Latino Childhood Obesity: Overweight Kids Do Not Think They Weigh Too Much, Study Finds

Obesity is a public health epidemic that impacts both adults and children -- the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed, as published in JAMA Pediatrics, that one out of every three children in the U.S. is considered overweight or obese. According to findings from Arizona State University, Hispanics in the U.S. have high obesity rates, with an estimated 55 percent qualifying to fit in that category. But a new study has some interesting findings surrounding how children perceive their weight.

Conducted by the CDC, the new study found that heavy and obese children did not view themselves as such -- they saw themselves as having a normal weight. This "misperception" was more commonly found in African America and Mexican-American children (34 percent) than their Caucasian peers (28 percent). Other findings from the study, include: roughly 50 percent of obese boys and more than 33 percent of obese girls believed they were at a normal rate and most children with misperceived weight status' hailed from lower-income families.

Recently, a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examining weight gain amongst students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds over the summer has made a surprising finding: Hispanic children are more likely to put on weight during vacation than their peers of other races.

The CDC's analysis -- which looked at seven studies -- also found the accelerated summer weight pattern amongst African-American youth and those children and adolescents who are already overweight and obese. With summer around the corner, the "observed negative effects of summer vacation on weight gain" in the Hispanic youth population is a troubling find.

"This is exactly what I see all the time," Dr. Keith Ayoob, associate professor of clinical pediatrics and director of the Nutrition Clinic at the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said to CBS News. "I work with a lot of African-American and Hispanic children who are of low-income, inner-city minority population. They are home a lot more, they eat a lot more because they have exposure at home and they're less active. They get to do all their leisure activities that are sedentary."