Bonita F. Stanton, MD, Consulting Editor

And then, beginning in the twentieth century, the whole paradigm on which this exquisite system was based changed. For most citizens in industrialized nations and a large proportion of those in emerging and nonindustrialized nations, calories have become too abundant. Rather than needing mechanisms to protect and enhance internal food storage, our bodies are faced with an inability to expend a sufficient proportion of consumed calories. Without sufficient time to adapt, our bodies continue to follow the only script that they have—the script that they have mastered over the millennia to preserve at great effort these calories. And thus, the epidemic of obesity was born and is flourishing.

Certainly there is no easy answer to this problem. The more we learn about the cause of obesity and the body’s responses, the less sanguine we become about simple dieting measures and/or medicinal approaches as being sufficient to address the problem.

The articles in this issue are very important for practicing pediatricians. The articles provide a solid background to understand the complexities involved in preventing and treating obesity and a wide array of approaches that are available. Moreover, they provide detailed descriptions of programmatic approaches to working with children and families who are impacted and/or may be impacted. This issue enables the practitioner to move far beyond simply recommending dieting and empowers him or her to be an active, informed partner in supporting and guiding a child’s and family’s campaign to overcome and/or avoid obesity.