Childhood Obesity - Do you have an overweight child? We offer tips to help your child lose weight and get fit!

People who feel stressed at work and then come home and "veg out" in front of TV are more likely to be overweight and obese, according to a new study from the University of Rochester Medical Center:

• Dr. Diana Fernandez and her colleagues studied almost 3,000 employees in a large factory in New York, and found that the ones that were working in the most high job strain conditions were heavier than those who worked in more passive areas.
  
• About one third of the people in the study were overweight and another 35 percent were obese, which mirrors the American population in general.
  
• If a person went home and watched more than two hours of television, they were more likely to be obese. Watching four or more hours of TV a day increased the risk of obesity by 150 percent.
  
• Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables did not protect against being overweight, although those who managed to exercise were better able to cope with stress and maintain their weight.

"We are not sure why television is so closely associated with being overweight," Dr. Fernandez said. "Other studies have shown that adults tend to eat more fatty foods while watching television."

Previous studies have identified watching too much television as a potential risk factor for childhood obesity.

This study appeared in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

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Laboratory animals gain more weight when they eat foods sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup rather than table sugar, even when the calories are the same, according to a new study from Princeton University.

Scientists have suspected that high-fructose corn syrup, now a common ingredient in sodas and many other processed foods, may be contributing to the obesity epidemic, but this is the first study to demonstrate cause-and-effect in mammals.

• Professor Bart Hoebel and his colleagues gave laboratory rats drinks sweetened with either corn syrup or table sugar (sucrose).
• The researchers found that that corn syrup group gained more weight, especially belly fat.
  
• In a second experiment, rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight and developed metabolic syndrome, although those on a normal diet did not.

"These rats aren't just getting fat -- they are demonstrating characteristics of obesity, including substantial increases in abdominal fat and circulating triglycerides," said Miriam Bocarsly, an assistant on the project. "In humans, these same characteristics are known risk factors for high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, cancer, and diabetes."

This study appeared in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.

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Another study has addressed the health risks of children born to obese mothers.

According to a new article published in the journal Nursing for Women's Health (and reported by ScienceDaily), obesity in pregnant women is associated with pregnancy complications, birth defects, and a greater risk of childhood and adult obesity rates for the infants born to these mothers.

• Merrie Rebecca Walters, RN and Julie Smith Taylor, PhD, RNC, WHNP-BC, the article's authors, reviewed data to determine the potential consequences of maternal obesity.
  
• The researchers found that obese women are more likely to have an infant with a neural tube defect, a heart defect, or multiple problems, than women who are within the normal weight range.
  
• In addition, obese women are more likely that normal-weight women to experience pregnancy complications such as gestational diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, labor induction, cesarean delivery, and postpartum hemorrhage.

The researchers also discovered that mothers' obesity may hold long-term implications for infants.

• Obesity among pregnant women is linked to childhood obesity in infants.
  
• A mother's obesity during pregnancy more than doubles the risk that the child will be obese at two to four years of age.
  
• These children are also at greater risk for obesity in adolescence and adulthood.
  

"Assisting women of childbearing age to achieve and maintain a healthful weight prior to conception will potentially minimize health risks to both mothers and infants," the authors wrote. "Health care providers must recognize the association between maternal obesity and childhood obesity and work to break the cycle of obesity before it becomes the leading cause of mortality in the United States."

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An article in the March 2010 edition of Health Affairs Journal identified another culprit in the childhood obesity epidemic: U.S. food policy. The article states that "cheap food policy" has led to the creation of calorie-rich, nutrient-poor food.

Chris Fleming's March 2 post on the Health Affairs blog reported on ways that experts are advising the government to play a more positive role in preventing childhood obesity:

Kelly D. Brownell, of Yale University, and coauthors call on policymakers at all levels of government to help Americans make healthier choices by regulating food ingredients, labeling, and marketing; and by taxing unhealthy foods and beverages.

Thomas R. Frieden, the new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says reversing the epidemic will require multiple policy changes, including taxes on unhealthy foods and beverages, new incentives to promote healthy crop production, a ban on advertising that fosters bad eating habits, and sustained efforts to increase physical activity among children.

