The obvious causes of childhood obesity have been on display for years. High calorie foods leaping to the top of the menu. Kids not getting enough activity—play, organized sports. Some studies suggest that families who eat dinner together regularly (not every night) have lower rates of obesity in their children.  America’s dinner tables often are empty as busy families go about their days.

Recently there was a study which pointed to the roots of obesity may begin as early as infancy. More work needs to be done there to see what women can do to help their babies prevent this.

However, when this nation, and others, have an obesity epidemic, it hints at there being much more wrong than the obvious causes. This shift has been extraordinary and alarming because obesity is implicated in so many disease risks.

Huge population changes should not be occurring this fast no matter how much fast and processed food we consume. Thirty years—the period over which this has occurred—is not much time at all in terms of how population changes normally evolve.

But wait..

We have learned that there are more calories in many processed foods than packaging showed this year.

Even for people counting calories, it would be impossible to count correctly.

The search for other unidentified causes needs to continue. Every discovery makes this problem more understandable.

We cannot fix what we don’t understand.

The Washington Post

“Michelle Obama on Tuesday called on corporate food giants such as Coca-Cola, General Mills and Kraft Foods to step up efforts to produce more healthful food and then market that, rather than junk food, to children.

“Speaking at a meeting of the Grocery Manufacturers Association on Tuesday, Obama said she hopes to see a fundamental shift: “We need you not just to tweak around the edges, but to entirely rethink the products that you’re offering, the information that you provide about these products and how you market those products to our children.”

“Obama has made the fight against childhood obesity, whose rates have tripled over the past three decades, her signature issue. Last month, she launched Let’s Move, a federal initiative designed to end the epidemic within a generation. Since then, she has wooed parents, children and policymakers, but this was her first public appeal to the food industry.

“Parents, teachers and government officials are all responsible, she said, but the food industry has a special role to play.”

Source: Washington Post, March 16, 2010