We happen to live 5-6 houses down from McDonald's. I've had 12 year girls come over to spend the weekend realize that the kids around here don't have a steady supply of pop, so they ultimately go to McDonald's to get their fix. There's a novelty factor in play here as well, it's every kid's dream to live within walking distance of McDs... but still. Many of these kids this young do NOT like to be without.

A huge uptick in HFCS & genetically modified food perhaps? Along with chemically processed everything!

I watched Food Inc. a couple nights ago and it is INSANE how much of the food has changed due to the increase in mass production.

HFCS is what I think has changed. It didn't used to be cost effective to put in anything, now it is frequently the #1 ingredient.

You all are so dead on with these observations. My 9 yo dd is a cheerleader. Last season they eliminated all flights, tosses and lifts from her squad because she was the smallest girl on the squad....it was composed of girls aged 4-9. She was the smallest by 25lbs! The coach decided it wasn't fair to ask a 4 year old to spot on the bottom.

One thing to keep in mind is that the consumption of 'sugar' has changed from actual sugar to corn sugar- especially high fructose sweeteners. There's a link between fructose consumption and inuslin resistance- so if the population is now eating the same amount of sugar, however, in a form that increases insulin resistance, that 'regular' amount of sugar consumption is now more damaging to the body because the body's ability to deal with it properly is diminished.

I'm allergic to corn- it's the most common sweetener out there. Cdn ingredients lists will say 'glucose-fructose/sugar'- glucose-fructose is Cdn for 'HFCS', and /sugar?? Right. I don't for a second believe they are actually using sugar when corn syrup is so much cheaper.

And we put it into all kinds of things I don't think we added it to before. Soups, sandwich meats, yogurt, salad dressings, condiments etc..

I think there's an environmental component that we haven't identified yet. Above and beyond HFCS, but that is just my gut talking.

My toddler is overweight despite a LC momma. So bizarre to me!

For her, I was on steroids during my pregnancy and, if her system is anywhere near as sensitive as mine, she's probably already insulin resistant just from that.

At three.

I am doing EVERYTHING I can to help, but her growth curve has not changed.

I fully expect a lecture from the ped at her check-up, but we've already made the easy cuts, there is no juice or chips or bread or pasta in her diet. I've put her in soccer, ice skating, swimming, dance and she has PT as well for a weak leg. Go for walks, run etc... Nothing has helped.

The next step would be very low carb, which I am reluctant to do at the age of 3.

F

I also wanted to mention... I don't know how "non-scientific" your theory is, but this is something Gary Taubes touches on in Why We Get Fat. He explains that babies are being born fatter - and, there has been an uptick in obese 6 month olds. He surmises that the higher blood sugar levels of the mother do have a significant impact on the pancreas of the developing infant, resulting in a predisposition to fatten.

If you haven't read this book yet, you really should!

You all probably won't be shocked to hear how difficult it truly is to rid your home of HFCS when you have families who don't live 100% LC.

Yogurt is one that boggles my mind. The only yogurts that I find without HFCS are usually the organic brands (not universal) and very few of them even offer anything but 0% fat versions.

I bought a loaf of bread for my family that advertises No-HFCS. It has 17 ingredients and that's not counting the supplementation vitamins. 17!

This leads me to believe that even when most non-LC are being "good" (meaning they are striving to have a low-fat, low-calorie day), they are still eating some of the things we as LCer's wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.

I don't even know if it's a matter of being low-fat or low-carb. I think it's more of a whole food problem. We have one f'd up society when the one big national chain that focuses on unprocessed foods is lovingly referred to as "whole paycheck." (Whole Foods.) Seriously... why does it cost less to buy food that has undergone processing? I don't understand it. Why can I buy 64 ounces of apple juice for 99 cents, when a 3# bag of apples runs $3? One would think that the more processed a food is, the higher the cost.

Getting back to the fat dancers - I taught dance in the 90s and my classes were thin, but one spring a handfull girls got jobs at the local Fudruckers when it opened in our town. They literally balloned over night - It was the most astonishing thing I've ever seen. Fudruckers is known for its over sized hamburgers and shakes. Anyway, my point is I think it is accessibly to large portions and cheep junk food that is primary cause. Remember the days before microwaves? You actually had to put effort into preparing food.

