While the nation has made a good beginning toward helping Americans slim down, there is still a lot to be done. This was the result of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Americans have cut back on smoking, but now it is time they face up to their obesity epidemic. Being fat is not just the problem of the individual person: it is a societal one, the study concluded.Environment is powerful, according to a scientist with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"We have over embraced, as a nation, a personal responsibility explanation for the obesity problem," Tracey Orleans believes.

While more than forty states now have laws about nutrition, and many school districts have changed their policies to serve healthier foods to children, a lot more needs to be done. The study looked at many new ideas for the future such as having restaurants post nutritional information, regulating food ads beamed at children, setting up more farmers' markets, raising taxes on soda and junk foods, and conducting more research into whether sugar sets up an addictive process.

Kathryn Foxhall, author of the study, wrote that a combination of many factors has caused Americans to become fatter. Reasons like too much television watching, too many vending machines, too many convenience foods, larger portion sizes, and an inactive lifestyle all come into play. However, she notes that just 100 extra calories per day per person would be enough to cause the obesity epidemic. One small soda, one extra slice of bread or half of a chocolate bar is enough to make a person gain weight over time.

This means that tiny changes in how much we eat and exercise can make a big difference. The study concluded that Americans have to figure out how to make such changes on a national level.

Restaurants are serving much bigger portions than they did thirty years ago, according to a study from New York University's Department of Nutrition. Everything the food industry makes has gotten bigger: hamburgers, sodas, muffins, bagels, chocolate bars, etc. The only food that has remained the same size over time is sliced bread.

Drs. Lisa Young and Marion Nestle, authors of the study, sampled foods made for "immediate consumption" from take-out places, fast food chains, and family style restaurants. They compared today’s portions to portions served in the past and standard portions set by government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration. They found that sizes of portions began to increase in the 1970s, rose sharply in the 1980s and continue to increase. Foods like muffins, pasta, steaks and bagels have grown 200% to 700% bigger than standard portion size.

The trend to bigger portions may have something to do with the fact that Americans are eating out more than ever. Food eaten outside the home was 34% of the food budget in 1970; today it is 47%. Restaurants compete for diners by offering more food for the money.

"Restaurants are using larger dinner plates; bakers are selling larger muffin tins, pizzerias are using larger pans, and fast food companies are using larger drink and French fry containers," the researchers wrote. They conclude that larger portions contribute to America's obesity epidemic.

This study appeared in the February 2002 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Overweight children have more surgery and experience more complications from their operations than normal weight children, according to a new study at the University of Michigan Health System.

Researchers studied the records of 6017 children who had surgery at the University of Michigan hospitals between 2000 and 2004. More than a third of them were overweight; half of those were obese. Many of the surgeries that the heavier children underwent had to do with being overweight, such operations for breathing problems, sleep apnea, and digestive issues.

The researchers also found that overweight children who had surgery experienced more complications, usually because of health problems associated with obesity and formerly diagnosed only in adults. For example, overweight children were more likely to be diabetic, which made them more prone to infections.

Michigan has one of the nation's highest rates of obesity, which means that what holds true there may not be the same in every other state. This study appears in the February 2007 Journal of the National Medical Association.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, gastric bypass, obesity surgery, overweight children, weight loss surgery

If you are living with children, you are more likely to eat junk food. In fact, the extra fat you eat equals about one personal pan pizza per week.

Researchers at the University of Michigan went through 6,600 "food diaries" kept by adults over a 24-hour period. They found that adults living with children under age 17 years ate almost five more grams of fat per day than adults without children in their households. Unfortunately, about half the extra fat was the saturated kind that leads to heart disease.

The author of the study, Dr. Helena Laroche said that "these dietary choices may be due to time pressures, advertising at children that includes adults, or adults’ perception that children will eat only hot dogs or macaroni and cheese... Once these foods are in the house, even if bought for children, adults appear more likely to eat them."

The new study was one of the first to show that children influence adult food choices as well as the other way around. This study appears in the January/February 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Concerned about what parents were really giving their children when they handed them a juice box, Roberta Greenspan, founder and CEO of Maddie's Beverage Company, set out to develop a healthy kid's beverage. The result was Wateroos, water-filled drink boxes which have no sugar, artificial ingredients or sweeteners and no calories. Wateroos is the only children's water beverage available in flavored and unflavored choices and come packaged in colorful and playful drink boxes. During Greenspan's research she was astounded to find how confusing labels can be.

