2306 children starting school in Augsburg, Germany had their age, sex, weight, and height recorded. Their parents had to answer a questionnaire covering sporting activity, amount of television watched, and eating behavior. 13% suffered from overweight and 5% were obese. This is a marked increase in the prevalence of overweight in children. Almost two thirds of Turkish and Russian speaking children watched one to three hours of television per day about twice as many as Germans. The eating habits of the Turkish children were particularly striking. Only 12.4% had five meals a day the lowest of any group.