Moreover, losing weight to match the media representation of the ideal body is not the only problem that the media has created. As most people know, obesity is a growing problem. Unlike eating disorders, obesity is not something that can be treated as an illness. It is simply an increase in body weight that exceeds a normal, healthy body weight. Although obesity itself is not a disease, it can lead to the development of illnesses and other problems, such as high blood pressure. Not only adults become obese, but also children. Over the past 30 years, the number of obese and overweight children has reached 16%, an increase of 300%. Brownback writes, “The Surgeon General of the United States has identified overweight and obesity as one of the fastest growing causes of illness and death in America” (219). It is truly astonishing that the death rate from obesity has exceeded that from smoking. This increase in childhood obesity is due to the influence of media on children's lives. Today, media specifically targets young children to ensure their loyalty to a product and company as they grow up. Food advertisements encourage children to make unhealthy food choices. Candy commercials are a good example of such advertisements. In the commercials they show a group of kids eating candy and having a good time to make the candy seem like a good thing. This gets the child interested and continues to buy and eat the product. It was observed, after 30 years of experimentation, that “[c]hildren exposed to advertising choose advertised food products in significantly higher proportions than those who are not exposed to them” (Boyce 202). Television shows, video games, and other forms of media all promote Middle of Paper......219-221.JSTOR. Internet. February 20, 2014. Crisp, Arthur H. “A Tale of Corruption,” The British Journal of Psychiatry 180 (2002): 480-482. BJPsych. Internet. February 19, 2014. Harrison, Kristen and Hefner, Veronica. “Media Exposure, Current and Future Body Ideals, and Eating Disorders among Preadolescent Girls: A Longitudinal Panel Study,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 35 (2006): 153-163. KristenHarrison. Internet. February 20, 2014. McNicholas, Fiona et al. “Eating concerns and media influences in an Irish adolescent context,” European Eating Disorders Review 17 (2009): 208-213. Academic research completed. Internet. February 19, 2014. “The role of the media in childhood obesity,” kff.org. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, February 2017. 2004. Internet. February 20, 2014. Walsh, B. Timothy, and Michael J. Devlin. “Eating Disorders: Progress and Problems,” Science280 (1998): 1387-1390. JSTOR. Internet. February 20. 2014.