Obesity rates in American children are falling for the first time http://m.now.msn.com/obesity-rates-in-american-children-are-falling-for-the-first-time

Break out the fruit smoothies, today American kids can celebrate the first drop in childhood obesity for 30 years. OK, it’s not a huge drop, but it shows that nixing school soda machines, unplugging the deep fryer and swapping whole milk for skim is working. The number of obese kids has fallen 5.5 percent in New York City, 5 percent in Philadelphia and 3 percent in Los Angeles. Researchers accustomed to data showing kids were ballooning were so surprised they actually thought the data was flawed. So kids, it’s time to stop whining about Michelle Obama’s lunchtime starvation plan and smile as you squeeze yourself into a pair of skinny jeans instead of an oversized Santa suit this holiday.

If we didn’t have.our obesity problem, we wouldn’t have out diabetus “epidemic” and our long term public health care costs picture looks much rosier. As far as a functioning society goes, having healthy kids gets you a long way closer to that goal.