The statistics do appear frightening: as of 2002, 16% of children aged 6 to 11 were considered overweight, the same percentage as those 12 to 19. As recently as 1980, the levels were less than half that: 7% for 6- to 11-year-olds, and 5% for 12- to 19-year-olds. In fact, while the number of overweight children in the U.S. remained relatively unchanged during the 1960s through 1980, the number has increased sharply in recent national estimates. Furthermore, in 2002, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warned that another 15% of children were at risk of becoming overweight.
While the rising number of calories in children's diets is an easy target, Mintel contends that is only part of the equation. Calories have been on the rise since the 1970s, but the quality of them has declined, which Mintel illustrates by noting the “soaring per capita consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, gallons of soft drinks consumed, or number of meals eaten away from home.” Complicating matters has been an increasingly distorted view of portion sizes, a factor in adult obesity levels as well.