"I believe that reading beverage labels - and more importantly understanding what that information means from a nutritional standpoint - is critical," said Greenspan. "Parents need to see past the product's marketing hype and read the label so they can make an informed decision about whether that beverage is something they want their children to drink."

Greenspan offers Five Tips for reading understanding nutrition labels online.

When you take your family out to eat, don't be shy or embarrased when asking to have dishes prepared with less fat or for other special requests. Ask to have salad dressing "on the side" or substitute a baked potato for fries. And if you're not sure about something on the menu, don't be afraid to ask for more clarification, such as:

• How is the food prepared?


• Are the cuts of meat lean?


• What kind of sauces come with your meal?


• Are the ingredients loaded with sodium?

Read more from Yahoo Health.

Pediatricians are reports more foot and ankle pain from their overweight and obese patients.

"Overweight children can have arch problems, fractures and inflammation, as well as bunions, flat feet and problems with the bones in the feet connecting properly. And having foot problems makes it even harder for kids to lose weight because it's more difficult to be active."

Learn more online.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, foot pain, obese teens, weight loss

Now that the obesity epidemic is affecting infants and toddlers, parents need to rethink the notion that chubby cheeked babies are cute and happy. Studies have proven that overweight and obese kids grow into unhealthy teenagers and adults.

"One study carried out in Massachusetts compared the weights of babies in 1980 and in 2000. The percentage of babies who were overweight at less than 6 months of age had quadrupled, from 1.4 percent in 1980 to 5.9 percent in 2000. Among children between 6 months and 2 years in 2000, a bigger proportion were overweight than in the 1980 group, but the percentage increase was smaller at this age."

Now doctors and specialists need to find ways to help young babies from gaining too much weight because dieting isn't the best answer. Read more from Yahoo Health.

An article from CalorieLab.com says that the gene that regulates the hormone leptin, which helps regulate food intake, "may be to blame for some cases of childhood obesity." The article sites a report in the New England Journal of Medicine which found that some people who became obese early in life have mutations that didn’t allow their bodies to recognize leptin.

Forbes.com reported that researchers from Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine found overweight or obese children "have significantly higher health-care costs than their normal weight peers...The overweight and obese children used significantly more laboratory services than did their healthy weight peers."

New results from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Growth and Health Study suggest that girls as young as age 9 who are overweight are at increased risk for short-term and long-term problems that increase the chances of developing cardiovascular disease. More than 2,300 girls ages 9 and 10 were enrolled in the study and followed for more than 10 years. Researchers measured participants' height, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol annually through age 18, and obtained self-reported measures at ages 21 to 23.

"Childhood Overweight and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors: The National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute Growth and Health Study," will be published in the January issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. The study was funded by NHLBI, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, all components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Researchers found that the girls were more than 1.6 times more likely to become overweight during ages 9 to 12 years than in later adolescence. Importantly, those who were overweight were more likely to have elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels compared to girls who were not overweight. In addition, girls who were overweight during childhood were 11 to 30 times more likely than non-overweight girls to be obese in young adulthood (ages 21 to 23).

The study also provides insight into differences between African-American and Caucasian girls. Black girls were 1.5 times more likely to become overweight at any given age than white girls. In addition, from ages 9 through 18, the prevalence of overweight was greater among black girls (from 17 percent to 24 percent), compared to white girls (7 percent to 10 percent).

Doctors at Johns Hopkins and other medical institutions have noticed a curious, if not alarming, increase in children with kidney stones. The painful condition may be a consequence of America's dependence on processed foods with a high-salt content.

The childhood obesity epidemic already has resulted in a dramatic rise in cases of Type 2 diabetes among young children. Fats and sugar are the main culprits in childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes - and the kidney stones may be the result of the other problem with fast food - too much salt. Though kidney stones are still not commonly found among children, specialists who once saw only a handful of cases each year now diagnose many times that number.

"'Five years ago, we used to see maybe a handful of children a year, maybe five or six,' said Dr. Yegappan Lakshmanan, a pediatric urologist at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. 'Now, it's five or six a month. Some are repeat patients, but it's definitely a trend.'"

Kidney stones, once found almost exclusively in adults, are tiny mineral deposits that can cause excruciating pain when they lodge in the urinary tract.

John Hopkins has even established a pediatric kidney stone clinic because of the increased incidence in children, as have the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee and the Harvard-affiliated Children's Hospital in Boston.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, fast food, fast_food, overweight children