Children with more body fat and less endurance than their fitter, leaner counterparts have stiffer arteries at a young age, Medical College of Georgia researchers said.

Stiff arteries are a hallmark of atherosclerosis, a typically adult condition in which blood vessels become clogged.

"When children at such a young age start getting diseases only adults used to get, it's like the sky is falling," said Dr. Catherine L. Davis, clinical health psychologist in MCG's Georgia Prevention Institute and principal investigator on the study. The findings were presented during the 31st Annual Society of Behavioral Medicine Meeting.

Using a non-invasive measure of pulse wave velocity, Davis discovered that children with a greater body mass index, more body fat and less endurance had stiffer central arteries compared to leaner and fitter children. Identifying these children early could hasten preventive measures, she noted.

Her most recent National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute-funded study involves overweight or obese 8-11-year-old children, half of whom participate in aerobic exercises such as jumping rope and shooting hoops weekdays after school while the other half participate in sedentary activities, including board games and crafts.

Among a similar cohort of children, Davis also found that regular exercise decreases metabolic risks linked to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The new study will examine the effects of exercise on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and atherosclerosis.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which affects about 40 percent of obese children, initially is often symptomless. But its long-term risk of inflammation and scarring, which can cause liver damage and failure, also is related to hardening of the arteries.

"It's essentially another aspect of the metabolic imbalance these children are experiencing when they're overweight and inactive and is a signal they're at very high risk for diabetes," Davis said.

She already found that exercise reduces inflammation, visceral fat (a type of fat situated between the organs), body mass index and insulin levels. Children who exercised showed improvement on virtually all of those measures after just 20 to 40 minutes of daily aerobic exercise for 12 weeks. She presented the findings at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism Conference in March.

Davis is working with Dr. Sudipta Misra, MCG pediatric hepatologist, to use novel ultrasound technology instead of the traditional biopsies to gauge liver fibrosis.

"A gentle pulse will pass through the liver, and the echo will determine if the liver is stiff (indicating disease) or nice and soft," Davis said.

Davis hopes her research will encourage programs to keep children active and hold lifestyle-related diseases at bay.

Medical College of Georgia. "Childhood Obesity Linked to Stiff Arteries." ScienceDaily 14 April 2010.

Ads placement on children's favorite movies will greatly influence the selection of foods that they do. This course will be very profitable for the companies, but harmful to the child because most of the foods advertised there were low nutrition. Children are very vulnerable to the negative impact of the ads they see.

New research from the Hood Center for Children and Families at Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) for the first time sheds light on the significant potential negative impact that food product placements in the movies could be having on children. According to them most of the products advertised in the Movies consists of energy-dense products and low nutritional products.

"The current situation in the United States is very serious in terms of the health of our children, and we have to look seriously at all of the factors that may be contributing to it, including the impact of product placements in movies," says Lisa Sutherland, Ph.D. the lead author of the study. Sutherland says that the diet quality of U.S. children and adolescents has declined markedly during the past 20 years, and current estimates suggest that only one percent of children eat a diet consistent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) My-Pyramid food guidance. Additionally, fewer than one fifth of adolescents meet the dietary recommendations for fat or fruit and vegetable intakes, and during the last 20 years obesity rates have doubled for children aged 6 to 11 years and tripled for adolescents aged 12 to 19 years.

"While the issue of food advertising and its effect on children has been well documented in numerous studies, comparatively little is known about product placement in movies and how it affects the food and beverage preferences and choices of children and adolescents," Sutherland said. The study notes that while there are similarities between television advertising and movie product placement, such as the low nutritional quality of the majority of branded products, there are also interesting differences. Recent studies that examined television ads during adolescent programming found fast food and ready-to-eat cereals and cereal bars to be the most prevalent during children's programming. In contrast, the Dartmouth study found that sugar-sweetened beverages, comprised largely of soda, accounted for the largest proportion of all of the movie-based food product brand placements, accounting for one of every four brand placements overall.

Perhaps many parents who understand that the advertised product is not good for the health of their children, but many of them eventually give up and buy these products because the child's whining. The situation may become worse when the parents started giving money to their children who are teenagers, so that teenagers can buy their own needs.

Realizing this will make parents more aware and start thinking to react.

