ABSTRACT
Obesity is arguably the gravest, and inarguably one of the least well-controlled, public health threats currently confronting the United States, and increasingly, the world. Obesity rates have been rising relentlessly among adults and children alike for decades in the United States, and similar patterns have now been established in most other countries. At the International Congress on Obesity held in Sydney, Australia, in September 2006, it was announced that for the first time in human history, there were more overfed than hungry persons on the planet (Caterson, 2006). Obesity is thus a public health crisis of the first magnitude. But it has been said that crises represent opportunities. By recognizing the dangers of epidemic obesity—particularly the dangers to children and adolescents—society is apt to become impassioned about the need to confront this threat, and therein lies opportunity.
