Poor eating and activity habits, not genetics, are the underlying causes for most cases of adolescent obesity.
Poor eating and activity habits, not genetics, are the underlying causes for most cases of adolescent obesity.
Childhood obesity is one of the foremost global health challenges. To determine health behaviours that contribute to obesity, researchers studied the body mass index, blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose, and heart rate recovery after a 3-minute step test among 1003 sixth-grade children enrolled in a school-based intervention study from 2004 to 2009 in USA. They compared health behaviors and physiologic markers in obese versus non-obese children.
Nearly one-third of all the students said they drank a soda the day before, while fewer than half said they could recall having eaten two portions of fruits and vegetables in the same time frame. And while 34 percent of non-obese kids consumed lunches provided by their school, that figure rose to 45 percent among obese students.
Only one-third of all the children reported exercising a half hour for five days during the previous week. Obese children were much less likely than non-obese kids to participate in regular exercise and/or physical education classes, and less likely to be a part of a sports team. Among obese children, 58 percent reported watching two hours of TV in the past day. That compared with 41 percent of non-obese children.
Because the eating and exercise patterns of obese children were so different than their normal weight peers, researchers concluded that lifestyle was more closely linked with childhood obesity, than genetics. They suggest that for the extremely overweight child, genetic screening may be a consideration, but for the rest, increasing physical activity, reducing recreational screen time and improving the nutritional value of school lunches offers great promise to begin a reversal of current childhood obesity trends.
Childhood obesity is one of the foremost global health challenges. To determine health behaviours that contribute to obesity, researchers studied the body mass index, blood pressure, lipid profile, glucose, and heart rate recovery after a 3-minute step test among 1003 sixth-grade children enrolled in a school-based intervention study from 2004 to 2009 in USA. They compared health behaviors and physiologic markers in obese versus non-obese children.
Nearly one-third of all the students said they drank a soda the day before, while fewer than half said they could recall having eaten two portions of fruits and vegetables in the same time frame. And while 34 percent of non-obese kids consumed lunches provided by their school, that figure rose to 45 percent among obese students.
Only one-third of all the children reported exercising a half hour for five days during the previous week. Obese children were much less likely than non-obese kids to participate in regular exercise and/or physical education classes, and less likely to be a part of a sports team. Among obese children, 58 percent reported watching two hours of TV in the past day. That compared with 41 percent of non-obese children.
Because the eating and exercise patterns of obese children were so different than their normal weight peers, researchers concluded that lifestyle was more closely linked with childhood obesity, than genetics. They suggest that for the extremely overweight child, genetic screening may be a consideration, but for the rest, increasing physical activity, reducing recreational screen time and improving the nutritional value of school lunches offers great promise to begin a reversal of current childhood obesity trends.
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