In the modern era, our society has been confronted with a variety of terrible epidemics, ranging from AIDS and mad cow disease to Ebola and the infamous bird 'flu. We seem to have found antidotes for the oldest demons that have been plaguing us for centuries, only to find that new, more powerful such afflictions have emerged. However, one of the scariest epidemics of the 20th and 21st century has nothing to do with terrifying viruses, but rather with our choices regarding lifestyle and nutrition - which doesn't make it any less harmful and its consequences any less dramatic. I'm talking about the obesity epidemic that's sweeping modern society, and which is particularly visible in children.

Growing appetite for fast-food, too little exercise and unhealthy school meals have led to the appearance of the so-called couch potato lifestyle, a combination of harmful factors and influences that have caused child obesity statistics to soar, much to the dismay of health care professionals everywhere. TV dinners have replaced family meals, and rather than running around outside playing, children now prefer staying indoors to play sophisticated video games.

"There is a big industry selling us more TV to watch, more computer games to play, more DVDs to sit and watch. There is a big industry promoting screen watching which is a sedentary behavior and you just get fatter while you do it" explained Dr Tim Lobstein, a member of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

However, we can't shift all of the blame on lenient parents and the aggressive advertising and marketing industry, as it emerges that doctors in countries such as Great Britain and Portugal are treating children as young as two for obesity. Drastic measures have to be taken by doctors in order to cope with this alarming phenomenon - as a result, they often see themselves forced to perform drastic stomach surgery, including gastric banding on children in order to help them get their weight problem under control.

"There are more and more of these children and significant numbers are obese from two or three years old. When I was a pediatrician starting out in 1991, there were very few children overweight but that has changed and we are starting to see complications resulting from this. It is here and we are having to deal with it," Dr. Steve Ryan stated for the Daily Mail.

Obesity in children has also led to a steep climb in the number of young patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes - which was usually a problem common among overweight middle-aged adults. However, increasing numbers of teenagers are now being diagnosed with this condition, to the point where more and more "chubby" children are being fitted with masks in order to make sure they do not suffocate in their sleep.

The couch potato generation is, therefore, a reality, an everyday occurrence rather than a myth or an exaggeration of statistical data. Possible answers to this current crisis could come from a decision to act on a large scale. Some steps, which are already being implemented by national and international authorities, are imposing restrictions on junk food advertising aimed at children, banning junk food vending machines in schools and developing national healthy eating drives, campaigns and other public, large scale initiatives. Whether such measures will prove effective in treating and effectively stopping this profoundly unhealthy trend remains to be seen.