The Threat From Within

If you're a parent, like me, this is scary stuff. It can paralyze us, or we can do something about it. It doesn't matter if you're from a Red State or a Blue State, this is a profoundly human issue that transcends ideology and politics.

The good news is that childhood obesity is almost completely preventable. And we don't have to wait for a new drug or technology. We just have to put into practice what we already know. Now, imagine you have an intervention that can help cure childhood obesity. It doesn't cost anything, it's playful, fun and easy to learn, and the only side effects are good ones.

It's called exercise.

Obesity, childhood and otherwise, is an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, calories in and calories out. While several factors affect this equation, the ones we have the most control over are what we eat and how much we exercise.

In my earlier NEWSWEEK columns , I described what you and your kids can eat to stay healthy and wrote about efforts to make healthier beverages, snacks and foods available in schools. Here, I want to focus on the exercise part of the equation.

With the rise in videogames and the lack of exercise in schools, fitness is going down and fatness is going up. I was shocked to learn that only one state in the country-Illinois-mandates physical education in schools. That's pitiful.