One in five preschoolers are obese, according to researchers at Ohio State University. That adds up to half-a-million obese four year olds in America.

Baby fat is adorable, and even necessary for survival. Babies are designed to be fat, because fat is needed to help babies regulate their temperature. Those adorable little rolls around their tummies? Their sausage-y legs, fat little fingers, chubby cheeks and squidgy little knees? Precious.

As babies become crawlers and toddlers, and become more aware of the relationship between having a coat on and not being cold, being fat is not vital for survival. And crawling and toddling and running uses up calories and builds muscles, so that baby fat is designed to gradually disappear.

It seems like that isn’t happening in many of today’s children. Many people can tell you their opinion of why people are getting heavier, and getting heavier younger.  Perhaps our kids are getting less exercise, maybe they are eating more food, or the wrong kind of food. Perhaps it’s a combination.

Most of us know that a healthy diet and plenty of activity is vital for maintaining a healthy weight, and that seems to apply to everyone from babies on up.

And the researcher’s best non-obvious advice for preventing a baby becoming an overweight toddler and an obese preschooler?  Helping baby recognise when they are full. Babies are born knowing when they have had enough to eat, and trying to get a baby to eat more than she needs disrupts the natural system and may lead to overeating in future.

That’s what officials told a hopeful father in the UK. Damien and Charlotte Hall have been married for 11 years, and after trying unsuccessfully to have a baby of their own, decided to try to adopt a child.

But officials in the city of Leeds in northern England told Damien that he would have to lose weight first as his risk of becoming ill or dying was too high.

Damien weighs almost 350 lbs, but says he doesn’t drink or smoke, and says that he walks regularly and is very active.

There is no official upper weight limit for potential adoptive parents in the UK, but very overweight or obese people are likely to be turned down. The Adoption Panel in Leeds says that they are “unlikely to approve applicants with a BMI over 40 because of the long-term health risks.”

The Adoption Panel told the couple that Damien could have another medical in six months time, and they could reconsider their case if he lost weight.

The couple are sad and say that even though they accept that Damien is overweight, and know that he is more at risk from heart disease and other serious health issues, that he doesn’t feel unfit or unhealthy. They say that surely, life with loving parents is better than life in a children’s home, even with the higher chance that he may fall ill? After all, we never know what might happen to even the slimmest and fittest of us.

Currently, thousands of babies and children are awaiting adoption in the UK.

Is it right to discriminate against prospective adoptive parents because of their weight?

Young ladies and gentlemen, if you think that skipping breakfast is one way to lose weight, you?re wrong!

Recent studies showed that American teenagers who skip breakfast are more likely to be obese than those who eat a morning meal. This is based on the study of 2216 students in Minneapolis and St. Paul middle and high schools from 1998 to 1999 and again from 2003 and 2004. The survey showed that almost 19% of the boys and 14% of the girls skip breakfast. The majority of these kids came from low-income homes and were non-white. It seems that these kids are skipping breakfast to lose weight. However, the study showed that teens that skipped the meal were five pounds heavier on average, ate less healthy food during the day and resorted to fast food or food from vending machines and exercised less frequently than those who ate breakfast.

Obesity means a person has too much body fat, while being overweight means a person’s weight is more than what is recommended for his or her height. Obesity is not only an issue of being fat but is linked to health problems such high cholesterol, high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes. The number of obese teenagers in the USA has tripled over the past twenty years and is now a major health concern that needs to be addressed.

Source:

Bloomberg.com 3 March 2008

A recent survey of more than 2,000 American adults revealed that parents of obese children do not see them as such. The survey pointed out that for children aged 6-11 who were obese, 43% of parents thought them to be ‘about the right weight?. Obesity was defined as a body mass index greater than 95 percentile of children nationwide.
This study is worth noting because as nutritionists point out, identifying obesity is an opportunity for parents to focus on improving their child’s diet and activity, especially since obese children are more prone to chronic health concerns such as diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol problems.

When my parents visited us for 3 summers in a row from 2004-2006 (they hail from southern Texas), they were struck by a number of things inherent in the ‘European lifestyle’ that contrasted sharply with what they had observed in Americana that they thought contributed largely to a markedly low number of obese people they saw. These were what they pointed out:

1. Walking and biking were leisure and pleasure activities. In a university town like Leuven (where we live), you see not only high school children on bikes crowding the streets, but senior citizens and, quite remarkably and adorably, very young citizens on bikes. You see toddlers riding on bikes with training wheels on the sidewalks, or toddlers on bikes attached to the body of their parents? bikes with a thick long bar. If the kids aren’t biking, they’re walking several blocks to school. University students going home to their parents for the weekend can be seen lugging suitcases bursting with dirty laundry from their studentenkamer or kot (student room) to the station, boot heels clicking rapidly on the cobbled pavements. It’s a primary choice for many people from all ages: why drive a car or ride a bus when you can walk or bike?
2. Natural, brown bread was a staple along with the usual potatoes. A Vietnamese-American priest my parents met put it thus: ‘These Belgians eat bread for breakfast, bread for lunch, and bread for dinner. It’s just bread, bread, and even more bread!’ In between snacks at 10 AM and 4 PM consist of an apple (in the morning) and carrot or celery sticks (in the afternoon). You can wash this down with a bottle of sparkling (bruisend) water or a yogurt drink. During lunch and dinner, have a few slices of ham and cheese on hand, slice tomatoes and throw in some fresh lettuce and this should last you through the afternoon.
3. People were enjoying their meals with a cup of coffee or tea, or a pint of the local brew. And staying put. To engage in conversation. Letting the food digest slowly. Just being with friends. It is not unusual to see hordes of not only young adults standing in clusters in the town square or bus stops; you see children as young as 8 years old running around with their friends after school, teenagers sitting near the central library and just talking. Not rushing to get anywhere soon.

These three things, my parents noted, are some of the reasons they believe that they do not see to many obese people in Europe. The healthy respect and love for natural exercise such as walking and biking, the healthful diet that is widespread across the continent, and the penchant for whiling away the best part of the afternoon while sipping a glass of orange juice or red wine may just be some ways, they believe, that people in American might begin to enjoy life a little more while taking necessary steps towards improving one’s health life. What do you think? Do you agree with my parents?