Child Obesity

Child Obesity

With back to school in full force, a new wave of child obesity news reports seem to be hitting the papers, TV news, and Internet media.

Here's just a summary of todays media headlines on child obesity:

1) A research study from the journal Pediatrics shows that overweight 2-year olds are most likely to become overweight 12-year olds

2) Many breakfast cereals contain as much sugar as candy. As the Globe and Mail reports: A typical serving of Cocoa Puffs is the equivalent of downing a 50-gram bag of Hershey's Kisses;
Starting the day with a serving of Corn Pops, Honeycomb or Lucky Charms is about the same as gobbling a Kit Kat;

And yet despite this overabundance of food, sugar, calories and bodyfat, a study published yesterday in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine shows that obese children are at risk of nutritional DEFICIENCIES, in particular Vitamin B12.

Little ironic, isn't it?

The Israeli researchers from this study concluded, "We recommend that dietary assessment of obese children should include an estimation of vitamin B12 intake. The possibility of vitamin B12 deficiency in addition to other micronutrient deficiencies should be considered in obese children."

Unbelievable. Nutritional deficiencies in obese children.

In addition, this study also shows that child obesity is not just a North American problem, despite what every America newsreport would have you believe.

In fact, I've reported on child obesity from Greece, Turkey, Denmark, Canada, China, and other countries in this blog and in my newsletters.

And the news gets worse. Not only are children able to get junk food at home, school, the corner store, and sporting events, but another study from the Arch. of Ped. Adol. Medicine shows that even children's HOSPITALS are over-run with junk food.

But here unfortunately, is where the US is comparatively worse.

"Compared with Canadian hospitals, US hospitals had more food outlets (89% vs 50%) and more snack/beverage vending machines (median, 16 vs 12) (P = .001 for both), despite equivalent consumer numbers. External companies managed more outlets at US vs Canadian hospitals (65% vs 14%; P = .01), and, generally, US hospitals recuperated more revenue from their outlets. "

And the researchers concluded, "Children's hospitals provide suboptimal health environments. Reliance on revenue may be an important motivating factor encouraging the adoption of outlets that serve less nutritious food."

Trading a child's health for hospital revenue. Sad, but that's the way it seems.

There is hope however, for a lot of overweight kids.

And the solution is pretty simple...

I agree with the approach taken by Lou Schuler, as outlined in his blog: www.louschuler.com

"Maybe it's too easy to point the finger at the parents, especially since I have three skinny kids. But, you know, I think there's a reason why they're skinny, beyond genetics. We emphasize protein at every meal, give them lots of vegetables, limit sweets to once a day (although they get lots more outside the house), and put very strict limits on electronic entertainment, leaving them little to do besides going out and running around. "

Start healthy habits early,

CB



child obesity