While passing by a local fast food restaurant, I saw an overweight child, around 12 years old, bringing his tray to the table with his friend. Curious, I looked a little closer to see what this overweight 12 year old boy would be consuming, and surprise, it wasn’t a kids meal, hamburger, or even French fries. This boy had a big salad on his tray. I watched in amazement, thinking to myself that maybe kids could eat healthy food all on their own. I had sat in fast food restaurants, watching people eat large quantities of unhealthy food and for this child to be eating a salad (when I hardly ever saw anyone eat a salad) was a first.

Then, his next action smashed my hopes. The boy had taken three dressing packets and put two whole packets on his salad and then decided to drink the third packet. To say I was a little disturbed would be an understatement. I watched him in amazement, different amazement then when I first saw him sit down with his then healthy lunch. After staring at him devour his salad, he went back up to the counter and ordered some desserts. No wonder this child was overweight. He was probably thinking that it was okay to eat three packets of dressing and two desserts just because he ate a salad. The point is: kids don’t understand how to eat healthy by themselves. They need to be taught. However, most adults don’t even know what’s healthy anymore either.

Around 65% of American adults today are overweight or obese, a 75% increase from 1991. While the majority of adults are overweight or obese, 16% of all children and teens (ages 2-19) are overweight. This is twice as many overweight children and three times as many overweight teenagers than there were in 1980. Younger children are also becoming overweight at an alarming rate (a 40% increase since 1994). And all of these overweight children are most likely going to become obese adults.

We have known about this problem for a while. In 1994 the Surgeon General started a program "Shape Up America!" and in 2010 "Healthy People" was established with a goal that would reduce childhood obesity to 5%. The Department of Health and Human Services also established a goal to reduce the percentage of obese Americans to fewer than 15% by 2010. However, there has been little change and 2010 is coming up in a matter of months. So, what is the problem?

The schools and the USDA have attempted to solve childhood obesity by limiting the types of foods that are available to children in grammar, middle, and high school. However, the National School Lunch Program has fallen short of its expectations. (The program provides guidelines to schools which the schools have to follow in order to receive subsidies.) The guidelines are confusing (certain foods are not available during lunch periods however, they are available after school) and incredulous (Twizzlers, hard candies, and chips are allowed however, chocolate is not).

The breakfast and lunch program provides guidelines for what a lunch consists of, for example pizza with two choices of sides. Despite the USDA and schools’ best efforts, children are still picking French fries and chips as their sides instead of the vegetables.

Schools’ budgets have also affected children’s waistlines. In 2003-2004, half of American schools were selling rights to beverage companies such as Coca Cola and Pepsi. Schools were allowing these products to be sold in order to garner a profit to buy materials for their students. The food industry is one part of the problem. Approximately $12 billion are spent per year on marketing tactics directed at children which makes it difficult for parents to do their job when Shrek is saying to eat Fruit Loops, Luncheables, and candy instead of vegetables and fruit.

Health prevention strategies need to be a coordinated effort between schools, parents, and the government. There is no way that childhood obesity and eventually adult obesity is going to be properly addressed until everyone comes to the table and decides to take multilateral action. A preventative program needs to be established (unfortunately we, aka the USA, usually wait until something is completely smashed to pieces to even attempt to fix it). Regarding child health and welfare, it is not okay to wait. More young overweight children are affected by Type II diabetes or "adult-onset diabetes" than ever before. Obesity is a serious condition that increases a person’s health risk to hypertension, Type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.

Government and school policies need to address lifestyle choices made in and beyond schools. Programs that educate families on health and nutrition need to infiltrate all aspects of society including lifestyle choices. These would be more effective than policies that only partially infiltrate the school setting. There’s a fat chance that if we don’t act soon, our children will be turning into the size of Shrek (with health issues) instead of seeing him as a cartoon character that’s larger than life.