart values with the statistical "norm" would not be my method but it is very quick and cheap and allows for a very large sample size. in short, the method has strengths and weakness. for me the these numbers are "reliable" enough and the message has been communicated clearly for quite awhile now, we're in deep trouble.
the type of commitment from individuals, families, the business community, local, state, and federal governments necessary to reverse a trend that has been set in motion decades earlier and allowed to worsen unchecked for almost half a century would make the war in iraq/afghanistan look like a very minor inexpensive effort. i estimate that any honest attempt to remedy this problem is a decades long commitment from individuals, governments, and corporations. ie a very expensive 20 to 30 years worth of effort not to "fix" this problem but to just reverse the current trend.
improper nutrition/physical inactivity is a function of biology/evolution, psychology/behavior change, a near toxic food supply itself, education (no child left behind has done much more to hurt health/physical education than to help it), culture, resources, climate, environment, economics, etc. just think about how expensive it would be to provide accessible safe recreational open space for those hit hardest - poor urban dwelling minorities. and that's just ONE small component of this problem. michelle obama is on the cover of newsweek only a few weeks ago saying we can fix this. as the first lady, a powerless figure-head with no expertise and zero authority, is going to help fix childhood obesity? i'm glad we're putting our best people on this

it will probably be as successful as nancy reagan winning the war on drugs. EXTREMELY patronizing to people on the "front lines".
just say no to french fries? are you kidding me?