Last May I reported the U.S. childhood obesity rates may be at a plateau. Time will tell, but numbers coming in from the 2008 California Physical Fitness Test show students are improving, even if slightly. That's cause for a smile.

This test measures six fitness areas and is given to students in grades five, seven and nine. In California, all three grades showed a slight year-to-year increase, with ninth graders realizing a 5.5 percent increase of students reaching the Healthy Fitness Zone across all six requirements. Think about it, that's one more fit student out of every 20, not bad. One expert reported this kind of jump had not been seen in several years. Check out California's comprehensive results here.

Yet let's face it, only about one-third of California students achieved six Healthy Fitness Zone scores (28.5 percent of fifth graders, 32.9 percent of seventh-graders and 35.6 percent of ninth-graders). Not so smiley results.

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There's new evidence the childhood obesity epidemic may be leveling off. The past three decades have been an utter disaster in terms of childhood obesity, with the percentage of obese six-to-11-year-olds rising from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 16.3 percent in 2002. Currently, 32 percent of American schoolchildren are overweight or obese.

After analyzing 1999-2006 survey data, researchers with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report the level of overweight and obese schoolchildren in America has plateaued at around 32 percent. The rates have remained constant for the first time in 45 years. It's not clear whether kids have simply gotten as heavy they're going to get under current lifestyle habits or if family, school and community interventions to eat right and exercise are making a difference. Some wonder whether a 'fat ceiling' could be a false ceiling -- researchers acknowledge more time and data are required before the obesity rate is definitively deemed stable.

As a fan of fitness and nutrition, I'd like to think advocacy for healthier living is strongly pushing back against obesity's four-decade rising tide. But that's the optimist in me. The hearts of advocacy organizations such as The Alliance for a Healthier Generation must be enjoying a lighthearted moment right now -- AHG's immediate goal was to halt the rise of childhood obesity by 2010. But the moment must be brief as our nation has an immense amount of work to do -- 32 percent is no number to celebrate. In the 1960s, childhood obesity stood in the single digits.

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