As many of my regular viewers to this web blog know, there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity. I post daily here about it, whether news print articles, opinions, feedback, or just personal opinion.

Recently, I wrote an article for Yahoo! (click here) about childhood obesity. I started searching for sources for this article, and received over 100 responses to the question, “What do you think caused the rise in childhood obesity?” Responses came from professional and Olympic athletes, fitness experts, health experts, nutritionist, and parents.

I was unable to use everyone’s feedback, but thought it would be great to post some of their responses on my blog in a new web series, “What Causes Childhood Obesity.” I hope that you enjoy the opinions here from various individuals. Please remember, my including their posts does not necessarily mean I agree or endorse their opinion, rather, a place to share other people’s thoughts.

One thing that I believe you need to look at carefully, especially when comparing with historical data, is the change in definition of obesity. From decades ago, obesity was determined by standard height-and-weight charts; those charts could be converted to BMI to get a range of values from then. Also, the definition of obesity as defined by BMI has been changed over the past few years.

Gerald R. Campbell, Ph.D.