America is in serious trouble when it comes to the nation's health. A new study has devastating figures for children in particular. By looking at height and weight information gathered between 1999 and 2016, Duke researchers found that not only is childhood obesity consistently increasing, it's becoming more severe.

The largest spikes were seen in preschool-aged boys and teenage girls. Dr. Joseph Skelton, one of the study's authors, joined "Salon Now" to examine the figures and talk about what we can do to address the problem. "I think it's easier to put up websites and billboards and healthy messages than it is to work with families to change how they interact over food, to teach cooking skills, to change the food that we serve in schools," Skelton said. "This is gonna be a long-term battle".