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

Think that a few extra pounds might provide potentially life-saving protection in the case of an automobile accident?

Think again.

Researchers with the University of Virginia found that overweight individuals have no advantage because they have greater maximum forward pitch when they are thrown forward during an accident, and because they are more likely to be injured in their ribs and lungs.

The researchers had to use cadavers because there are no obese crash dummies.

The study appeared in the journal Obesity.

Labels: overweight, research, accidents, safety

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Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Metabolic Disease Institute have come up with an intriguing theory that could one day help overweight or obese individuals.

The study's lead author, UC Professor Randy Seeley, PhD, explained the theory behind the research in a Feb. 1 press release:

Peptides that target blood vessels in fat and cause them to go into programmed cell death (termed apoptosis) could become a model for future weight-loss therapies, say University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers. ...

"Think of fat tissue like a bathtub," [Prof. Seeley] says. "To keep the amount of water the same, you have to make sure that the speed of the water coming in and the water going out match. If the water is coming in faster than the water is going out, eventually you have to build a bigger bathtub.

"Obesity is the same. People who eat more calories than they burn have to build a bigger fat tissue 'bathtub,' and building new blood vessels is crucial to building this bigger bathtub. For each additional pound of fat tissue, you need to build a mile of blood vessels.

"What we found is that if we can target these fat tissue blood vessels, animals eat less and lose weight as their 'bathtubs' get smaller."

Labels: research, prevention

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An study on animals has revealed that a high-fat diet takes an immediate toll on short-term memory and the ability to exercise.

• Researchers at Cambridge University in Britain fed rats a low-fat diet and trained them to complete a maze.
  
• Then half the rats were switched to a high fat diet.
  
• Within just four days, the rats on the high fat diet began to fail the maze test, and they performed 30 percent worse on treadmills.

"We expected to see changes but not so dramatic and not in such a short space of time," said Professor Andrew Murray. "It was really striking how quickly these effects happened."

The study appeared in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.

Labels: diet, brain_activity, research, exercise, memory

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Overweight children are twice as likely as normal weight children to have overweight friends, according to a study from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

• Researchers surveyed 617 students ages 11 to 13 years old, most of whom were in seventh grade.
  
• The overweight children in the study were more likely to have overweight friends
• Overweight girls were less likely to be named friends of normal weight girls.

These results have two important implications: the social contagion of obesity may start at a young age and social affiliations by obesity status may have far-reaching consequences for adolescent development, said Professor Thomas Valente.

This study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Labels: research, overweight children, friends

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Social class is a factor in attitudes toward children's diets and weight, according to a new British study from the University of Hertfordshire.

According to a Sept. 28 PsychCentral article by senior news editor Rick Nauert, Professor Wendy Wills and her colleagues found that attitudes of middle-class parents were significantly different from those of working-class parents:

• Middle-class parents are more oriented toward planning and the future.
• They are more concerned that obesity is linked to poor health in adulthood and lower self-esteem in childhood.
• Middle-class parents took more control over their children's eating on a daily basis.
• Some of their attitudes were based on moral teachings such as the idea that obesity reflects laziness and a lack of self-control.
• Working-class parents were more concerned about the present and less concerned about their children's ideal body shape.

Given the complex, embedded nature of familiar practices and beliefs, policy and practice targets need to be realistic in terms of the time scale needed for achieving change, Dr. Wills said.

Labels: research, attitudes

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One in five British children told researchers that exercise is a chore, you only need to do it if you're overweight, and they can't be bothered to do it, according to a new study from the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

We have a generation of kids growing up with a shockingly blasé attitude toward exercise, Dr. Mike Knapton, BHF's director of prevention and care, said in a Sept. 28 Telegraph article. If trends continue in Great Britain, the paper reported, two-thirds of children will be overweight or obese by 2050.

Researchers found that more than half the children who were studied were spending an hour or more a day on the Internet.

Labels: research, exercise

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Overweight children do not necessarily have high cholesterol levels, according to new research from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Joyce Lee and Dr. Matthew Davis used national data on thousands of children to find out if body mass was related to cholesterol levels. They found that if doctors screen all overweight or obese children, they would identify about half of those with abnormal cholesterol, but they would also unnecessarily test 30 percent of the children.

In July 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised pediatricians to screen all overweight children.

"Our results indicate that the AAP guidelines for cholesterol screenings in kids may need to be revised," said Dr. Lee. "Otherwise we may be missing high cholesterol in some kids and unnecessarily testing others."

