The Urgency ∈Fighting Childhood Obesity
Jane E. Brody
Life-threatening ailments like heart disease,
cancer, stroke and Type 2 diabetes most often afflict
adults. But they are often consequences of childhood
obesity.
[5] Two new studies, conducted among more than
half a million children ∈Denmark who were followed
for many years, linked a high body mass index (B.M.I)
∈ children to an increased risk of developing colon
cancer and suffering an early stroke as adults. The
[10] studies, presented at the European Obesity Summit
∈Gothenburg, Sweden, this spring, underscore the
importance of preventing and reversing undue weight
gain ∈ young children and teenagers.
One study, of more than 257,623 people, by Dr.
[15] Britt Wang Jensen and colleagues at the Institute of
Preventive Medicine, ∈Bispebjerg, Denmark, and
Frederiksberg Hospital ∈Copenhagen, grouped
children according to standard deviations from a
mean B.M.I., adjusted for a child’s age and sex. They
[20] found that each unit of increase ∈ being overweight at
age 13 increased the risk of developing colon cancer
by 9 percent and rectal cancer by 11 percent.
The second study, involving 307,677 Danish
people born from 1930 to 1987, used a similar grouping
[25] of B.M.I. The risk of developing a clot-related stroke ∈
early adult life increased by 26 percent ∈ women and
21 percent ∈ men for each unit of increase ∈ being
overweight at all stages of childhood, but especially
at age 13.
[30] Although neither study proves that excess weight
∈ childhood itself, as opposed to being overweight as
an adult, is responsible for the higher rates of cancer
and stroke, overweight children are much more likely
to become overweight adults — unless they adopt and
[30]maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.
Although neither study proves that excess weight
∈ childhood itself, as opposed to being overweight as
an adult, is responsible for the higher rates of cancer
and stroke, overweight children are much more likely
[35] to become overweight adults — unless they adopt and
maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.
According to the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, obesity most often develops
from ages 5 to 6 or during the teen years, and “studies
have shown that a child who is obese between the
[40] ages of 10 and 13 has an 80 percent chance of
becoming an obese adult.”
Children are generally considered obese when
their B.M.I. is at or above the 95th percentile for others
of the same age and sex. Currently, about one-third
[45] of American children are overweight or obese. By
2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
reports, 18 percent of children and 21 percent of
adolescents were obese
The adverse effects of excess weight ∈ childhood
[50]and adolescence don’t necessarily wait to show up
later ∈ life. In a review of complications resulting from
youthful obesity, Dr. Stephen R. Daniels, a pediatrician
at the University of Colorado School of Medicine
and the Children’s Hospital ∈Denver, found that
[55]problems ∈ many organ systems were often apparent
long before adulthood. They include high blood
pressure; insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes;
high blood levels of heart-damaging triglycerides
and low levels of protective high-density lipoprotein
[60] (HDL) cholesterol; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease;
obstructive sleep apnea; asthma; and excess stress
on the musculoskeletal system resulting ∈ abnormal
bone development, knee and hip pain, and difficulty
walking.
[65] Problems of youthful obesity go beyond physical
ones. Obese adolescents have higher rates of
depression, which ∈ itself may foster poor eating and
exercise patterns that add to their weight problem
and result ∈a poor quality of life that persists into
[70] adulthood.
n a study conducted ∈Singapore, researchers
reported that “individuals who were obese ∈ childhood
are more likely to have poor body image and low
self-esteem and confidence, even more so than those
[75] with adult onset obesity.”
Another study by Dr. Jeffrey B. Schwimmer of the
University of California, San Diego, and colleagues
found that obese children and adolescents reported a
diminished quality of life that was comparable to that
[80] of children with cancer
Taken together, the data speak to the critical
importance of preventing undue weight gain ∈ young
children, a task that depends largely on parents, who
are responsible for what and how much children eat
[85] and how much physical activity they engage ∈.
“I encourage parents to change the environment
at home,” Dr. Stephen R. Daniels of the University
of Colorado said ∈ an interview. “Without being
authoritarian, they should limit high-calorie-dense
[90] foods, keep sugar-sweetened beverages out of the
house and assure that kids eat the \right amount of
fruits and vegetables and fewer calorie-dense snacks.
Parents also need to be tuned into opportunities for
physical activity and set hard-and-fast rules about
[95] television and time spent on electronics.”
Following the “5210” daily program endorsed by
the American Academy of Pediatrics can help: Aim
for five fruits and vegetables a day; keep recreational
screen time to two hours or less; include at least
[100] one hour of active play and skip sugar-sweetened
beverages and drink water.
Retrieved and adapted from http://well.blogs.nytimes. com/2016/07/05/the-urgency-in-fighting-childhood-obesity/?rref =collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth&action=click&conte ntCollection=health®ion=rank&module=package&version=hi ghlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront. Access on: July 5th,2016. Adapted.
In the fragment “Parents also need to be tuned into opportunities for physical activity and set hard-and-fast rules about television and time spent on electronics ” (lines 93-95), the expression “be tuned into” can be replaced, without change ∈ meaning, by