I speak from a different perspective, as a mother of 2 girls, 14 & 6:
I am (almost) 35, so went to school in the 80's & was the FAT kid. It was hell. I was obese in third grade & the ONLY fat kid in the entire school - besides the child with down syndrom...so I vowed to NEVER let my kids become that.
How did I get fat? Combination of guilty working parents and horrible child care (my sibling was the primary care taker and would lock me in the basement with a box of twinkies and a pitcher of Kool Aid all day). I was 6/7/8 years old when this happened & balooned to 200+ by 4th grade. Then I took control and lost about 30/40 #'s before I started high school. Fought to lose weight ever since...
My girls are both average weight - when D14 is active with school sports she stays really slim. We were worried when she was in 3rd/4th grade - she got pretty chubby, but lost it when puberty hit. She's 5'5 and is around 135. She knows from my horror stories she's going to have to be careful. She eats a very SAD though - pop tarts, toaster strudels, ramen noodles - oh, and chicken nuggets. The thing is, right now at least, she basically IF's and eats everything between 3 - 7 at night. and for those who may be gasping in horror that I have that stuff in my house..well, I am married & the husband wants it - so even though I don't buy it, he does.
D6 is actually in the 15/20 % range for her weight to height and is small boned, like me. She is my meat/veggie/fruit lover and wants those for meals as opposed to heavy pastas, etc. BUT, here is another way the school system screw up - I can't send anything from home that has to be heated up. D6 loves leftover bbq chicken/pork but I was asked not to send it with her anymore b/c it can't be heated. She gets school lunch once a week. She can't take nut products to school, so gets turkey/ham.
Neither of my girls drink much soda - D6 hardly at all (a sip of dads once in a blue moon). Neither drink juice frequently either. I noted at a birthday party this past weekend D6 didn't seem to care for the nasty barrel juice drinks being offered - she would rather have water. I really wonder how much effect the extra calories/sugar/HFCS in drinks alone have on more kids being overweight?

I think we're starting to see the effects of the Food Pyramid Guide's high carb/high sugar dogma and everything associated with it for the past 20 - 30 years. It has had a drastic influence on how everyone eats and what food companies put out there for us to buy.

Although I'm fat now I wasn't fat when I was a kid or teenager and neither were my siblings. Fat kids were rare. Now I see them everywhere and I just know they will be miserable adults.

I have a friend whose nephew lives on junk. His mother will fix seafood dishes, steaks, homemade fried chicken and potato salad and he turns his nose up at it. He will only eat McDonald's or KFC. I have older cousins who were the same way with their own mother - a good cook who could cook up a storm when it came to southern food. But nope, they wanted McDonald's and Burger King. They all have major health issues now. Worse than mine.

Not to mention - most restaurant jobs are physically taxing!

Makes you wonder - was it the food? Or the Coke/Pepsi products on tap (and presumably, free?)

That is why it blew my mind - Plus your point about dance - it is very physicially taxing - they never stopped moving in my class and I stepped in up that spring when I saw the weight gain, thinking they need the exercise. I didn't know about Fudrucker gig until one of them was talking about swapping shifts with another, then the light bulb went on. It was all I could do to say, "so that is why you 3 have gained so much weight" but I wasn't that bold back then. They told me they got all they wanted to eat / drink for free, so they took advantage.

I've also noticed that a lot of people - adults, even - would rather eat junk than good food. A few years ago I was roommates with a couple of friends for a while. I was already working on my weight problem by learning to cook so I could make healthier food for myself. I kept inviting my roommates to join me, but instead of fish en papillote or beef stew, they wanted Arby's takeout or leftover pizza.

I do believe that faulty immune issues are at the heart of some of this. I was one of a couple fat kids in my grade school, and that was it. But when I was in high school I had a bad reaction to an MMR vaccine and I seemed to gain thirty pounds overnight right afterwards. It took me years and years to recover from my immune system being compromised. We have a generation of kids getting twice as many vaccines as we did when we were kids - new ones and added boosters. Babies get the Hep B shot when they are less than 24 hours old. More and more kids are living with juvenile diabetes, arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, they have more and more chemicals being added to every area of their lives. Increased levels of medication that cause weight gain are probably another culprit. I think gaining weight is just another manifestation of these assaults on basic health. If you are sick half the year, you are going to gain weight.

It seems like the consensus of this discussion is that although we do not know exactly what has caused the child/teen obesity problem, it is not just a matter of eating more and moving less. We all seem to agree that something has gone seriously awry that goes beyond a lack of physical activity or eating bigger portions. I am not saying that those two things have not contributed to the problem, but I am dubious as to whether they are the only cause of the problem.

I think what we are starting to see is the end result of a three generation cummulative effect of a bad food environment. I'll use my own family as an example to show what I mean. My mother was born in 1949. My brother was born in 1974. His daughter was born in 1998. They are all normal weight, but imagine that they are all fat. Likely the person born in 1949 was thin throughout childhood, teen years and most of adulthood. The person born in 1974 was likely thin in childhood and teen years but maybe starting getting fat in their mid 20s or early 30s. Now, the person born in 1998 is sarting to get fat in their teen years (even if they had a thin childhood). The person born in 2011 now is starting their life out as a fat person.

Something is happening either genetically or in utero to cause this and our food environment is is making the problem way, way worse. Obviously, what we are talking about here are just our own observations, but I think they still have merit. We are all surprised how many fat teenage girls there are. Not one person who commented here said that they have not noticed this problem.

Alas, all these girls will be told to do is drink low-fat milk and exercise. (which they already do)