Becoming a nation of Baby Hueys
By Derrick Z. Jackson -
AS MUCH AS obesity is in the news, Ohio State University public health epidemiologist Sarah Anderson was still surprised how it now assaults the youngest children. Studying 8,550 children, she and Robert Whitaker of Temple University found that 18.4 percent of 4-year-olds, nearly one-in-five, were obese....
"While research has shown differences in older children and men and women, we didn't necessarily think we'd find that large of a difference in young children," Anderson said in a telephone interview. "But the fact they have such a high BMI (body mass index) and they're 4? This clearly shows that we have a problem early in childhood and that we really need to think about childhood obesity prevention that begins in infancy, perhaps even in pregnancy."
The study in the current Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine should set off a national alarm. We already know that fat youth inexorably blow up into fatally immobile adults. In 2003-2006 data, the Centers for Disease Control said 12.4 percent of children ages 2 to 5 were obese. Adult America is 34 percent obese.
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Study after study shows obesity to be fueled by child exposure to ads, proximity of fast-food restaurants to schools, and the overabundance of bad food at rural and inner-city convenience stores, in lives devoid of exercise. <<<<<
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