Take a Hike

In Take a Hike, Duane D. Freese explains that "It's what kids do, not what adults say, that matters regarding obesity:

Research shows TV advertising aimed at kids — in terms of dollars spent by the industry, minutes on TV and actually attention paid to it by youngsters — has gone down even as childhood obesity has gone from 11% in the period 1988-90 to 16% in the 1999-2002 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

As Todd Zywicki, a former FTC director of policy planning and now a George Mason University law professor who examined research on child advertising and obesity said, 'The case for saying advertising is the cause of increasing obesity in children is pretty weak.'

A recent Lancet study explains the real problem: kids aren't active anymore.

Just two to five hours of brisk walking a week — 17 to 43 minutes a day — would prevent girls gaining 9 to 20 pounds, according to the study.