Children and the Fat Wars :: Weight Loss

Children and the Fat Wars
by author Brad King, MS, MFS

It’s no longer uncommon to see an overweight child. Within the last 20 years, we have witnessed a doubling in the prevalence of childhood obesity. Now, approximately 30 percent of our kids are seriously overweight, and 15-percent are considered obese. Childhood obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, and no one seems to have the antidote–or maybe we are just looking in the wrong places.

Perhaps the problem is that the majority of parents may be living in denial. Research presented in 2000 at the annual meetings of both the Pediatric Academic Societies and the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that only three percent of parents of severely obese children recognize that their children have weight problems.

Fattening Baby Formula

In 1993, researchers from the University of California published a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that concluded that the longer a mother breastfed and delayed the introduction of solid food to her offspring the greater the protection against adult obesity. Formula-fed infants accumulate more body fat. Why? Carbohydrates are much higher in commercial baby formulas, which increase the fat storage hormone insulin. Researchers theorize that early exposure to a high-carbohydrate diet may therefore predispose a child to obesity later in life.

Sugary Soft-Drinks

It is also imperative to address the problem of children’s soft-drink consumption. New research from the Bournemouth Diabetes and Endocrine Centre in the United Kingdom showed that even a modest reduction in the number of carbonated drinks consumed was associated with a reduction in the number of overweight and obese children.

This is not surprising when you understand that the average soft drink contains seven to eight teaspoons of sugar–that’s seven to eight times more sugar than an adult body is programmed to handle at any one time&let alone a child’s.

Immunizing Against Diabetes?

A study presented in Obesity Research suggests that obesity may actually be infectious. There are four viruses that are implicated in animal obesity. Antibodies to one of the viruses, adenovirus 36, are much more prevalent in obese human subjects than in lean subjects.

Some research suggests that general vaccinations may create a propensity towards childhood obesity. Medical researcher and author Harris Coulter, PhD, points out that the condition of encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) has increased dramatically since the introduction of childhood vaccination programs. Diabetes and obesity are two known offshoots of this disorder.

When are we going to realize that our children are just smaller, younger versions of us? The same sound nutrition and exercise principles that apply to our health also apply to theirs. As a parent, your responsibility for helping your kids get on the right path lies in your ability to set a good example.

After all, you child isn’t responsible for stocking the fridge and cupboards–you are!

Brad King, MS, MFS, is a nutritional researcher and author of Fat Wars: 45 days To Transform Your Body (Wiley, 2001) and the new Fat Wars Action Planner(Wiley, 2003), visit fatwars.com.

Source: alive #263, September 2004

Combating The Childhood Obesity Crisis
Kids and youth are eating worse and exercising less. Something has got to change. In his 29 years as a physical education teacher, David Lively has seen "big" changes in his students. Frightening ones.

Downsize Not Supersize
Living in a land of plenty comes with a price that we're only now discovering. With one out of three Canadians now overweight, Canada appears to have one of the worst obesity problems in the industrialized worl.

Health Perspective
When I read newspaper headlines such as "Trans fat Could Stop Your Heart and "New Food Labels Indicate 'bad fat' Content, I know that at last, the tireless work by health food educators on the dangers of 'bad' fats has now become mainstream.

A Heavy Toll
Of all the resolutions made on January 1, 2000, none were more fervent than those to lose weight. In the millions, overweight men and women resolved not to drag their extra pounds into the new millennium.

The Blood Sugar Connection
Everyone knows that smoking is directly linked to numerous cancer.

Childhood Obesity
Until recently the battle of the bulge has been fought primarily by adults. Today, however, the largest growing segments among the obese are our children and adolescents.

Grumpy, Lumpy, Men Syndrome
Remember what it was like to be a teenager? That lean, muscular physique never seemed to gain an ounce of fat no matter how much you ate (or drank). Do you now find yourself patting your belly more then you pat your dog? If so, you could well be experiencing a loss of your male hormone - testosterone.

Metabolic Aging
Everybody wants to live a long and healthy life. If you carry excess body fat on your frame, though, you may be setting yourself up for a shorter lifespan than the one you were aiming for.

Overweight Kids?
I recently attended the birthday party of a three-year-old. Cookies, cake, and ice cream were served. The birthday boy smiled with anticipation--he has learned that this food is worth getting excited about.

Lighten the Load
In order to assess a child's risk of being overweight for his or her age, researchers use a variation of the Bod.

Nag Me Not
In 2000 the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that children are increasingly choosing to watch TV, surf the Internet, and play video games instead of staying active with sports and outdoor play. Today the average Canadian child sits in front of a screen three to five hours a day.

You Can Have Healthy Children
A young mother, in her mid-20s and grossly overweight, was pulling a four-wheeled cart behind her. In the cart was an obese six-year-old child. The young boy, sitting cross-legged, was eating a mound of pretzels and potato chips piled high in his lap.

Environmental Weight Gain
According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the latest studies indicate that in the past 20 years overweight and obesity rates have more than doubled for adults and tripled for children. So why the sudden expansion (pun intended)?

No Pain, More Gain

Obesity Cuts Life Span

Tune In and Tone Up

Syndrome X: Reduce your risk with exercise

Small Victories; Healthy Kids

Yin and Yang of a Balanced Diet

Start young for better health

Encouragement goes a long way

A School Food Revolution

Crohn's Disease: A Naturopathic Approach

Are Toxins Making you Fat?

Eat, Drink, and Exercise
Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Zone, and Bernstein diets are in mainstream practice. Yet research is clear that as long as we are dedicated and compliant, any weight-loss diet will work. Unfortunately, 95 percent of all dieters regain lost weight.

Into the O-zone
It seems so simple really. Eat too much and move too little, and you'll get too fat. Move more and eat less, and you'll get thinner. If human beings were machines, we would all plug into this universal weight loss equation and live the rest of our lives in svelte bliss.

High Fructose Corn Syrup
Would sugar by any other name taste as sweet - or make us as likely to gain weight? It's the sticky debate taking place in nutrition circles.

The Obesity Epidemic
Excessive body fat accumulates when we take in more calories than we expend. But the expanding North American waistline is caused by a complex relationship between environment and genes. This month Research Watch explores the causes of the obesity epidemic.