Childhood obesity is primarily caused by eating more than the recommended daily number of calories and not moving enough to burn them off. If this problem is not addressed appropriately, many countries will lose their intelligent, talented and potential leaders, according to the Youth Engagement Guide. Obesity is the accumulation of abnormal or excessive fat that will present risks later in the child's adult life. Pediatric obesity is one of the major lifestyle problems in modern society. It has tripled since the 1980s due to the increasing sedentary lifestyle of children. According to a study carried out by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2010, a third of children and adolescents worldwide are overweight. The UK government is encouraging more methods to reduce childhood obesity. As the University of Cambridge reported in an article, many steps have been taken to change the composition of school meals and the availability of snacks. The Scottish Government is working to continue promoting balanced, healthy and nutritious school meals by continuing to support schools to make school lunches more attractive and collaborations have been established with local businesses to promote lower energy foods and less dense. A study conducted by Veughlers (2000), on students in schools and programs developed based on healthy eating plans, showed lower levels of overweight and obese students. The results collected in the study showed that the contributing factors were linked to a consistent healthy diet and regular physical activity. Therefore, cooperation on physical activity in schools is encouraged as positive results are produced in the future and there is a massive reduction in chronic habits...... middle of paper . ..... and exercise. Childhood obesity remains a huge problem. challenge for the nation. I believe that parents play an important role in raising a young child. What the parent accepts or refuses when the child is an infant will have a positive or negative impact on their children's later lives. References http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/302783/0094795. pdf http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00392688.pdf http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009618/Junk-food-marketed-children-social-media- using-online-games.html http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips/gene-mutation-makes-you-fat http://www.medicaldaily.com/obesity-linked- mrap2-gene-mutation-mice-1-humans-marking-first-genetic-explanation-illness-247792 http://www.med.nagoya-u.ac.jp/english01/dbps_data/_material_/nu_medical_en/_res/ResearchTopics /MRAP2_20130719fr.pdf