Nine-year-old Katy lives in an apartment with her divorced mother on a busy street. While Katy's mother, Peggy, is working full time, Katy comes home from school and immediately sits on the couch to eat chocolate chip cookies because she does not have a yard to play in. Only two times a week does Katy get physical education at school. Peggy tries to teach her daughter about the importance of nutrition, but she simply has no time to set an example for her. Over the next few years, Peggy notices that children's sizes no longer fit Katy and she finds herself buying clothes that would fit a fifteen to sixteen-year-old.
Like Katy, many children are finding themselves becoming obese. According to Leonard Epstein and Sally Squires, in America ten to thirty percent of eight to eighteen year olds are obese; in addition, one in every five children aged six to eleven is obese (13).
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