1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese!!!!

A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age.
Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.
The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages.
"The magnitude of these differences was larger than we expected, and it is surprising to see differences by racial groups present so early in childhood," said Sarah Anderson, an Ohio State University public health researcher. She conducted the research with Temple University's Dr. Robert Whitaker.
Dr. Glenn Flores, a pediatrics and public health professor at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, said the research is an important contribution to studies documenting racial and ethnic disparities in children's weight.
"The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a 'minority majority' nation," he said. Without interventions, the next generation "will be at very high risk" for heart disease, high blood pressure, cancers, joint diseases and other problems connected with obesity, said Flores, who was not involved in the new research.
The study is an analysis of nationally representative height and weight data on 8,550 preschoolers born in 2001. Children were measured in their homes and were part of a study conducted by the government's National Center for Education Statistics. The results appear in Monday's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Almost 13 percent of Asian children were obese, along with 16 percent of whites, almost 21 percent of blacks, 22 percent of Hispanics, and 31 percent of American Indians.

Obesity in our Children

Fast food and soft drinks may be making children fatter but they also make them happy. Programs aimed at tackling childhood obesity by reducing children’s consumption of unhealthy food and drink are likely to be more effective if they also actively seek to keep children happy in other ways, said professor Hung-Hao Chang from National Taiwan University and professor Rodolfo Nayga from the University of Arkansas. Their findings are published in Springer’s Journal of Happiness Studies. Childhood obesity is a major public health issue worldwide. It is well accepted that unhealthy eating patterns are partly responsible for the increase in childhood obesity. However, very little is known about the relationship between fast food and soft drink consumption and children’s happiness. For the first time, Chang and Nayga looked at the relationship between unhealthy dietary habits and children’s psychological health. In particular, they studied the effects of fast food and soft drink consumption on children’s body weight and unhappiness. Using data from the National Health Interview Survey in Taiwan, a nationwide survey carried out in 2001, the authors looked at the fast food and soft drink consumption, body weight, and level of happiness of 2,366 children between 2 and 12. Fast food included French fries, pizza and hamburgers; soft drinks included soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages. One-fourth of the children in the survey sample were overweight or obese, and about 19 percent sometimes or often felt unhappy, sad, or depressed. The study’s key finding was that children who ate fast food and drank soft drinks were more likely to be overweight, but they were also less likely to be unhappy. The authors’ analysis also highlighted a number of factors influencing children’s body weight, eating patterns, and happiness. For example, mothers’ consumption of fast food and soft drinks predicted her child’s eating habits. Those children who ate fast food were more likely to also consume soft drinks. Children from lower income households were more likely to have unhealthy dietary habits and be overweight or obese. The authors conclude: “Our findings suggest that consumption of fast food and soft drinks can result in a trade-off between children’s objective (i.e. obesity) and subjective (i.e. unhappiness) well-being. Policies and programs that aim to improve children’s overall health should take these effects on children’s objective and subjective well-being into account to facilitate the reduction in childhood obesity without sacrificing children’s degree of happiness.