"If we do not act now, the epidemic of childhood obesity will become increasingly difficult to address," says Frieden. "From the federal to the state and local level, in the public and the private sector, from Fortune 500 companies to families around their kitchen tables, there are simple things each of us can do to encourage physical activity, improve nutrition and help our kids live healthier lives. It will take us all working together to meet this challenge."

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American children are consuming 27 percent of their daily calories from snacks, according to a studies from the University of North Carolina and the Oregon Health and Science University.

The results of these studies are disturbing, because they show a trend of "constant eating" instead of eating during regularly scheduled meals or because of hunger -- a habit that has been associated with the nation's childhood obesity epidemic.

Professors Carmen Piernas and Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina studied data on 31,337 children ages 2 to 18 taken from different federal studies on food and eating.

"Childhood snacking trends are moving towards three snacks per day," Piernas and Popkin wrote in their report. "More than 27 percent of children's daily calories are coming from snacks. The biggest increases have been in salty snacks and candy. Desserts and sweetened beverages remain major sources of calories from snacks."

Extra snacking among children added 117 extra calories per day between 1977 and 2006, which adds up to 12 extra pounds a year.

Christina Bethell of the Oregon Health and Science University analyzed data from the 2000 National Survey of Children's Health and found that the rate of obesity for children ages 10 to 17 years old increased from 14.8 percent in 2003 to 16.4 percent in 2007. The prevalence of overweight children remained at 15 percent.

The studies appeared in Health Affairs Journal.

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A study from Duke University indicates that obesity in mothers can cause "programming" that predisposes their children to inflammation related diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and heart disease.

The experiments were performed on laboratory rats, and found that offspring born to obese mothers could show a predisposition to such diseases even if the children were of normal weight.

A Feb. 10 LiveScience article provided the following information about the Duke research:

[Study co-author Staci D.] Bilbo and colleagues placed rats on one of three diets (low-fat, high-saturated fat, and high-trans fat) four weeks prior to mating and throughout pregnancy and lactation. The high-fat diets rendered the mice clinically obese.

The newborn pups' brains were analyzed. Offspring born to mothers on the high-fat diets showed increased immune cell activation and release of injurious substances known as cytokines, all right after birth. The changes stuck even until the newborns became adults, and even after they were put on low-fat diets.

"This hyper-response to inflammation remained dramatically increased compared to rats born to normal-weight mothers," the researchers write.

The Duke study was published in the journal of The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB).

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Children who are cared for by their grandparents are more likely to be overweight or obese, according to a new study from University College London.

• Researchers led by Dr. Catherine Law used health records from over 12,000 children ages nine months to three years old enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study.
  
• If grandparents took care of the children part-time, the children's risk for being overweight rose by 15 percent
  
• If grandparents took care of them full-time, the obesity risk increased to 34 percent.

The study appeared in the International Journal of Obesity.

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Taiwan may become one of the first countries in the world to ban junk food advertisements on children's television. The government also plans to impose a junk food tax after the bill banning commercials is passed.

Almost 30 percent of Taiwanese children are overweight or obese.

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A new study has found a strong link between family routines and the onset of childhood obesity. Researchers from Ohio State University say it's the first time three specific routines were assessed together.

According to a Feb. 8 ScienceDaily article, "in a large sample of the U.S. population, the study showed that 4-year-olds living in homes with all three routines had an almost 40 percent lower prevalence of obesity than did children living in homes that practiced none of these routines."

The following three factors were associated with a lower prevalence of childhood obesity:

• Eating dinner as a family
• Getting an adequate amount of sleep
• Limiting TV viewing time.
  

Researchers also pointed out, however, that the study doesn't confirm whether the actions themselves aid in preventing obesity, or if they indicate the presence of other preventative factors.

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A five-year study of more than 2000 teenagers found no link between drinking sugar-sweetened sodas and becoming overweight.

