1 in 6 blogathon: Our children are unhealthy - poverty, food insecurity and obesity
Our children are unhealthy. This is in part due to hunger and poverty. It is also due to poor diet and lack of exercise. Each day as I look at the students in our middle class school in the Maryland suburbs of the national capital city, I see the effect.
Obesity -
* Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years.The figures are from The Centers from Disease Control and the pattern has continued - the best estimate in* The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to 18% over the same period.
* In 2008, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.