Oxnard, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 09/27/2007 -- Information from the Centers for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov) indicate that nearly 20% of children aged 12 to 19 in the United States are obese or overweight. This is a striking increase from previous years when the percentage was only 5%. Obesity increases the risk of many health problems such as diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. These health conditions mean that many of today’s children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.

In response to these troubling tendencies Marna Goldstein and Kim Hiatt, Ph.D., thoroughly researched the problem and found out that diets, pills, and surgeries may not be the right approach to resolve childhood obesity. They formed Thin From Within Kids (www.thinfromwithinkids.com) to help overweight children through the power of the Internet, multimedia, and books. Their approach focuses on changing the belief systems that stand in the way of losing weight.

As a teenager, Goldstein struggled to lose weight until her freshman year in college. Then she began researching the "naturally thin"-- those individuals who maintain a thin weight. What she found astonished her and her own weight began dropping off when she began applying the secrets she learned. Goldstein went from a size 16 to a size 8 without dieting, deprivation, or weighing and measuring food.

Hiatt completed her Ph.D. in the area of childhood obesity. During her dissertation research, Kim was astonished to find that the current weight loss methods for treating children do not work and actually harm children and teens by triggering binge eating, low self-and body-esteem, and weight cycling. Dr. Hiatt is dedicated to transforming how weight loss and weight maintenance for children is conducted. Further, she is dedicated to helping all children transform their bodies and body-esteem through Goldstein and Hiatt’s proven cutting-edge method.

Programs like Thin From Within Kids are a response to calls from the International Obesity Task Force to correct the global epidemic of overweight children. A report published by the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity indicates that nearly half of the children in North and South America, more than one third in the European Union, and one fifth in China will be overweight by 2010. The percentages of overweight children in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Egypt also are expected to rise significantly.