• The researchers found that teens who drank milk tended to be slimmer, and those who consumed no-calorie drinks were more likely to be overweight.
• Researchers at Project EAT (Eating among Teens) surveyed 2294 teenagers in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area about their beverage habits over a five-year period.
  
• The teens who were drinking low-calorie soft drinks had general dietary behaviors and weight concerns, which could explain their weight gain.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

An earlier study from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) linked drinking sugar-sweetened sodas to being overweight in teenagers.

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Researchers with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that modern food can cause almost instantaneous changes in bacteria in the guts of mice. Dr. Jeffrey Gordon and his colleagues believe that changes in gut bacteria may explain the obesity epidemic.

When we switched these humanized animals from a low fat diet to a junk food diet high in fat with lots of simple sugars, the structure of the microbial community changed dramatically and very rapidly," Dr. Gordon wrote.

After their gut bacteria changed, the mice became obese on the westernized diets.

The study appeared in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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Sweetened sodas may be harmful to the health of American children and should be restricted, according to President Barack Obama, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

President Obama told a reporter from the magazine Men's Health that he could support a tax on sodas as a means of lowering the high rates of United States obesity.

There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda, he said, though he added that there would be political resistance to such a tax.

The American Academy of Pediatrics is urging school administrators to remove all soft drinks from school vending machines and to replace them with milk, 100 percent fruit juice or water.

Pediatricians worry not only about the high sugar content of sodas, but also about the levels of caffeine children consume. The sugar and acids in the drinks can damage children's tooth enamel.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suggested that adults consume no more than 18 teaspoons of sugar at a day. The American Heart Association suggests even lower maximum amounts: five to six teaspoons a day for women, and six to nine teaspoons for men.

One 12-ounce soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar. Children who drink more than one serving a day increase their risk of becoming overweight by 60 percent.

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Monkeys who occupy subordinate places within their social groups are more likely to develop abdominal fat, according to a new study from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

Professor Carol Snively believes that humans under social stress could develop similar problems.

In her study, subordinate monkeys were not included in group grooming sessions and were subject to more aggression. This social stress led to the development of abdominal fat.

Much of the excess fat in many people who are overweight is located in the abdomen, and that fat behaves differently than fat in other locations. If there is too much, it can have far more harmful effects on health that fat located in other areas, she wrote.

Prof. Snively's study appeared in the journal Obesity.

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During a visit to Rochester, N.Y., U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand discussed ways of improving childhood nutrition on a local level.

Rochester's Democrat and Chronicle reported that Gillibrand's comments focused on the financial aspects of fighting childhood obesity:

The current federal reimbursement rate to local schools has not kept pace with inflation or the increased costs of providing quality meals. Gillibrand proposes increasing the current reimbursement rate by 70 cents in the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization bill  from $2.57 per meal to $3.27 per meal.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity rates in children ages six to 11 have more than doubled in the last 30 years. The rate has more than tripled among 12- to 19-year-olds.

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A team from the National Bureau of Economic Research has found that banning fast-food advertising in the United States could result in an 18 percent drop in childhood obesity rates. Despite that, researchers question the practicality of imposing such sweeping regulation.

The Reuters news service reported on this research in a Nov. 19, 2008 article:

For their study, funded in part by the federal government, [lead researcher economist Shin-Yi Chou of Lehigh University] and colleagues used data on nearly 13,000 children from the 1979 Child-Young Adult National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, both issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.

"The advertising measure used is the number of hours of spot television fast-food restaurant advertising messages seen per week," they wrote in the Journal of Law and Economics.

"Our results indicate that a ban on these advertisements would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent."

The Chou team's findings are consistent with other research into the relationship between food advertising and childhood obesity.

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Compared to parents of normal weight, obese mothers are ten times more likely to have obese daughters, and obese fathers are six times more likely to have obese sons, according to a new British study that was published in the International Journal of Obesity.

The authors of the study do not think that genetics is responsible for this phenomenon. Instead, they call it a form of "behavioral sympathy," in which children copy the lifestyles of their same-sex parents.

Researchers at Plymouths Peninsula Medical School studied 226 families and found that 41 percent of the eight-year-old daughters of obese mothers were also obese, compared to only four percent of girls with normal weight mothers.

