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

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.

Labels: causes of childhood obesity, overweight children, economics

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France has recently begun doing what the United States, it seems, can only talk and dream about: curb childhood obesity. The introduction of healthy school lunch programs has taught French children how to eat well, and isn't costing school districts a fortune.

"All around the school kitchen, food is cooking in various pots and pans.... It is hard to believe this is a public school cafeteria and not a three-star restaurant. Perhaps what is most impressive about [Chef Dominique] Valadier's meals is that they cost the students only $3 a day, less than the typical fast food fare served at many French high schools."

Valadier keeps food costs down by buying local and using everything; he even boils the heads, flesh and bones from salmon to make bullion. Students at the school say they've nearly stopped eating at fast food restaurants and have learned some important lessons about healthy cooking and eating. Source: NPR

Labels: healthy_eating, schools, economics

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If a person is overweight in high school, he or she is more likely to be unemployed or on welfare during his 20s and 30s. Overweight teens are also more likely to suffer from chronic health problems such as diabetes or high blood pressure by age 40, when compared to people who gained weight as an adult, according to a new study from the University of Michigan.

• Lead author Professor Philippa Clarke of the Institute for Social Research studied 5,000 high school graduates who had been tracked for 20 years.
• Her new study compared those who were at a healthy weight when they graduated from high school, but gained weight over time to those who were heavy as teenagers.
• Dr. Clarke took into consideration factors such as lower socioeconomic status as a teenager, and still found that being overweight contributes to economic problems as an adult.
• Overweight teens who got good grades in high school were able to do better economically as adults.

The study appeared in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
 

Labels: health, teenagers, economics

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment