Healthier lifestyles needed to treat this growing problem

Count your blessings if your child’s weight is in the normal range. Unfortunately, the number of overweight or obese children and teens in the United States is increasing dramatically — a trend that many health officials are now calling a public health crisis.

The third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), shows that approximately one in five children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 17 is overweight.

In the 30 years since NHANES I was conducted, the number of overweight children in the U.S. has more than doubled. And, it seems, children are just keeping up with their parents. The NHANES III study found that over one-third of adults are overweight.

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