CHILDHOOD OBESITY STATISTICS POINT TO SEVERE OBESITY IN ADULTHOOD
There is an article posted on the blog BiosLifeSlimOnline that reviews the findings of a recent study in the Journal of the AMA about a 13 year study that followed over 8,000 adolescents to see whether those who were obese as children were overweight as adults. Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
I liked the article because it once again emphasized how hard it is to lose weight at any age. It also is a reminder that early intervention is very important with teenagers. Their weight problems not only will linger into adulthood, but also are likely to continue and even worsen as the years go by. This fact is probably no surprise to anyone.
The surprise was how many continue or become severely obese by the end of the study if they started out in the obese category. 703 or just under 8% of the teens slipped into the severely overweight category as adults. This meant gaining 80 - 100 pounds over their ideal weight. No wonder the chilhood obesity statistics are such a serious matter!
These teenagers who continue to have such obesity problems as adults will develop heart diease, high cholesterol, hypertension and a whole host of other problems at a much younger age then we have seen before.
This generation of young adults are likely not to live as long as their parents if nothing is done to stop the trend. Intervention really starts at the level of the family. The parents have to be taught healthy cooking, and how to shop for their overweight teens. You can read the article to get the details of the study.
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