On today's show, Adrian and Ethan discuss the epidemic proportions of pediatric obesity in America.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem in the United States, putting children and adolescents at risk for poor health.

In the past 3 decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents. Obese and overweight children are at risk for a number of serious health problems such as diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure and heart failure.

Pediatric overweight and obesity now affects more than 30 percent of children, making it the most common chronic disease of childhood.

Families living in poverty have a lot of hurdles up against them, such as less access to fresh, healthy food choices and a disproportionately high number of fast food restaurants, and small grocers and bodegas packed with processed foods, sodas, and canned goods.

In an interview with Gena L. Lewis, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, CA, she revealed that many of the children she sees every day are both overweight and chronically hungry. For many kids she sees, at the end of the month, it’s often a question of eating unhealthy food or going hungry.