Last Wednesday the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families decided to tackle the biggest threat to America's youth: their weight.

The first hearing of a two-part series, "Childhood Obesity: The Declining Health of America's Next Generation," focused on what external factors were causing American children to be obese.

"The younger generation may be the first generation in the history of our country that is less healthy than their parents. And that is a conclusion that is deeply troubling to all of us," said Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT).

Obesity affects 25 million children in the United States. One of every 3 children is either obese or at risk of becoming obese. Not only is obesity one of the most urgent threats to youth, it's also a significant predictor of obesity in adulthood.

Already, the health consequences of this disease are becoming apparent in the youngest generation. Children are increasingly being diagnosed with type 2 adult onset diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels. The list goes on to include strokes, certain types of cancer, liver diseases, and depression. You don't have to be a health expert to know that these are not diseases we normally associate with children.

Chairman Dodd already knew why our country's children were getting bigger.

"We all can point to the reasons why this is happening," Dodd said. "Junk food is rampant and marketed to children. Television has paved the way for children to have more sedentary lifestyles. We spawn our public schools with soft drink machines and fast food restaurants, which local schools allow because they're so under funded, they turn to corporate sponsors for financial assistance."

Dr. Jeff Levy, the executive director of Trust For America's Health, agreed with Chairman Dodd that schools are not serving enough healthy food to students. And for lower income students who have no choice to eat the breakfast and lunch their schools provide, this can make all the difference.

"We have placed kids in a less nutritious environment," Levy said. "It is not just too much food, but too much bad food that kids are eating. We have not harnessed the opportunities of the school to compensate for the overall propensity among Americans to consume too much sugar, and not enough fruits and vegetables."

Current school food nutrition guidelines from the USDA lack standards for sodium, trans fat and whole grains, and new guidelines are not coming out until around 2010.

The lack of physical activity in school is also an issue. According to CDC data, fewer than 4 percent of elementary schools, 8 percent of middle schools, and about 2 percent of high schools provide daily physical education or its equivalent. In addition, fewer than 1 in 5 children walk to school.

But the blame for child obesity doesn't end with the education system. Changes in demographic and societal norms are also a factor, says Dr. Francine Kaufman, the former national president of the American Diabetes Association and the current Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Communications at the Keck School of Medicine and the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, whose title, we might point out, is a tad overstuffed itself.  

"It's not unusual for me when I see infants coming to me at my center in Los Angeles with soda in their baby bottles and when I'm told that the first solid food given to that child was a french fry."

According to Levy, the government plays a hand as well. Poor and minority children are disproportionately obese because the nation's poverty programs have not kept up with the rising cost of nutritious food, healthy food is less available in poorer and more rural neighborhoods, and physical activity is limited because of safety concerns and a lack of adequate recreational facilities.

For example: African American children are almost twice as likely to be obese. Similarly, the National Survey of Children's Health shows that rates of overweight children decline as income goes up.  

"It will take more than telling kids to eat less and move more," Levy said.

The Subcommittee will hold the second hearing in the series on July 23. On the agenda: what the federal government can do to stop the child obesity epidemic.

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