Two articles published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine discussed the health risks of childhood obesity. Obese and non-obese children who were born between 1945 and 1984 were followed and their health was assessed over the years. Of the children who were obese, they were twice as likely to die from obesity-related disease BEFORE THE AGE OF 55.
I see a fair number of overweight children in my practice and parents are always surprised to hear that their children already suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated glucose levels (diabetes and pre-diabetes). These diseases are common in the 65 and older crowd, but they have trickled down to the forties and the thirthy-somethings and now in the last 10 years we are seeing them more and more often in our children.
There is no easy fix. In order to help our children get healthier and stay healthier, the whole family has to eat healthier. For example, my son in college is very thin, to the point of being underweight (where did THAT come from??). Even though he was the only one in the family who DIDN’T need to lose weight, he still snacked on vegetables and ate the same meals as the rest of us did. His portions were always larger, but it was the same food. Even though he didn’t need to lose weight, he still needed to get his whole grains to help prevent diabetes and his fiber to help prevent diverticulosis and colon cancer.
Everyone in the family deserves to eat healthier, to prevent certain diseases and maximize life expectancy. First Lady Michelle Obama is on the right track with her “Let’s Move” childhood obesity campaign, www.letsmove.gov. Let’s not raise our next generation to have a shorter life expectancy for the first time in US history.
Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on under