Professor Terry Wilken said that the implications of this study are that governments should target parents' weight problems, and not focus their childhood obesity prevention efforts solely on overweight or obese children.

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In the last 40 years, childhood obesity rates have quadrupled in the United States. And while many look to schools, food manufacturers and health experts for help, we can't forget another important resource in the fight against childhood obesity: parents.

In an Aug. X article on the ScienceDaily website, psychologist Edward Abramson, Ph.D., said that parents can play a pivotal role by ensuring that their children eat a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise:

While everyone, including children, is entitled to have food preferences, infants are born with genetic predispositions toward sweet and salty tastes and against sour and bitter tastes and unfamiliar foods, Abramson said.

"For these children, it may take several repetitions (10 or more) to have a child try a new food, but parents should retreat gracefully and try again another day rather than get into a battle of wills when the child refuses a food," he said. ...

Physical activity can also help prevent obesity even when there is a tendency to gain weight due to genetics, Abramson said. Research has shown that four- to seven-year-old children of active parents were six times as likely to be active [than were children of sedentary parents].

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Most pediatricians agree that parents play an integral part in the fight against childhood obesity. But they also warn parents that certain restrictive feeding practices can increase a child's risk for unhealthy weight gain.

According to an Aug. 11 News-Medical.net article, researchers with the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University followed nearly 200 girls over a 10-year period, tracking their body mass index and the familys eating habits.

The researchers found that girls whose parents exhibited more control over food had less ability to self-regulate and were twice as likely to be overweight by age 15.

"Parental attempts to help children with lower self-control by restricting their access to favorite snack foods can make the forbidden foods more attractive, thereby exacerbating the problem," wrote co-lead researcher Stephanie Anzman, MS.

The study is scheduled to be published in an upcoming edition of the Journal of Pediatrics.

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An audit of New York City schools has revealed that the schools routinely make junk food available to students -- a move that New York City Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says is undermining efforts to encourage students to follow a health diet plan:

Auditors found that school stores and vending machines at 20 of 30 city schools visited sold candy, soda, and other unhealthy snacks to students during lunch periods in direct violation of the Chancellors policies and in direct competition with the healthy lunches offered by the Department of Education. (Source: Empire State News)

The auditors also found that 14 out of 15 audited schools made unhealthy food available throughout the day, not just during lunch.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, schools, junk food

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A study conducted by researchers from Indiana and Purdue Universities found that living in close proximity to fast food restaurants does not put a child a greater risk of obesity. The study's results sharply contradict previous research, which found that fast food posed a threat to children's health.

"Previous studies did not benefit from the wide range of information we acquired such a details of both sick and well doctor visits, changes in a childs address, annual food service establishment inspection data, aerial photographs of neighborhoods and crime statistics over time," reported a press release that was issued by the universities that were involved in the recent research effort.

Though proximity to fast food was ruled out as a negative effect by the Indiana-Purdue study, location was found to be an important factor in another area. Living close to parks or other recreational areas was found to have a positive effect on childhood obesity rates, as exercise has been identified as an important component in the effort to reduce obesity among young people.

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Almost a third of American children are overweight, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Now a new report says they may grow even heavier during the recession.

"There is concern with 'recession obesity' apart from the general trend toward an increasing number of obese American children," said Dr. Kenneth Land, director of the Child Well-Being Index, a project that tracks how American children fare in terms of education and health.

Dr. Land, a professor at Duke University, said that parents often substitute less expensive foods with high carbohydrate and high sugar contents when money is scarce. This kind of diet is related to the increasing numbers of overweight children.

Dr. Land's conclusions are consistent with the findings of others who have explored the link between obesity and poverty.

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Two-thirds of television food advertisements shown during the hours children watch are for junk foods, according to research presented at the European Congress on Obesity meeting. In the United States, things are even worse: 90 percent of the ads during the time period in question are for junk foods.

