ABSTRACT
During recent years, and since the first edition of this book, the prevalence of obesity has increased further in the adult population in most Westernized countries. A particularly problematic feature of this general trend is that the condition is also developing at much earlier stages in life than was the case in the past. Further, this situation is no longer limited to the industrialized countries with a sound food supply and high standard of living. This is a major concern, not only in affluent countries such as the United States, European countries, and others. In the Third World (Kimm, 2002), the trend is for upper socioeconomic classes to be more predisposed to the condition (Mirtipati et al., 1998). This is evidenced by a plethora of scientific articles from numerous regions of the world, reports in lay journals, and the mass media generally. Irrespective of the setting, there is an urgent need for a collective approach to the prevention, treatment, and management of obesity, particularly with respect to the problems of the condition during the growing years (Barlow and Dietz, 1998; Brooke and Abernathy, 1985; Koletzko et al., 2002).
