Hey Everybody!

Read this article and I found it disturbing that we are allowing youth to get so fat!

Five years olds are developing middle-age paunches - a bleak sign that children are not only getting heavier, they're packing on the worst kind of fat. Abdominal obesity increased more than 65 percent among U.S children between 1988 and 2004, according to the first national study to track trends in belly fat in children.

Tease out specific age groups "and those increases only grow more alarming," says co-author Dr. Stephan Cook, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical School.

Among 18-19 years old girls, the relative increase in abdominal obesity was 126 per cent over the study period, and 84 per cent for two-to-five year-old boys.

"We had these really significant increases in central feet, especially among adolescents," Cook says.

Not suprisingly, the researchers found an increase in body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio widely used as a measure of being overweight or obese. But the proportion of children with central fat appers to have increased faster than BMI scores, a worrying trend because of emerging evidence that belly fat is riskier than overall obesity. Studies have shown that increased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes due to excess body fat is mainly linked to abdominal fat.

The percentage of six-to 11 year olds with high BMI scores increased about 25 per cent between 1999 and 2004. The percentage with abdominal fat increased over the same period to 19.2 per cent from 14.2 per cent.

Today's abundance of high-fat, high-sugar foods, especially foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, "could be predisposing children not only to become fatter, but disproportionately fat around the middle, Cook says.

High-fructose corn syrup, found in everything from candy bars to ketchup and hamburger buns, has become the most common sweetener used in commercially prepared foods.

Studies suggest average daily fructose consumption has increased 25 per cent over the past 30 years. Led by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease control, the study relied on data from a national health and nutrition survey conducted during four time periods. Information was collected from more than 22,000 2 to 19 year olds.

Overall, the prevalence of abdominal obesity increased to 17.4 per cent from 10.5 per cent for boys, and to 17.8 per cent from 10.5 per cent for girls. The increases in belly fat occurred in all age, racial and ethnic backgrounds.

No consensus yet on the "cut-off point" for abdominal obesity. Cook's team is looking at developing a waist growth curve that could be used by doctors, similar to the old height and weight charts.

"The good thing is, we know that in kids (the health effect of abdominal fat) is completely reversible, if we can get the to exercise more and to adjust their diet and adopt a healthy lifestyle," he says.

By Sharon Kirkey