Bridget Kelley and her colleagues monitored television shows broadcast during the hours children are most likely to watch in Australia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia, and North and South America. She found that children see between 4,000 and 6,000 ads a year, with 2,000 to 4,000 for junk food.

"There is a lot of attention on unhealthy food marketing as an influence on childhood obesity and a lot of governments are reluctant to regulate," Kelley said.

The excessive consumption of junk food has been associated with many of the health consequences of childhood obesity.

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The United States Senate is considering taxing sugary drinks such as sodas, fruit drinks, sweetened teas, and sports and energy beverages.

Advocates estimate that a tax of three cents per 12 ounces would yield $80 billion a year. Some senators believe a tax may also lower consumption of such beverages, reduce health problems, and save medical costs. Many experts have noted an association between sugary drinks and childhood obesity.

Susan K. Neely, the president and CEO of the American Beverage Association, was quick to respond, saying the tax was not a good idea, and a better approach is to reduce soda consumption in schools. Neeley noted that soft drink consumption has declined by almost 10 percent since 2000.

Earlier this year, New York Gov. David Paterson proposed an 18 percent tax on sugared sodas, but the measure did not pass the state legislature.

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Obese children are more likely to suffer injuries to their lower bodies, according to a study that was conducted at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Dr. Wendy Pomerantz, an emergency room physician at the hospital, analyzed records of 23,000 ER visits by children between 2005 and 2008. Obese children were more likely to suffer lower body injuries, the most common being sprained ankles and legs.

"Other injuries that the patients experienced were fractures and lacerations," Dr. Pomerantz said. "Because obese patients have an increased body mass and force, they are more likely to twist or roll on a lower extremity and cause injury than non-obese children."

Obesity usually increases the time it takes to recover from an injury because the added weight and stress can cause more damage.

Dr. Pomerantz presented her findings at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.

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An Ohio study has discovered that children in day care centers are not getting much exercise because directors do not want them to get hurt, and parents want them to spend time doing academics.

Dr. Kristen Copeland of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and her colleagues studied 34 child care centers in the Cincinnati area.

"Child care providers told us many parents were more focused on their children learning cognitive skills such as reading, writing, and preparing for kindergarten than their participation in recess," Dr. Copeland in a May 5 press release that announced her findings.

"Some of the most valuable lessons in science, nature, cause and effect, and even important social skills ... all come from playing outdoors on the playground," she said in the release. Dr. Copelands report indicated that some centers do not have adequate playground equipment.

About 75 percent of children ages three to six years old are in child care centers at least part-time.

With childhood obesity associated with such a wide range of physical and psychological problems, experts advise parents to ensure that parents take action to get treatment for overweight children before any lasting damage is done.

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A study of 1,011 adolescents found that those who had higher levels of stress were more likely to be overweight.

"We found that an adolescent or youth who is more stressed -- caused by such things as having poor grades, mental health problems, aggressive behaviors, or doing more drugs and alcohol -- is more likely to be overweight or obese," said Brenda Lohman, professor of human development and family studies at Iowa State University.

The five stress factors used were academic problems, consumption of drugs and alcohol, depression or mental health issues, aggression, and lack of future orientation. The study, which involved children ages 10 to 15 years old, also found that their mothers' stress could be a contributing factor to their being overweight.

Adolescent overweight has been associated with a wide range of serious health problems (including an increased risk of premature death) both during one's younger years and into adulthood.

This study appeared in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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One in three mothers puts too much food on their childs plates, according to a report entitled "Kids and Nutrition."

Researchers surveyed 302 mothers of children ages one to seven years old, and found that 80 percent were unsure if their children's food intake met nutritional requirements. In general, the mothers put too much food on the kids' plates, and 80 percent believe that their children are "fussy eaters" if they do not eat all of it.

These finding are similar to those that were arrived at by Cornell University researchers who documented the negative impact that forcing children to clean their plates can have on childhood overweight and obesity.

Children have a "tremendous capacity" to self-regulate their food intake, and parents should not force them to eat, said pediatrician Dr. Michael Kohn. T

This study appeared in the Journal of Nutrition and Diabetes.

