Welcome to Public Health moment from the University of Minnesota. Rates of childhood obesity have tripled over the last 30 years, with one third of American children currently overweight or obese. Many factors contribute to this problem, but a key one is the way in which industry markets junk food to children. Nutrition expert Mary Story, a professor at the University of Minnesota, says that the US food and Beverage industry spends $2,000,000,000 a year marketing foods to kids. Most of this is for foods and beverages that are high in calories, fats, and added sugars. And there's very few ads for fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foods. The Institute of Medicine in 2006 released a report on food marketing to children. And they concluded that marketing practices are out of balance with a healthful diet and create an environment that puts our children's health at risk. Recently story briefed members of Congress on this topic and others call for industry to make changes and also for the creation of federal, state, and local policies to curb these marketing practices. What needs to happen is that we need to reduce unhealthy food marketing to children. We need to protect our children from unhealthy food marketing and help them improve their overall diets for public health moment on Mark Gabon.