U.S. kids need to "get off the junk food and get more active"

Today's Kansas City Star has a fascinating article about the "epidemic" of overweight children in American society:

Eleven percent of adolescents 12 to 19 are considered overweight, nearly triple that number 20 years ago. Another 14 percent are at risk of becoming overweight.

The Star's story did not mention that Missouri teenagers are doing substantially worse than the national average: 23% are overweight and 17% at risk for overweight (see Promoting Healthy Weight in Missouri's Children [PDF format]).

"Overweight" is defined as above the 95% percentile of the student's particular age- and gender-based national norm for Body Mass Index.

Health experts agree, regardless of who or what is responsible, the message is easy to understand, if sometimes hard to digest: Teen-agers need to get off the junk food and get more active. . . .

[H]alf of all teens are considered physically unfit, and many more have poor body image or suffer from eating disorders. . . .

The cure is twofold: Teach parents how to feed children so they are at a reasonable weight when they start school, then help teens maintain their weight throughout high school.

"The No. 1 problem is convincing parents this is a problem.

"They have so many fears....Nutrition isn't even on the list of the top 10 things they fear," [says Robert Murray, associate professor of pediatrics at Ohio State University].