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A new study from Harvard University found that women who gain too much weight during their pregnancies might create obesity problems in their children.

The study involved looking at the health records of over 12,000 teenagers. If the mothers had gained more than the desired 25 to 35 pounds during pregnancy, the children were 42 percent more likely to be obese between ages 9 and 14 years old.

The scientists believe that overeating during pregnancy may somehow alter gene expression or affect the child's appetite control centers.

This study appeared in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Corn in Fast Foods May Be Cause of Obesity Epidemic

"Corn is not just a grain used in the production of fast foods - it is the basis of all fast foods," according to a new study from the University of Hawaii.

Dr. Hope Jahren and her colleagues analyzed 480 servings of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and french fries from Wendy's, McDonalds, and Burger King restaurants in San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, and Baltimore. All the food was freeze-dried and analyzed chemically in a laboratory.

The researchers found that the basis of all the food was corn, partly because corn oil was used to make French fries and corn-fed beef was used in hamburgers. Corn syrup was a major ingredient in soft drinks, which were not part of this study.

Dr. Jahren and others in the field of nutrition believe that today's obesity epidemic is linked to over-consumption of corn products.

This study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

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A heart rate of 80 or more beats per minute increases a person's chances of developing diabetes becoming obese, according to two studies from Northwestern University in Illinois and Kurume University in Japan.

The NU researchers studied Chicagoans over a 33-year period; the Japanese team followed 614 people from rural farm areas starting in 1979. Both found that a rapid heartbeat predicts obesity and diabetes.

This study was published in the American Journal of Hypertension.

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Skipping meals or spending too much time in front of television, computer, and video game screens contributes to childhood obesity, according to a new study from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Molly Martin and her colleagues collected information on 2,500 pairs of twins, siblings, or half-siblings in order to determine what non-genetic factors influence whether a child is overweight. They found that certain aspects of a family's lifestyle, such as sitting down for regular meals together and being physically active during leisure hours, can help keep children slim, regardless of the family's education, socioeconomic levels, or the children's birth weights.

"Not skipping meals seems to be the biggest factor in weight control," Dr. Martin said. "When you miss a meal, you are more likely to overeat later." The other biggest factor was how much time the family spent watching television or playing video games.

This study appeared in the Journal of American Sociology.

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Rates of child and teen obesity in the United States have tripled over the past 30 years. Child and teen obesity is a serious medical problem that is affecting more and more young people. Due to excess weight, many children and teens are experiencing health problems that were once associated only with adults, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Overweight children and teens are also at higher risk for skin infections, sleep disturbances, depression, anxiety, metabolic syndrome, and liver disease. Experts have begun to address this problem by exploring risk factors and behaviors that are common among obese youth, and developing exercise and weight loss programs specifically designed for overweight young people.

Although a small percentage of overweight children suffer from medical conditions that cause weight gain, the vast majority of child and teen obesity is due to a simple equation of too much food and too little activity. Unlike adults, children naturally eat to gain weight; they must consume calories in addition to what is necessary for daily activities in order to support the growth of their bodies. When children consume enough calories to support daily activities and growth, their weight gain will remain in proportion to their growth. When they consume more than this amount, however, they begin to store the excess calories as fat.

According to information from the Mayo Clinic, risk factors for childhood obesity fall into several categories. Risk factors can include diet, activity level, genetic predisposition, psychological health, family environment, and socioeconomic status. Dietetic causes of obesity are generally identified as high-fat, high-sugar foods, such as fried foods, candy, soda, baked goods, and fast food. Low levels of physical activity, often due to sedentary activities like playing video games, watching television, and surfing the Internet, are also linked to child and teen obesity.

Many children overeat, like adults, to help deal with emotional problems. Family eating habits have an enormous impact on child and teen weight problems simply because youth are not responsible for choosing the foods that are brought into the home; if parents encourage and/or facilitate poor eating habits, a child will emulate these habits. Research shows that children from low-income families are more vulnerable to weight problems. Some experts believe that this may be due to the fact that lower income parents may lack the time, financial resources, and information to help their children eat healthy foods and get enough exercise.

