Obesity is defined as an abnormal amount of body fat that causes health problems such as; diabetes, heart disease, and cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). Obesity can be determined measuring the child’s body mass index (BMI) is calculated by the child’s height, weight, and age to determine if you have excess fat. It is known that children who are obese have a greater chance to become obese in adulthood. National surveys have come to the conclusion that children are consuming more than 100 calories per day than ever before. The cause of child obesity does not have only one cause. Obesity happens when people in general are not eating healthy foods and are not physically active. Foods that are high in calories and have no healthy nutrition value are foods that will be stored as fat and will make you gain weight (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011; Elfellahi, Dallèle, Verlhac, Camille, Verma, Arpita; 2006; Paxson, Christina, and Donahue, Elizabeth, and Grisso, Jeanne Ann & Orleans, C. Tracy, 2006; U.S. Department of Health & Human Services). Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in America because the rates of child obesity are high, in every three children one is overweight or obese ages 2-19. These rates have been rising over the last three decades because in the 1970s children who were overweight or obese were at a 15 percent and today it has doubled to 30 percent (Paxson, Donahue, Grisso, & Orleans, 2006). At the rate child obesity is rising in America children are having more health problems that will cause premature death; according to (Liquid Candy, 2005) “this may be the first generation of children who live shorter lives than their parents.” Studies indicate that child obesity in America is a growing epidemic because of parents, television and media, and insufficient exercise. Parents…
