Posted by: Curt | Under: Children/fit, Diet and Weight Loss, General Fitness, Health, Youth/fit | (0) Comments
Finally some good news- It appears from some limited data that the overweight/obesity rate in children and youth has leveled off and is hovering at about 32% after increasing every year since 1980. This is still a huge problem since these kids have learned all the wrong things about eating and exercise. But at least the rate appears to be holding. The problem as health care professionals see it will really come as they enter their 30’s and get older. Then the real battles begin with ever increasing health problems unless they have a major lifestyle change. So if you know kids that are overweight, do what you can to encourage them to change their eating and exercise habits. You really will be helping to save their lives.
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“That is a first encouraging finding in what has been unremittingly bad news,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of an obesity clinic at Children’s Hospital Boston. “But it’s too soon to know if this really means we’re beginning to make meaningful inroads into this epidemic. It may simply be a statistical fluke.”In 2003-04 and 2005-06, roughly 32 percent of children were overweight but not obese, 16 percent were obese and 11 percent were extremely obese, according to a study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those levels held steady after rising without interruption since 1980.
…”Without a substantial decline in prevalence, the full impact of the childhood epidemic will continue to mount in coming years,” Ludwig said. That is because it can take many years for obesity-related complications to translate into life-threatening events, including heart attacks and kidney failure.
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