Parents who are concerned that their children may be overweight are advised to seek a professional opinion. Children carry weight differently than adults, and not all excess weight is necessarily a symptom of a weight problem. It is especially important for parents to consult a physician or nutritional specialist before placing a child on a restricted diet or starting a weight loss program. Children and teens have nutritional and emotional needs that are different from adults, and child and teen weight loss efforts should always be supervised by a professional.

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A new study from the University of Florida indicates that fructose syrup may play a role in changing body chemistry to create obesity.

Fructose is a sugar found in fruit. Fructose syrup is a common ingredient in table sugar, corn syrup, and many foods and beverages.

The Florida team fed two groups of mice the same diet, except that one group also consumed fructose syrup. After six months, members of the fructose group had higher levels of triglycerides in their blood. Next, the scientists injected all the rats with leptin, a substance that ordinarily would decrease appetite and lower food intake. However, the fructose group members did not decrease their food intake as the other group did.

Dr. Philip Scarpace, one of the authors of the study, believes that elevated triglycerides somehow prevent leptin from entering the brain. Leptin, Scarpace said, signals the brain to "stop eating".

The study appeared in the journal Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

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A recent study on brain activity seems to refute the commonly held opinion that overweight people eat more because they love to eat. The study, conducted through the Oregon Research Institute, found that obese people actually enjoy food less, and so end up eating more in order to compensate.

"[When women] tasted a chocolate milkshake or tasteless liquid, the heavier women had less activity in their brains' pleasure centers. The women with the gene variant had the lowest pleasure response when tasting the milkshake. They had to consume more of the shake to get the same pleasure response."

The gene variant, known at Taq1A1, appears to be linked with lower dopamine receptors in the brain. Since dopamine is the primary transmitter for the brain's reward system, fewer receptors means the reward system is impeded. Researchers are now trying to determine whether reward systems can be reset. Source: Health News

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Researchers at the University of Michigan have found a surprising correlation between sleep and weight. The study looked at the weight, height and sleep patterns of 785 children in 10 U.S. cities.

"Of the children who slept 10-12 hours each night at age eight, about 12% were obese by 11, compared to 22% of those who slept less than nine hours."

The study also found that, in third graders, every additional hour of sleep resulted in a 40% drop in their chance of becoming obese. Though the results of the study were undeniable, researchers are unsure why sleep plays such a profound role in weight gain among children.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, sleep

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Today's teens are taller and heavier than their counterparts in the 1960s, and that may be due to better nutrition, according to a study in the BMC Public Health journal.

However, the researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who did the study cannot explain why more of today's teens are at extremes of overweight and underweight.

Sigrid Bjornelv and her colleagues went through charts from the years 1995-1997 of 6774 teenagers and charts from 8378 teens in 1966-1969. Heights and weights increased for all ages and both sexes. This study, like many others, found an increased percentage of teenagers who are obese. However, there was also an increase in the percentage of very underweight teens.

Labels: nutrition, causes of childhood obesity

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A professor and his student assistants from the University of California  Merced will spend the next decade studying the causes of obesity among Central Valley children. The project will survey the exercise and eating habits of 8- to 18-year-olds in the area.

"The UC Merced students spent the last year surveying teenagers at Merced, Golden Valley, Buhach Colony and Atwater high schools. 'We asked a lot of questions about what they were snacking on, if they watch TV while they eat, their exercise patterns, said 19-year-old UC Merced student Jessica Romo."

Professor Rudy Ortiz hopes to discover where Central Valley children are in relation to Centers for Disease Control figures which show that 17.4 percent of 12- to 19-year-olds are overweight.

Read more at MercedSunStar.com.

Labels: research, causes of childhood obesity

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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, overweight children, fast_food

Posted By: Lori S 0 Comments

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, obese teens, weight loss, foot pain

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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, weight loss surgery, overweight children, gastric bypass, obesity surgery

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Spending more time in physical education classes helps overweight girls, according to a study funded by the National Center for Health Care Management.

