Observations on a National Epidemic

Our Childhood Obesity Information Page, available on our front page, now includes a streamed interview with Dr. Robert Keith, Alabama Extension nutritionist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science, who discusses one of this nation’s most serious health epidemics: childhood obesity. One of the great ironies associated with childhood obesity is that so much of it is caused from affluence, something scarcely imagined by our poor, malnourished forebears. Indeed, Keith believes two factors associated with affluent lifestyles are fueling this epidemic: food that is cheap, fast and convenient and a mind-boggling variety of cable television channels and video games. The end result: a generation of children who are turning to visual media for the sort of stimulation earlier generations derived from physical activities such as touch football or basketball.