During the past 30 years, a major obesity problem has developed in the United States.
In 2005, it was estimated that more than 65% of American adults were overweight, with almost 35% being obese. Not only has there been an epidemic of obesity among adults, but equally as important is the obesity in our children. As you can see on page 1 in the following materials, from 1963 until 2000 there was almost a quadrupling of children in the U.S. who are overweight. this represents the top five percentile of obese children. If you consider the top fifteenth percentile (and those are children who will very likely become obese as adults), the numbers double. In other words, in the year 2000 at least 30% of children 6 to 19 years of age were obese or bordering on being obese, and in the last 6 years that number has continued to increase. It has been reported in some areas of South Texas that the overweight and obesity among children is now approaching 42%.

Along with the increase in body weight is an alarming increase in adult-onset diabetes (type 2) in children. In fact, it has been predicted that for every child born after the year 2000, one out of three Caucasians and two out of three Hispanic or African Americans will become diabetic. If a child develops type 2 diabetes before the age of 14, it is estimated that their lives may be shortened by as much as 17-27 years, meaning this may be the first generation in which the parents outlive their children.

Download Ebook Texas Youth Evaluation Program ( 32 pages file pdf, 3.3 MB )