Imagine, in the 21st century – with all of the medical, scientific and technological advances and accomplishments our country has seen – a generation of children that is at risk of not outliving their parents. Not because of a national plague or famine. Quite the contrary, the current generation is at risk of dying prematurely because so many of them are overweight or obese.
By the numbers, 15% of children and adolescents are overweight, and 16% are obese, which amounts to 24 million children – a number that’s nearly tripled in the last 30 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As if that statistic isn’t startling enough, these children also have an 80% chance of still being obese at 25 with implications of more raised health costs. In addition, hospitalization and physician visit rates are 3.7% and 1.7% higher, respectively, for obese children, according to Thomson Medstat.
