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By
Nanci Hellmich
Obesity researchers
are alarmed by new government data that show 15% of kids and
adolescents, or about 9 million children, are overweight.
And overall, 20% to 30% of children in this country are either
overweight or at risk of becoming so.
Kids who weigh
too much are at a greater risk of becoming heavy adults, are
more likely to suffer from low-esteem and have a greater chance
of developing health problems such as diabetes, weight-control
experts say.
"This is not
a red flag, this is the fireworks going off," says Keith
Ayoob, a pediatric nutritionist at Albert Einstein College
of Medicine in New York City and spokesman for the American
Dietetic Association. He says families have to help their
children get a handle on the problem before it gets worse.
George Blackburn,
an obesity researcher at Harvard Medical School, agrees. "We
only have effective therapy to stop weight gain or get modest
weight loss, so we can't let these kids keep gaining."
For the 1999-2000
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, researchers
measured the heights and weights of 4,722 children, from birth
to age 19. Children who are overweight are at or above the
95%ile based on body mass index charts for their age group.
Those who are at risk of being overweight are at or above
the 85%ile. Among the findings, reported in today's Journal
of the American Medical Association:
- About 15% of
12- to 19-year olds are overweight now, up from 5% in the
late '70s.
- 15% of kids
ages 6 to 11 are overweight now, up from 7% in the late
'70s.
- 10% of 2 to
5-year olds are overweight now, up from 5% in the late '70s.
Some groups are
particularly vulnerable to weight gain. For example, 27% of
Mexican-American males ages 6 to 19 are overweight and 27%
of African-Americans females ages 12 to 19 are overweight.
Experts say chubby
children pay a huge price for extra pounds. "Overweight
robs kids of their childhood, because it prevents them from
doing the same kinds of activities that leaner kids do,"
Ayoob says. "This leaves them feeling left out and isolated.
They may hibernate inside, watching TV and playing video games,
which creates a vicious cycle of inactivity."
Overweight kids
are often teased by their peers. "And it's not just skinny
kids doing the teasing. It may be heavy kids teasing the very
heavy kids," he says.
Parents who want
to change kids' eating habits may have to revamp their own
eating and buying habits. Family meals have to be a priority,
he says.
For many kids,
"snacking has become a leisure activity," Ayoob
says. "They are eating because it's there. Snacking,
per se, is fine."
However, the foods
many kids eat aren't delivering much nutritional punch although
they are packing a big punch when it comes to calories, he
says. Families' kitchens are often laden with cakes, pies,
cookies and a couple of rotten bananas. He recommends reversing
that and putting delicious fruit on the counter, and having
only a few sweet treats around.
But weight issues
aren't solved by diet alone. Kids also have to cut back on
TV time and become more active, experts say.
Melinda Sothern,
an exercise physiologist and director of childhood obesity
research at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, believes
families should spend at least half a day each weekend doing
some physical activity together, such as skating or biking.
She encourages parents to have their children play and run
around for 30 minutes when they come home from school to let
off steam. When kids are reading or doing homework, she suggests
that they take a three- or four-minute break every half-hour
to dance to a some music, jump rope or run around a bit.
Ayoob says physical
activity not only burns calories, but helps kids focus on
other pleasurable activities besides eating. "Food should
be one of life's pleasures," he says, "but not the
only one."
USAToday.com
October 8, 2002
JAMA
October 9, 20022002;288:1723-1732;1758-1761;1772-1773
(Free Full Text Article)
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