The study appeared in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Labels: overweight, research, cholesterol

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Several recent studies have indicated that overweight people tend to have overweight friends. Now a new report in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that overweight friends may actually encourage one another to overeat.

• Researchers at the University of Buffalo School of Medicine enrolled 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children ages nine to 15 years old in their study.
• The children could select a friend that they knew or an unfamiliar person of a similar age as their partner.
• Then they went in a room with games, puzzles and bowls of snacks.
• They could choose healthy snacks, such as carrots and grapes, or junk foods such as potato chips and cookies.
• Children who were paired with friends tended to eat more.
• Overweight children paired with either overweight friends or strangers ate more than overweight children paired with normal weight children

"Being in the company of overweight peers may give them permission to eat more or may decrease their inhibitions, increasing what are seen as the norms of appropriate eating or how much one should eat," said Professor Sarah Salvy. "These results are important, considering the role of friends as agents of change in childhood and adolescence."

Labels: research, overeating

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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.

Labels: research, causes of childhood obesity, advertising

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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.

Labels: parenting, research, causes of childhood obesity

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American adults believe that obesity is the number one problem facing their children today, according to an annual poll conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Matthew Davis and his colleagues found that adults' top concerns for children are obesity, drug abuse, smoking, bullying, Internet safety, child abuse and neglect, alcohol abuse, stress, not enough opportunities for physical activity, and teen pregnancy.

These concerns ranked higher than other health issues including school violence, depression, attention deficit disorder, autism, sexually transmitted diseases, suicide, etc.

This is the first year that adults ranked stress among the top 10 problems facing children today. This was also the first year that Hispanic, Caucasian and African-American adults all agreed that obesity was the top concern facing children today.

Labels: childhood_obesity, research, health_risks

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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.

Labels: parenting, research, causes of childhood obesity

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A study conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences has found that friends and other social factors play important roles in a child's eating habits. According to an Aug. 5 ScienceDaily article, the Buffalo researchers found that friends may act at "permission givers" for kids who are overweight or obese:

The study involved 23 overweight and 42 normal weight children between the ages of 9 and 15, who were randomized to participate with either a friend or an unfamiliar person of a similar age. After randomization, there were 33 friend pairs and 39 "unfamiliar" pairs. ...

Results showed that friends who ate together consumed more food than participants who were paired with someone they didn't know, and that friends were more likely to eat similar amounts than participants paired with a stranger.

However, overweight children who were paired with an overweight peer, whether friend or stranger, ate more than the overweight participants who were paired with a normal weight youth.

"Given the impact of friends on eating behavior, it appears that if we hope to change the growing obesity epidemic among children, friends and family need to be involved," researcher Sarah Salvy, Ph.D., said in the ScienceDailyarticle.

The Buffalo research was published in the August issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Labels: research, overeating, social_networks

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A study of 700 children found that the overweight children were more likely to have sleep-disordered breathing problems.

Dr. Edward Bixler and his colleagues at Penn State University College of Medicine said that sleep-disordered breathing is linked to behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and falling asleep in school.

"Because sleep-disordered breathing in children is not just the outcome of anatomical abnormalities, treatment strategies should consider alternative options, such as weight loss and correction of nasal problems," Dr. Bixler wrote in the journal Sleep.

Dr. Bixler's findings are similar to those of Dr. Judith Owens, whose 2008 research project explored the link between sleep disorders, ADHD, and weight problems in children.

Labels: research, overweight children, sleep disorders

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Overweight and obese youth are at greater risk for two serious diseases -- pancreatic cancer and cardiovascular disease -- according to two new studies.

The first study compared the childhood weights of 841 pancreatic cancer patients to 754 healthy people:

• Those who were overweight from ages 14 to 39 years old were 67 percent more likely to develop pancreatic cancer.
• People who were overweight between ages 20 to 49 years old increased their risk by 2.5 times.
• This study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The second study was from The Nemours Children's Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.

• Dr. Nelly Mauras and her colleagues found that obese children as young as seven years old were at higher risk for future cardiovascular disease and stroke.
• They compared 115 obese children to 87 lean children, all of whom had normal fasting blood sugar levels, normal blood pressure, and normal cholesterol levels.
• The obese children had elevated levels of certain proteins and other markers for cardiovascular disease

The old thinking was that cardiovascular disease is associated with a cluster of symptoms called metabolic syndrome. These symptoms include high blood pressure, high levels of bad cholesterol, low levels of good cholesterol, and high blood glucose.