We know that our children are becoming fatter, but not everyone agrees on the cause or who’s to blame. Since 1970, obesity rates have more than doubled among 6 to 11 years old children and than tripled among those 12 to 19 years old. Make us as parents very concerned.

Without going to blame one party, understanding the following phenomena is worthwhile.

Today, marketing in schools has become big business. Businessmen see it as an opportunity to make direct sales. They are taking advantage of schools’ financial difficulties by offering marketing their products in the schools as a way for the schools to solve their financial problem.

Almost all children live in homes with a television (about 99%). They spent five and a half hours each day (The average American child ) watching television.
Marketers reach our children through kid-oriented channels. They also can use
non-commercial stations to influence children.

Food manufacturers also sell toys, books and clothes that are advertisements for their products. There are countless books for our children centered on their food’s name (brand). Maybe they want to make eating as a part of reading.

Children are unlikely to recognize advertising because it is an integral part of a program, like movies or games. As a result, they can “force” you to buy product that they want. From my personal experience, I know that marketing campaigns are effective in driving children to request products.

There is a close connection between unhealthy foods to children’s weight. Unhealthy food is food that high in fat and sugar and low in nutritional value.
Our job as parents to protect the children from practice that can harm their health.

The main concern of children’s nutrition was making sure that kids had enough food to eat, that they were growing properly. We must understand that kids don’t need as much food as you think they do.
Some kids who eat a lot due to parental pressure and not because of their own hunger pangs are at risk for future obesity. More eat do not always mean more health. But good nutrition is always the healthiest.

Your child needs nutritional diversity in order to get all the good nutrients that nature offers. The problem is that our ideas about nutrition are often piecemeal, a guideline here and a guideline there. We get the message that certain foods are “good” while others are “bad.” But we miss the more important idea of how different kinds of foods work together to make a healthy body.

Who Needs to Diet?
Though some people may feel they weigh too much or too little, there is no perfect body shape. Some people have larger frames (bigger bones) and will always look bigger and heavier than people with smaller frames.
Talk to your doctor if you have questions about your kid’s weight. Your doctor can examine you and check their BMI. For some kids, the doctor may recommend losing some weight, but this should be done with the doctor's help.

Parents have an enormous influence over their children’s eating habits, perhaps more than we realize. What children eat now affects their health later and children’s eating habits carry into adulthood.

Offer a sampling of lots of different kinds of foods. Give them more fruits. Fruit doesn’t just mean juice—because whole fruits are best. Whole-grain foods are also good for kids and not only for adult. Limited their consumption of fast food, soft drink and sweetened canned fruit.

Concerns about Childhood obesity are extremely common. Today children aren’t playing as much on the streets, or going out to the park, the most popular alternative indoor activities are sitting still watching TV, playing video games or watching videos. Playing video games? Almost all children loves video game and we can use it for tricky the exercises with fun activities for the whole families.

Remember the game titled Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)?
Interactive, innovative and easy to play with some of the hottest music. Including music from well known Disney properties Hannah Montana or hot artist like OutKast and Justin Timberlake. Weight loss is an unexpected benefit of a game designed for dance music.

Find someone playing this game, on arcade machine in the mall, and you may not find a fatigue in their face instead of fun. I've watched the kids play this and there's no doubt that it does what you must do to loose weight. Their body is perspiring like already done a hard and long exercise. If something’s fun, you’re more likely to keep doing it.

Actually dancing is a great exercise to loose weight. This game makes the activity more fun and still work out to hit the target -- calorie burn. And the better way to get your children involved in exercise than by doing something they love.

According to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph in West Virginia, since many students don’t like traditional sports like basketball, football, baseball or soccer, this new game will give the kids a choice.

Play this game at home using one of available platform such as Xbox 360™, Playstation®3, Nintendo™ and Nintendo™ DS.

But I wouldn't recommend it to someone who has sensitive ankles or had any type of leg, knee, or foot injury. Start with the low level/light first to see the effect on your ankles. And be careful not to slip or fall, especially for kids.

Prepare your body for dancing, know your limitations and start slowly. Always be safe. Do your best to fight childhood obesity and its medical consequences.

