Overweight kids likely to be fat adults.

• Position: Adolescent Obesity - Brief Article

More than 2,000,000 adolescents become obese and 1,500,000 remain so as they grow into adulthood, concludes a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. "This research highlights the critical nature of the adolescent and young adult period for developing and continuing obesity," warns Penny Gordon-Larsen, assistant professor of nutrition at the Schools of Public Health and Medicine and a fellow at the Carolina Population Center. "During that transitional period, the proportion of adolescents becoming and remaining obese is particularly high. Preventive and treatment efforts are [vitally] needed.

"Our key findings include the large incidence of obesity, particularly among black and Hispanic females. As most people know by now...