Question of the Day: Child obesity

Doctors and authors have been sounding the alarm on child obesity for quite a while now, but the rhetoric just went up a few decibels with a report in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity that calls obesity a global epidemic and predicts that almost half of all children in North and South America, more than a third of children in Europe, a fifth of all Chinese children, and higher-than-ever percentage of children in other parts of the world will be overweight by the year 2010. An AP story on the report quotes a British surgeon as saying, "This is going to be the first generation that's going to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. It's like the plague is in town and no one is interested." Are you this concerned about your child's weight and the weight of children in general, or do you think it's all a lot of health-care hot air? How serious do you think childhood obesity really is? Click on an answer below, and use your browser's back button if you want to choose more than one.
1) It's a plague, alright: a biblical punishment for our irresponsible ways.
2) It's an epidemic.
3) It's a serious public-health crisis.
4) It's a problem with the potential to become a crisis.
5) It's a problem, but not a big problem.
6) It's not important enough to make me change how my kids eat and exercise.
7) The more they yell, the less I care.
8) It's just another scare tactic to drum up business for doctors and dieticians.
9) The plague is in town? I'm not interested.
10) Other
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