Oct 14, 2017
Craig Press – Laura Glendenning
Colorado might be known nationally as the state with the lowest obesity rate, but the state’s childhood obesity rate is nothing to brag about. The state’s childhood obesity ranking among 10- to- 17-year-olds is 36th in the nation, with 27.2 percent of children in that age group considered overweight or obese, according to the 2016 Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative. With winter weather already underway in Moffat County, it’s an important time of year to prevent sedentary behaviors from becoming habit. (more)
Oct 13, 2017
Medical X-Press – Staff Writer
Parents who struggle to get their children to follow a healthy diet may want to make dinnertime a pleasant experience, new research suggests. The study found a happier emotional atmosphere during meals allows preschoolers to make healthier food choices. “Having more positive mealtimes, where people are enjoying themselves, where there’s mutual warmth and engagement, makes it a little bit easier for children to approach healthy foods,” said lead author Jaclyn Saltzman, a doctoral candidate in the department of human development and family studies at the University of Illinois. (more)
Oct 13, 2017
Medical X-Press – Mike Stobbe
America’s weight problem isn’t getting any better, according to new government research. Overall, obesity figures stayed about the same: About 40 percent of adults are obese and 18.5 percent of children. Those numbers are a slight increase from the last report but the difference is so small that it could have occurred by chance. Worrisome to experts is the rate for children and teenagers, which had hovered around 17 percent for a decade. The 2-to-5 age group had the biggest rise. (more)
Oct 12, 2017
CNN – Meera Senthilingam
The number of obese children and adolescents rose to 124 million in 2016 — more than 10 times higher than the 11 million classified as obese 40 years ago, in 1975. A further 213 million children and adolescents were overweight in 2016, finds a new study published Tuesday in the Lancet. Looking at the broader picture, this equated to roughly 5.6% of girls and 7.8% of boys being obese last year. (more)
Oct 12, 2017
The Telegraph – Maria Lally
When her 8-year-old daughter started a new school in a new town, Kim was heartbroken – but not altogether surprised – when she came home after her first day and said some older boys had called her fat. “We used to live in a small village and she went to the local infant school where she’d known all her classmates from NCT and playgroup days,” says Kim. “She’s always been plumper than the other children – I’m also a bit overweight – but they genuinely didn’t notice or care. “When we moved for my husband’s job and she started her new school, it was a wake-up call. She was clearly bigger than the other children and, for the first time ever, they did notice – and they teased her for it. I wanted to help her lose weight, but I didn’t want to damage her self-esteem.” (more)
