Researchers claim that childhood obesity has risen dramatically, with 1 in 5 kids today being either overweight or obese. Unfortunately, a lot of these overweight kids are victims of a lack of balanced home prepared meals due to the busy lifestyles of parents, whom are probably not eating wisely themselves.

Fast food style restaurants are more concerned with their bottom line rather than feeding the consumer with an inexpensive, healthy, low calorie tasty meal. Kids and parents keep going back for more since it fills you up, taste good and it's affordable.

Fast food is a poor persons worst enemy when it comes to a healthy daily meal, since a persons hunger pangs can be relieved for under five bucks.

The adolescence of today are facing the perfect storm for becoming overweight or obese with the poor eating habits and the absence of daily vigorous activity. Parents need to prevent their kids from ever needing to lose weight so they aren't faced with health and social problems later on in adulthood.

Parents need to set a good example for their children and apply healthy living to their own lifestyles and emphasize the importance of eating properly and making exercise and physical activity a part of their own daily lives.

Obesity wasn't an issue in past generations, if a child wasn't helping with the many chores that needed to be done, they were out on the street or on the ball field playing fun cardiovascular, stamina type sports and games, but today most children find television and computer games a way of life.

With half of American families not having a sit down meal, many kids have to make their own food decisions when they get hungry, so they are left to the mercy of what ever is in the fridge or cabinets, or have money for a five dollar meal. If there is one stay at home parent, then providing consistent balanced healthy food and physical activity is essential.

One bright spot is that the schools are finally beginning to realize they can play an important role in curbing the childhood obesity epidemic and have made tremendous progress in offering more healthy, nutritional foods according to the results of the 2006 School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) released October 19, 2007.

The foods parents provide at home can echo what the schools are offering with more fruits and vegetables, more whole grain products and less high fat foods and soda pop. Also, only 18.8% of schools offer deep-fried potatoes, down dramatically from 40.0% in 2000.

Tips: Prepare healthy meals ahead of the school week that are full of the daily needed nutrients and elliminate all the bad food stuff such as deep fried potatoes and other high fat products. Cold whole grain cereal or oatmeal for breakfast and large salads sprinkled with whole grain and protein rich meat for dinner is one easy method and have delicious fruit for dessert. Reduce or eliminate cookies, candy cola, cake and chips, or be creative and find a recipe for whole grain desserts.

If you can't get the kids into sports at school or organized sports outside the class room, make the kids start the day with some stretching and calisthenics and replace some of the sedentary TV and computer time with fun, physical, heart pumping activities, or for every hour infront of the TV or computer, make the kids do ten minutes of physical activity. Remember, kids also need to expel more calories than they consume during the day if they are going to avoid weight problems.

The children of today are at the mercy of the parents and adults to show them the dangers of eating poorly and all the health issues that can arise at an early age of adulthood, including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and even premature death.

Research: One study found that 25% of obese adults were overweight as children and if being overweight begins before the age of 8 years, obesity in adulthood is likely to be more severe. Source: Centers For Disease Control (CDC)

One study conducted by Pamela Salsberry, Ph.D., lead author and an associate professor at OSU, noted that andquot;there's a very good chance that an overweight child will stay overweight for the rest of his or her lifeandquot;. andquot; A child who is overweight by her second birthday is more likely to be overweight at a later age. Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Balancing the calories from foods and beverages and the calories being used everyday is paramount for health and wellness.

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