Childhood Obesity--The Washington Post's Five Part Series on an Important Issue

Last week, the Washington Post gave us a five part series on childhood obesity.

It made the point, which has been made here a number of times, that for the first time in our history American children are on their way to a shorter life span than their parents.

This comes on the heels of a report last month that 20% of American women have already seen a decline in their life expectancy largely because of obesity and smoking.

The Post series made a number of important points:

• Obesity has tripled among children ages 6 to 11.
• The average weight for boys and girls age 10 is 11 pounds more than it was in 1963.
• Locally, almost a quarter of kids through age 17 in PG County MD, and more than third of kids in Loudoun County VA, are considered obese. In DC, 40% of kids are at least overweight.
• Type 2 Diabetes has increased tenfold among children and teens and gallbladder disease has tripled in children ages 6 to 17.

As I have also said many times before on this topic, we need an offensive against obesity of all ages. Being fat is a dumb thing to let yourself become and letting your kids get just as fat as you are is worse than dumb.

A Post editorial put it more diplomatically: "What is needed is a champion to turn these disparate actions against childhood obesity into a unified campaign...Without clear and focused leadership––the kind that turned smoking from chic to undesirable––rising obesity among America's youth and the health problems that go with it will worsen."