Obesity in Children

[Smokey14]

here's one for genetics
I have 2 boys 11 and 12. the 12 year old is thin as a rail, the 11 year old is ...well, not as thin. They both eat the same way and play the same way. now when I was a kid I was as skinny as they come. The boys in my wife's family were all chunky. Now all grown up, I'm 40 y/o 5'7" 215 lbs and my brothers in law are tall and skinny. Life style has most to blame but there is something to be said for geans.

[mosholu]

One thing I have noticed since I moved overseas is the size of portions that you get in a US restuarant is way more than you would get in Europe. There is simply no need to have to eat that much. Kids in a restuarant with a 20- 24 oz coke is just too much. When I am back in the US I can not finish a starter and a main course. That being said in the 10 years I have lived in the UK has seen the rise of McDonalds and BK etc. and you are now hearing the same things regarding kid's fitness that you hear in the states.

[PaulS]

Our farm policies are all screwed up. We subsidize corn, which makes it cheaper to eat fattening foods that use high frusctose corn syrup than to eat unsubsidized food like veggies. Make fritos cost more and apples, carrots, etc. cost less and you'd have a healther population.