I desperately want to be one of those people who is truly accepting of everyone else. Someone who helps each and every one of us accept our inner beauty, celebrate our individuality and revel in our individual power for joy exactly as we are, without looking to media depictions of love and beauty for validation. I want to be that person.

But, at the same time, I want to be the person who helps everyone TRULY find their inner strength and power – truly claim it for their own, and sometimes, that means saying, “dude you’re way off track, this is not healthy, not attractive and, frankly, you’re better than this.”

I think I’m more of the tough-love kind than the sweet kind. As much as I wish I were the sweet kind.

The thing that I’m struggling with now is obesity. I can handle it when I see an obese adult. I figure that it is a lifestyle choice that they made, and I am not one to judge the choices of consenting adults – not in the bedroom, the boardroom or the refrigerator. But obese children, that’s a different story altogether.

Although I want to embrace the idea of telling kids that we love and value them just as they are (and we do and we should), we do need to help them make healthy decisions to be fit, not fat. Obesity is not healthy. Period.

According to the Mayo Clinic:

Obese children can develop serious health problems, such as diabetes and heart disease, often carrying these conditions into an obese adulthood. Overweight children are at higher risk of developing:

* Type 2 diabetes
* Metabolic syndrome
* High blood pressure
* Asthma and other respiratory problems
* Sleep disorders
* Liver disease
* Early puberty or menarche
* Eating disorders
* Skin infections

And a simple glance at an elementary school playground will reveal that it limits the number of things that one can do in life – from physical activities, to even the more subtle limitations rooted in society’s unwillingness to look at obese people as fully equal. (I would like to comment on that too, but will save it for another day.)

How big a problem is obesity in American Children? It’s huge.

According to the Surgeon General’s office:

Today, more than 12.5 million children -- 17.1% of children and adolescents 2 to 19 years of age -- are overweight in the U.S., up from 13 % in 1999. Overweight children are at far greater risk for numerous health consequences, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases. The most immediate consequence of overweight as perceived by the children themselves is social discrimination sometimes resulting in poor self-esteem and depression.

There are plenty of opinions as to the causes of the obesity epidemic in the United States. I’ll unwillingly admit that I have many of my own theories and find no shortage of blame to go around.

My own theories actually rest as much on the highly processed nature of the food that people eat as on anything else. Soda Pop costs less than milk or water. Fresh fruits and veggies cost more than “convenience” snack foods. Real meats and cheeses cost more than “lunchables.” And as a society we seem more obsessed with convenience than nutrition - making meals into things that have been sweetened, salted and preserved only to be served after being nuked.

According to the Mayo Clinic:

Many factors — usually working in combination — increase your child's risk of becoming overweight:

* Diet. Regular consumption of high-calorie foods, such as fast foods, baked goods and vending machine snacks, contribute to weight gain. High-fat foods are dense in calories. Loading up on soft drinks, candy and desserts also can cause weight gain. Foods and beverages like these are high in sugar and calories.
* Inactivity. Sedentary kids are more likely to gain weight because they don't burn calories through physical activity. Inactive leisure activities, such as watching television or playing video games, contribute to the problem.
* Genetics. If your child comes from a family of overweight people, he or she may be genetically predisposed to put on excess weight, especially in an environment where high-calorie food is always available and physical activity isn't encouraged.
* Psychological factors. Some children overeat to cope with problems or to deal with emotions, such as stress or boredom. Their parents may have similar tendencies.
* Family factors. Most children don't shop for the family's groceries. Indeed, parents are responsible for putting healthy foods in the kitchen at home and leaving unhealthy foods in the store. You can't blame your kids for being attracted to sweet, salty and fatty foods; after all they taste good. But you can control much of their access to these foods, especially at home.
* Socioeconomic factors. Children from low-income backgrounds are at greater risk of becoming obese. Poverty and obesity often go hand in hand because low-income parents may lack the time and resources to make healthy eating and exercise a family priority.

Eeek Gads! What are we supposed to do about all this?

The first, obvious, step is to go through the above list of risk factors and start changing our behavior. But the real question remains, how do we educate an entire population to make healthier choices, (assuming the entire population isn’t reading this blog post.)

There are a lot of great organizations that are taking a stab at solving this problem.

The Food Trust provides nutrition education services through local farmer’s markets and public schools.

The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is a partnership between the William J. Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association. Co-led by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, this collaborative effort is focused on fighting one of our nation’s leading health threats – childhood obesity.

The nrg campaign engages teen groups and their adult leaders (teachers, group advisors) in healthy change efforts, and also recognizes and rewards groups for their nrg activities.

Renowned chef Alice Waters has created the Chez Panisse Foundation to provide kids with hands-on experiences growing and preparing healthy and natural meals.

My favorite – especially now that it’s spring – are always the local farmer’s markets that bring organic, local, farm-fresh food to neighborhoods near you. Admittedly, it’s a bit pricey for many, but if you can afford it, it’s a great way to not only get healthful food, but support the local economy and environment by keeping farmers and their sustainable practices in business. You can find a local farmer’s market near you on the Local Harvest Website.

And there are countless other organizations around the country. Lots of ways to nip this problem in the bud. But, let’s return to the problem just one more time.

Before we write off the problem of childhood obesity as just being a childhood problem, it’s worth looking at the impact of obese adults on the US Economy.

In adults, obesity has tremendous impact on our national economy – from both a perspective of healthcare costs and even lost productivity. According The Center For Disease Control And Prevention:

National costs attributed to obesity related medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures. In 1998 medical expenses related to obesity may have reached as high as $78.5 billion, approximately half of which were paid by Medicaid and Medicare.

As parents, our job is to give our children the tools that they need to be productive, healthy, happy and engaged members of society. Obesity precludes a lot of that. Yet, as parents, we are collectively raising a generation of children who are at increased risk of growing up to be obese adults – and everything that comes with that. It hurts them as individuals, it hurts us a society and we can work together to stop this epidemic before it robs us of entire generations.