Childhood Obesity Rates Stop Rising

Source: Washington Post

The obesity epidemic may have peaked among U.S. children, halting a decades-long trend of inexorably expanding waistlines among the nation's youngest and most vulnerable, federal health officials reported yesterday. A new analysis of the most recent data collected by an ongoing government survey, considered the most authoritative on the subject, detected the first sign since the 1980s that the proportion of 2-to-19-year-olds who are overweight may have stopped rising, the National Center for Health Statistics reported.

"It looks like it's leveling off," said Cynthia L. Ogden, an epidemiologist whose analysis is being published in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "It could finally be stabilizing."

More data will be needed, however, to confirm that the data represent a turnaround in the long upward trend and not just a temporary pause, Odgen noted. And even if the epidemic has peaked, the pace at which young people are becoming overweight remains alarmingly high. Moreover, those who are already overweight face a future fraught with possible serious health problems.

"It's too soon to uncork the champagne," said David S. Ludwig, an expert on childhood obesity at Children's Hospital Boston who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the new research. "We're not out of the woods by any stretch. Even if the rates don't go up any more, they are so high that the full impact of the childhood obesity epidemic will continue for the next few decades." Still, several experts said the data offer the first glimmer of hope that the country could be starting to push back against a major public health threat.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/27/AR2008052701989_pf.html

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Good news indeed if true.

Their daughter



Her Brother

The biggest change we need to make is to get rid of corn syrup. I have stopped consuming all products consuming corn syrup and encourage all DUers to do the same. Your body cannot process corn syrup and turns it into fat. I do like sweet things and choose to buy products made with cane sugar.

Whole wheat is now put in sugar cereals and even a lot of white bread now. I wonder if that is having an effect? We have tried to reduce our corn syrup intake and eliminate MSG as well. We don't drink much pop any way but that stuff is a lot of things.

There are a lot of other chemicals in food that affect our kids weight. More home-made food and less processed food helps, too. It's better to eat a bunch of home made cookies than a bunch of oreos.

nt

They have a playground there for the kids, and toys come with the burgers! Yay!!