The Future of Fatness
Margarita Treuth studies little girls--girls with lean parents, girls with obese parents, and girls with one of each. And the Johns Hopkins University professor's findings are unequivocal: The girls with two obese parents accumulate more body fat--starting as early as age 10. She has controlled for everything from TV watching to sports participation and concludes: "The girls with two obese parents were becoming fatter and less fit."
Treuth's conclusions confirm another study showing that parental obesity more than doubles the risk children will become obese as adults. "We need to find preventive strategies for kids now," Treuth says, "because these kids have got their whole lives ahead of them."
The rate of childhood obesity has more than doubled in the United States over the past two decades. More than 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight, and among some groups--such as Mexican-American boys and African-American girls--the numbers are nearly double that. A recent study of 15 nations found that American teens were the fattest.
Stigma. Fat kids suffer terribly. Children shown pictures of obese kids as well as kids with various disabilities--facial deformities and missing limbs, for example--said they would choose the obese child last as a friend.
Various social factors contribute to the problem--notably, declining physical activity and a dramatic increase in fast-food and soft-drink consumption. Indeed, a recent report in Lancet shows that 3-year-olds spent about 79 percent of their time in sedentary behavior--often watching television--and only about 20 minutes a day in moderate or vigorous active play. Likewise, 3 of 5 older children--9 to 13--do not participate in any organized physical activity outside of school.
This inactivity is compounding the deleterious effects of a fast-food diet. In 1977, children ate only about 1 in 10 meals from fast-food restaurants. By 1996, that ratio was 1 in 3. These meals contain nearly twice the calories of a home-cooked meal.
Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics officially went on record opposing the availability of soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks in schools. It concluded: "Overweight is now the most common medical condition of childhood." -Amanda Spake
This story appears in the February 9, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.