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Since the mid-1970s, the number of fast food restaurants in the United States has more than doubled to reach approximately 300,000 establishments. In the same time span, the prevalence of obesity and obesity-related complications and illnesses such as arthritis, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, gall bladder disease, stroke, and heart disease have increased correspondingly. Over the last four decades, the number of obese children and adolescents aged between 6 and 19 has more than tripled, while that of obese adults has increased from a half to two-thirds of the population. Today, approximately 17 percent of young population, equivalent of 12.7 million children and adolescents aged between 6 and 19, are obese. Similarly, about 34.9 percent or an equivalent of 78.6 million of American adults are obese. With these statistics, obesity has been declared a public health challenge because it is associated with adverse clinical outcomes and vast financial expenditures. For example, in