Dr. Mauras and her team wanted to know if obesity could raise cardiovascular disease risk before metabolic old syndrome develops. "The results were striking because the children were entirely healthy otherwise," she said while presenting the study during the annual meeting of The Endocrine Society.

Labels: research, cancer, heart_disease, overweight children

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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.

Labels: research, causes of childhood obesity

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Despite expensive government interventions, Great Britain is not gaining ground in its battle against childhood obesity.

A new report finds that 25% of British children are obese or overweight at age five - a figure that climbs to 33% by the time the children turn 10.

"These latest figures are cause for concern," said Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum. "We had high hopes that there would have been a marked improvement after all the money that is being thrown at the problem."

Dawn Primarolo, British Public Health Prime Minister, commented, "If we do nothing, 90% of today's children could be overweight or obese by 2050."

Labels: research, overweight children, statistics

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A recent study has discovered a link between gestational diabetes and obesity. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research (CHR) in Portland, Oregon found the onset of gestational diabetes during pregnancy significantly increases the child's risk of becoming obese if the diabetes isn't treated.

"Hillier and colleagues analyzed the medical records of 9,439 women who gave birth between 1995 and 2000 in Portland, Ore., Washington State and Hawaii. They discovered that tots of pregnant women with untreated high blood sugar levels were 89 percent more likely to be overweight and 82 percent more likely to be obese by the ages of five to seven years... than were children of moms without gestational diabetes."

Teresa Hillier, the study's lead author, advises pregnant women to make sure their ob-gyn is screening for blood sugar levels and that women diagnosed with gestational diabetes stick to their treatment program. Read more at SCIAM.com.

Labels: research, diabetes, health_risks

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A Canadian study found that 14 percent of adolescent boys and 20 percent of girls rate their health as "poor."

Researchers from Queen's University in Ontario used data on 2,384 students in the 9th and 10th grades to determine what factors influence teen health and what government programs could improve it. They found that teen health was a complex interaction between factors such as risk taking, family income and the degree to which an individual teen connects to others.

Low-income teens were twice as likely as their more affluent peers to engage in risky behavior including taking drugs, smoking tobacco, using alcohol, and not using seat belts or condoms.

"Our analysis actually states that social capital, affluence, and risk taking all influence health, but these things do not work together," said the study's author, Owen Gallupe. "To improve adolescent health, programs should reduce risk taking [and] improve social capital and levels of affluence."

This study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Labels: health, research, income

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Spending more than sixteen hours per week online, not getting enough sleep, and drinking too much increase a teenaged girl's chances of gaining weight, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Catherine Berkey examined lifestyle factors as they pertain to a teen's gaining weight over the course of one year. Using records from over 5,000 girls ages 14 to 21 years, Berkey determined the following:

• Girls who spent long hours of recreational time on the Internet had a 57 percent risk of gaining at least four pounds a year.


• Sleeping fewer than five hours a night and drinking more than two glasses of alcohol a week was also associated with weight gain.


• Coffee drinking was not associated with weight gain.

This study appears in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Labels: research, weight_gain, factors

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Several recent studies have found that childhood obesity increases a person's risk for serious heart issues as an adult. It's estimated that heart disease could increase by as much as 16% once today's teenagers reach adulthood.

"According to an interview conducted by KATU News, 'We've simply never had a generation that's been this heavy from so early in life. The consequences of that are unprecedented and unknown,' said Dr. David Ludwig, director of an obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston. He says that the results of these two studies may be underestimating the future health issues that may result from the weight problems this generation is struggling with."

An estimated 1/3 of US children are overweight or obese, leading to an increase in the diagnosis of things like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

Labels: research, heart_disease, studies

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For over fifty years, nutritionists and doctors have depended on studies that prove adolescent acne is not related to adolescent diet.

Now an Australian study from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology found that teens who consume a healthy diet experience less acne.

Dr. Neil Mann and his colleagues had 22 males ages 15 to 21 years old follow the usual teen diet of white bread, potatoes, sugary drinks and snacks. A second group of 21 males was put on a healthy diet of whole grain breads and pasta, legumes, lean meat, fish, and lots of fruits and vegetables. Three months later, the boys on the healthy diet reduced their acne lesions in half and had no new lesions or infections.

"These results were astounding," Dr. Mann said.

This study appears in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.

Labels: diet, research, acne

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Vanderbilt University is conducting a study to determine how much energy kids really burn. A total of 200 children will participate in the study.

"The team says data from their study will result in a device that more accurately assesses calorie burning by kids in real life."

