Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Childhood Obesity News

From the NY Times, childhood obesity rates seem to have reached a plateau. Reasons yet to be determined.

But the finding, based on survey data gathered from 1999 to 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in Wednesday’s issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, was greeted with guarded optimism.

It is not yet clear if the lull in childhood weight gain is permanent or even if it is the result of public anti-obesity efforts to limit junk food and increase physical activity in schools. And doctors note that even if the trend holds up, 32 percent of American school children still are overweight or obese, representing an entire generation that will be saddled with weight-related health problems as it ages.