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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #103: The rise in childhood obesity during Covid

Find all previously published facts here.

Nearly one in five American children, ages 2-19, are obese – leaving the United States with the highest child obesity in the world (see chart below from this OECD report). And the weight gain has continued under Covid. A Kaiser Permanente study published last month, and based on the electronic health records of nearly 200,000 young people in southern California showed that children ages 5-11 gained five more pounds during Covid than they did in the pre-Covid period. There was also a nearly 24 percent increase in the share of children 5-11 who were overweight or obese. The weight gain was “shocking and worse than I expected,” a physician and child obesity specialist not involved with the study told the New York Times.