The study will take place on the Vanderbilt University campus, where kids will each spend a full day and night in a metabolic chamber. The chamber will measure their calories used during activities like using a treadmill or sitting at a desk and coloring.

Read more at Wave3.com.

Labels: research, studies, metabolism

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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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A committee that was convened in 2005 to develop comprehensive recommendations for fighting childhood obesity released its recommendations today. The Expert Committee on the Assessment, Prevention and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity was originally convened by the American Medical Association.

"The committee began meeting in early 2005 to study scientific data on the assessment, prevention and treatment of overweight and obese children. The committee then created 22 recommendations for health care professionals..."

Recommendations include a yearly assessment of weight status in all children - including body mass index, regular assessment of dietary patterns, and levels of physical activity. Read more online.

Labels: research, health_care, studies

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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation's largest philanthropy devoted to improving health and health care for Americans, has pledged more than $500 million to be used over the next five years in the fight against childhood obesity.

Funds will be used to enhance access to affordable healthy foods in underserved low-income communities, provide greater opportunity for physical activity in schools and communities, and pay for child obesity research. One recent research study funded by the RWJF examined a three-year Arkansas initiative to combat obesity. According to the RWJF study, Arkansas, which has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity, has been able to halt this alarming trend by taking measures in the schools, such as recording children's BMI and reporting this each year to parents, along with tips for good nutrition and appropriate exercise.

Labels: healthy_eating, research, funding

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On May 19th, Chicago will host a Shaping America's Youth event to discuss solutions to childhood obesity. With 23 percent of Illinois kindergartners and 33 percent of its high school students overweight, the state recognizes that childhood obesity has become a crisis. Shaping American's Youth hopes to find ways to solve the crisis.

"Chicago is the fourth city to host this nationally recognized event that brings together interested citizens from all demographic and socioeconomic groups. The high-tech, grass roots event engages all participants to brainstorm solutions with ideas immediately entered into a giant viewing screen and recorded for future evaluation in a petition that will eventually be sent to the White House to address this issue."

The May 19th meeting will take place at the Downtown Chicago Marriott from 9am  4pm.

Read more online.

Labels: research, youth, crisis

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Health officials are now saying than crankiness isn't the only thing to worry about if your child doesn't get enough sleep. An ongoing study at Yale is researching the connection between sleep, obesity, and diabetes.

Dr. Sumit Bhargava, of the Yale Pediatric Sleep Lab is studying "whether obese children who have obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to become diabetic."

Read more online.

Labels: research, sleep, diabetes

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CBS3 in Philadelphia reported on new research that shows a link between childhood obesity and build up of fluid in the middle ear.

"Severely over-weight children who have related problems, like elevated cholesterol, also have increased rates of inner ear fluid build up, but researchers are not sure how to explain the connection."

Read more online.

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Do you ever wonder why sugary, unhealthy snack foods and cereals marketed to children come in such wild colors, like bright blue, purple, green and red? It may be because what we see affects how we believe something tastes.

A recent study reported in the Journal of Consumer Research found that people identified a difference in taste - even when none existed - when the color of a beverage was changed. Using Tropicana orange juice, researchers asked participants to describe the taste difference between two cups of the beverage, which were identical except that one was colored a brighter orange with food coloring. The overwhelming majority identified the brighter orange juice as tasting sweeter.

Yet when two glasses of orange juice were presented with no color change between them but with one glass sweetened with sugar, the majority of study participants were unable to discern a difference in taste.

Labels: nutrition, research, tastes

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The Los Angeles Times report that as little as 15 minutes of exercise every day could be enough to keep kids from gaining weight.

According to British and U.S. researchers, a study of 5,500 children wore "a motion sensor device showed that those who exercised more were less likely to be obese - and that short bursts of intense activity seemed to be the most helpful."

Read more about this study online.

Labels: research, exercise

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Just saying no to television does not mean that your child will use that lost time to exercise, according to a new study from Harvard Medical School.

Researchers led by Elsie Taveras had over10,000 children ages 10 to 15 years fill out annual questionnaires about their television viewing during the four year study. Girls averaged about ten hours a week of TV; boys averaged about fourteen. However, if a child started to watch less television, he or she did not necessarily spend more time in physical activity.

"Television viewing and physical activities are separate constructs and not functional opposites," Taveras concluded. "Simply restricting viewing may not be effective in increasing physical activity."

This study appears in the February 2007 issue of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Labels: research, exercise

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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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