Of course we Americans know the bas news just looking at kids around us, as we walk down the street or go about our daily duties, but now we have hard research proof.
Abdominal obesity in the U.S. has increased by an alarming rate in recent years — specificially more than 65% since 1988 through 1994, as MedPageToday.com‘s Michael Smith reports. Yikes, that’s a huge jump!
Parents, take note. If your kids are getting rounder at the middle, it’s wise to take some kind of action now, because abdominal obesity is a marker for increased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
Researchers from the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medicall Center, headed up by Stephen Cook, M.D., found that abdominal obesity increased among boys by 65.4% (from 10.5% to 17.4%) and among girls by 69.4% (from 10.5% to 17.8%) since the 1988-1994 NHANES survey. (They compared data from four National Health and Nutrition Surveys (NHANES), Dr. Cook and his colleagues report in the Nov. 5 issue of Pediatrics.
What’s really interesting, according to MedPageToday.com‘s Smith is that although "experts have been increasingly worried about the effects of the obesity epidemic on children, this is the first study to put some hard numbers on the issue."
The good news, Dr. Cook noted, is that obese children — unlike obese adults — have time to repair any damage.
"Kids, teens and adults who have early stages of atherosclerosis in their arteries can have a healthy cardiovascular system again," MedPageToday.com quotes Dr. Cook as saying.
"Older adults who have plaque build-up have a much harder battle, especially if the plaque has calcified."
So if you’re a parent and your child is round around the middle, please take some action now. First off, get your kid to a doctor. And then do whatever you can to help him or her to ward off heart disease and type 2 diabetes, while it’s easier to do.
2 thoughts on “American Kids Are Getting Rounder and Rounder”
I enjoy reading your posts and look forward to reading the new book. You may want to check out the work of Laurel Mellin and her work with obese children at http://www.thepathway.org/
Get the kid and the parent some emotional help as well. It is a mind, body, spirit connection. While it may be the food we put in our mouths, there is an inner drive that is feeding the child’s hunger. Until we address the feeling aspects, the essential pain, saying no to sugar just doesn’t work. Been there done that as an child and as an adult. I hope you broaden your scope a bit and include the emotional aspects in your posts.
Here’s an anecdote that illustrates why children are obese. I was recently in a restaurant that has one of those all-you-can-eat buffets (I was there for grilled shrimp with a salad), when a family of grandparents, parents, and a boy maybe five years old comes in and sits near my table. The boy throws a tantrum because he does not want to sit in his seat, so one of the adults takes him to the toy machine to buy him a prize. (!) His mom gets him a plate with a chicken leg, green beans, and mashed potatoes; his dad promises that if he eats well, he will get some money. The boy refuses to eat any of the food. So grandma comes back in a little while with an ice cream cone for the kid. And it gets better still. After he eats his ice cream, grandma takes him up to the dessert bar for a second dessert! No meat, no vegetables, but ice cream and cake for a meal, and rewards for bad behavior. Could we assume there were more temper tantrums for the rest of the day? Could we predict a future of continuing obnoxious behavior, poor health and obesity for this poor little guy so “lovingly” malnourished by those with responsibility for his well-being? I would fear so.
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