With today's focus the obesity problem, peoples are starting to ask if a little baby
fat showed that infants were getting enough of the right nutrients or maybe there is problem with his/her health.
Is the baby growing properly? Is the baby getting too fat? How do you know between overweight and healthy/normal growth?

One doctor at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia believes that the problem of obesity starts as early as the first few months of our life. He has been combing through records of thousands of babies born in the early 1960s and has found that the amount of weight that children gain in the first four months of life is linked to childhood obesity at age 7, regardless of birth weight or if they were overweight at a year old.

“You can't predict overweight in kids in the first six months," says Frank Greer, professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin and chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics' committee on nutrition. "We don't want mothers calorie-counting." So if the baby looks fat doesn't mean that he needs to go on a diet. Furthermore, putting a baby on a diet would be dangerous. Because cells, especially those that surround budding brain cells, need fat to support and nurture them. As long as your baby is gaining both height and weight, weight gain shouldn't be a problem.

If your child's weight begins to increase faster than her height, though, you should immediately discuss it with your baby's doctor.
The doctor will compare your child's height and weight with standardized norms for children in the same sex and age. The doctor will also look at your child's weight in relation to his/her height on the growth chart.

Until you get a professional opinion about your infant's growth, don't make any changes to his diet. You need the expert to know the difference between normal and overweight.
Be aware about medical consequences for childhood with obesity.

Because of the dangers associated with childhood obesity, early intervention and family support is critical.

Childhood obesity is associated with a variety of adverse effects on psychosocial function, skeletal growth, and cardiovascular risk factors. Although several periods in childhood appear critical for the development of obesity, it is not yet clear whether these periods are also associated with an increased risk for the complications of obesity in either childhood or adulthood.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES
The psychosocial consequences of obesity are among the most widespread adverse effects of the disease. Children in kindergarten have already learned to associate obesity with a variety of less desirable traits, and rank obese children as those they like the least.
College acceptance rates for obese adolescent girls are lower than those for nonoverweight girls of comparable academic background. Adult women who are obese as adolescents or young adults earn less, more frequently remain unmarried, complete fewer years of school, and have higher rates of poverty than their nonobese peers.
Few of these effects occur among obese men. These results persist when controlled for the income and educational level of the young women’s parents, their IQ, or their self-esteem at baseline. The social effects of obesity in young adult women therefore appear related to an extension of the discrimination that begins in early childhood

SKELETAL GROWTH AND MATURATION
Obesity has multiple effects on growth and function in children and adolescents. For example, obese children tend to be taller, their bone ages are advanced, their fat-free mass is increased, and menarche in girls occurs earlier than in the non obese.
The origin of these effects is unclear. Increased height, advanced bone age, and earlier menarche may reflect the auxotrophic effects of increased food intake, whereas the increase in fat-free mass may result from both the increased muscle mass to support the increased weight and the nuclear mass of adipocytes. Because of their larger size, overweight children are frequently perceived and treated as older than they are, much to their confusion.
Furthermore, the increased stress of weight may cause bowing of the tibia (Blount’s disease) or femur and predispose young children to slipped capital femoral epiphysis.

CARDIOVASCULAR RISK FACTORS
As in adults, obesity affects blood pressure, lipid levels, and glucose tolerance in children and adolescents. Sixty percent of overweight children as young as 5–10 years of age have at least one of these cardiovascular disease risk factors, and more than 20% have two or more.
Obesity appears to be the leading cause of hypertension in children. Lipid profiles are similar to those in adults: low density lipoprotein levels are increased, and high density lipoprotein levels are low.
Increased rates of type 2 diabetes have followed the rapid increases in the prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity. In some settings, type 2 diabetes now accounts for 30–40% of all new cases of diabetes. Although the prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the general population is low (0.5%), among some Native American groups the prevalence is close to 5%. Pediatric cases of type 2 diabetes generally occur among those 10–19 years of age, with a positive family history of type 2 diabetes, and more frequently among obese females or individuals with acanthosis nigricans.
At presentation, cases of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents may resemble type 1 diabetes, suggesting that the actual prevalence of type 2 diabetes may be somewhat higher than it currently appears.
The most important factor related to the likelihood of obesity-associated hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and glucose intolerance in adults appears to be visceral fat. The few studies of adolescents that have controlled for total body fat have demonstrated an independent association of visceral fat, with unfavorable levels of systolic blood pressure and low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

