Report pleads for a united front against childhood obesity
A major US report has sobering findings. Children’s obesity rates are increasing in the US.
About 20 percent of children in the USA will be obese by 2010 if dramatic steps aren’t taken to halt childhood obesity, says a report from the prestigious Institute of Medicine. And growth in childhood/adolescent obesity has been steady in recent years. In 2002 16 percent of US children and teenagers were obese. By 2004 this had risen to 17.1 percent.
Extra weight puts children at an increased risk of being overweight adults and developing type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and other health problems.
Read more: USA Today, 13 Sep 2006
Read more: Media Release, The National Academies, 13 Sep 2006
Read the report: ‘Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?’