Note from Connie: Good news — well sort of. The children’s obesity rate, which has rapidly swung out of control for decades, remained steady from 1999 to 2006, according to a new report in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Jennifer Moore brings you the details.
“After 25 years of extraordinarily bad news about childhood obesity, this [JAMA] study provides a glimmer of hope,” David Ludwig, M.D., Ph.D. and director of the childhood obesity program at Children’s Hospital in Boston, remarked in Tara Parker-Pope’s article in The New York Times.
“But it’s much too soon to know whether this is a true plateau in prevalence or just a temporary lull.” (FYI, Dr. Ludwig is one of the nation’s foremost experts on children’s obesity, and Connie quotes him in her book SUGAR SHOCK!)
Dr. Ludwig’s caution is understandable.
After all, nearly 32 % of American children are too heavy, as noted by Rob Stein in the Washington Post (incidentally, the Post recently published a very comprehensive series called "Young Lives at Risk: Our Overweight Children.")
This means millions of kids are at risk for a long list of serious ailments, including high blood pressure, diabetes, heart trouble and others.
But it might be possible to stall or reverse the children’s obesity epidemic. Of course, this will require consistent, concerted efforts on the part of parents, schools and government leaders to help kids not eat so much junk food and to be more physically active.
Will Dunham of Reuters provided the tip to this important study, which has was also covered by Lindsay Tanner of the AP.
Jennifer Moore for SUGAR SHOCK! Blog