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.

“The single most powerful reason why there is a childhood obesity epidemic in the U.S. is because of negligent parenting along with its sub-category of poor parental modeling of eating choices and activity habits. Other elements of the modern U.S. lifestyle contribute, such as our ‘fast-food’ mentality, our sedentary lifestyle, over-indulgence of children, abandonment of physical education classes in schools, our drug culture, but all of these causal factors pale in comparison to this poor parenting.”

One change that could be made to end the problem: “Families integrating physical activity together into their daily lifestyle along with smart eating.”

Dr. John E. Mayer, a leading authority on families and the author of Family Fit