Researchers kept track of the heights, weights and body mass indexes (BMIs) of 9750 children from kindergarten through first grade. In kindergarten, the majority of children spent 35 minutes a week in physical education. By first grade that increased to 68 minutes a week. Overweight girls and girls at risk for overweight benefited the most from the increase - they reduced their BMIs by a statistically significant amount. However, the extra time in physical education classes did not have much effort on overweight boys or normal weight childrens measurements.

Because of this study, Dr. Ashlesha Datar and her co-author Dr. Roland Sturm concluded that if all kindergarteners in the United States got at least five hours of physical education per week, the prevalence of overweight among girls would decrease by 4.3 percentage points (43%), and the prevalence of children at risk for overweight would decrease by 9.2 percentage points (60%). Currently only 16% of kindergarteners have physical education every day.

This was one of the first and only studies that proves increased time in physical education may help fight America's obesity epidemic among children.

This study appears in the American Journal of Public Health, September 2004 issue.

Labels: overweight, causes of childhood obesity, teens

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Norwegian teenagers who drink four or more sugary soft drinks a day are more likely to report mental distress, hyperactivity and conduct problems than teens who drink less.

Researchers at the University of Oslo who conducted the new study are not sure if soft drinks actually cause mental illness symptoms in teens. If the drinks are to blame, then researchers do not know whether it is the sugar or caffeine in them that is the actual culprit. Other studies have shown that sugar does not affect children with hyperactive disorders, despite what parents and teachers may believe.

Although the teens in the study who drank the most soda were in the worst shape in terms of hyperactivity and mental distress, teens who drank moderate amounts scored better than those who drank no soda at all.

The Oslo research team interviewed 5498 tenth graders ages 15 to 16 years old about their soda consumption, smoking habits, family structure, and food choices. The teens also answered the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist, which asks whether you feel anxious, panicky, tense, dizzy, sad, hopeless, and so forth. About 10% of the boys and 4% of the girls scored high for such problems. These children were more likely to consume four or more soft drinks per day. Other factors like smoking habits and food choices were not associated with the mental health problems.

Norwegians drink more soda or "fizzy drinks" as they call them, than any other people in the world. Dr. Lars Lien, author of the report, advises public policy makers to raise the price of the drinks so that teenagers can't afford them. This study appeared in the October 2006 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Labels: sodas, causes of childhood obesity

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A recent study conducted by Northwestern University finds that children who don't get enough sleep are at a higher risk of being overweight.

"A study followed 2,000 kids for five years, and found that kids who get just one extra hour of sleep are four to 6% less likely to be overweight. They also found that the kids who were getting more sleep overall weighed less at the end of the five year study."

Another reason to get your kids to bed early. Read more online.

Labels: research, causes of childhood obesity, sleep

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Children who are poorly coordinated are three times more likely to be overweight, according to a new study from Canada.

"Developmental coordination disorder" involves problems with both fine and gross motor skills and affects 5% of all children. These children have difficulty with sports, personal care, and handwriting.

Dr. John Cairney, author of the study, said that the disorder is often considered "a playground disorder that can be relegated to a secondary position in the universe of children's health concerns. These results, along with other recent research, suggests that this is no longer acceptable."

This study appeared in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
 

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, physical_activity

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In what could be a breakthrough study, British researchers have concluded that children are overweight because they overeat, not because they don't get enough exercise. Once children are overweight, they will tend to exercise less. The conclusion of the research is that overeating causes overweight and lack of exercise follows once a child is too heavy.

The study has implications for public policy, because the British government has been increasing the number of minutes students have for physical education.

"More activity does not lead to weight loss," said Professor Terence Wilkin, one of the authors of the study.

Dr. Wilkin and his colleagues at Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth tracked 200 children from age seven to ten years old. The children wore devices to measure their physical activity. If a child was 10% fatter than average at age seven, he reduced his physical activity by an average four minutes a day by age ten.

"Our findings suggest that rather than giving children ever increasing doses of physical activity, we should first question the basic paradigm that more physical activity leads to less fat," according to the study published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
 

Labels: overeating, causes of childhood obesity, exercise

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments