Germany and the United States led the way at 90 percent, with Britain and Australia the lowest at about 50 percent, the researchers said, urging governments to limit such marketing in order to combat obesity.

The banquet hall at Embassy Suites in Arcadia is decked out in heavy dose of pink-and-black 1950s regalia, and some of the revelers have dressed the part. Elvis scans the buffet offerings, while the Pink Ladies, in true clique fashion, have a seat at a table in the back corner.

Near the podium, a decorative high note shouts to be noticed. Reaching from the floor nearly up to the ceiling, it's a giant tower of balloons in the shape of hot-pink ice-cream cone, complete with multicolor sprinkles.

But those sobering statistics are not the only reason that Mickey McCabe was prompted to initiate the region's inaugural Walk Against Obesity, scheduled for Saturday at Otsiningo Park in the Town of Dickinson.

What parent hasn't occasionally felt as though getting his or her children to eat healthy is a losing battle?

Maybe after a long day at work, you succumbed to your screaming toddler's demand for one of those candy bars stocked within easy reach at the supermarket checkout line. Or you've given up trying to find a children's menu that isn't populated with fried chicken fingers, mac and cheese and other fatty choices.

JoAnne Zoller Wagner's diagnosis as prediabetic wasn't enough to compel her to change her habits and lose 30 pounds. Not even with the knowledge her sister had died because of diabetes.

"I didn't have that sense of urgency," said the Pasadena, Md., woman.

But nine months later, doctors told Wagner her condition had worsened. She, too, now had Type 2 diabetes.

That scared her into action.

Moderate calorie restriction causes temporal changes in the liver and skeletal muscle metabolism, whereas moderate weight loss affects muscle, according to a new study in Gastroenterology, the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.