PSEUDOTUMOR CEREBRI, SLEEP APNEA,
HEPATIC STEATOSIS, AND POLYCYSTIC OVARY DISEASE
Two of the most malignant consequences of childhood onset obesity are pseudotumor cerebri and sleep apnea. Obesity accounts for a significant proportion of pseudotumor cerebri, although the mechanism remains unclear.
The diagnosis is established by a history of headaches and the presence of papilledema. The most important sign of sleep apnea is daytime somnolence. Apnea is rarely mentioned spontaneously by parents, despite their apprehension and clear recognition of the difficulty that their child has breathing at night. If the tonsils are enlarged, a tonsillectomy may cure sleep apnea.
However, either unremitting sleep apnea or pseudotumor warrant the aggressive use of a restrictive hypocaloric diet in conjunction with vigorous family therapy.
Recent data from several studies indicate that 5–10% of overweight children and adolescents have modestly elevated liver enzymes. Ultrasound studies of these patients demonstrate increased hepatic fat deposition. Liver biopsies in severe cases have demonstrated steatohepatitis. Alcohol use appears to increase the likelihood of these changes.
Liver enzymes normalize with weight reduction. As in adults, polycystic ovary disease (PCOD) in adolescents is associated with obesity. The pathophysiology of PCOD is complicated; hyperinsulinemia is frequently associated with the syndrome, and hyperandrogenemia may contribute to increased fat-free mass and a male distribution of body fat.

EFFECTS OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY
ON PERSISTENCE INTO ADULTHOOD
The likelihood that obesity present during childhood will persist into adulthood rises with the age of the child, independent of the effect of parental obesity. Several studies have indicated that approximately 70% of overweight adolescents become obese adults. Age-of-onset effects of obesity in childhood or adolescence on either the severity or complications of adult obesity remain uncertain.
Obesity in adolescence appears to entrain a variety of morbid consequences. For example, in a cohort of adults originally studied from the time of their enrollment in elementary school through high school, all-cause and cardiovascular mortality rates were higher among men who were obese in high school, but not among women. The risk of diabetes and subsequent atherosclerosis was greater among both men and women who were obese during high school. Except for diabetes, the risk of death or subsequent morbidity was only modestly attenuated when controlled for the effect of adolescent obesity on adult weight. These results suggested that the effect of adolescent obesity on adult morbidity and mortality was not mediated by the effect of adolescent obesity on adult obesity. Either adolescent obesity had a direct impact on adult morbidity and mortality,or a third factor predisposed individuals to both adolescent obesity and adult disease.
Body fat distribution may represent the mechanism whereby obesity present in adolescence affects morbidity and mortality. Body fat distribution is more strongly centralized in adolescent males than in adolescent females. Therefore, one possibility is that the regionalization of fatness that occurs in obese adolescent males may increase the risk of later complications of obesity.


Based on book : EATING DISORDERS AND OBESITY Edited by Christopher G. Fairburn and Kelly D. Brownell

Here’s a few practical tips for you as a parents if you have an obese children. It’s good to keep in mind that obesity is a medical problem. Just as people shouldn’t be judged if they have high blood pressure or are blind. Obesity is related to certain health risks, but the good news is that obesity is treatable.

Remember this two points when you think about helping children with obese.

1. General purpose for overweight and obese children or teens is to reduce the rate of weight gain while allowing normal growth.

2. Healthy eating and physical activity habits are key to achieve that goals. Eating too much and exercising too little ( the general prime factor ) may lead your child to obesity

First of all is try to involve the whole family to building healthy eating habits.
This benefits for everyone, does not only for child who is overweight. Balance the calories in the foods — provide adequate nutrition and an appropriate number of calories. Include plenty of vegetables, fruits, low-fat or non-fat milk, and whole-grain products. You can also encourage your family to drink lots of water, limit sugar-sweetened beverages, add more fiber, and make their favorite dishes healthier.

Try to always eat meals together as a family. Eating together at meal times helps children learn to enjoy a variety of foods. Don’t force your kids, but don’t give up and try again, and again. Some kids will need to have a new food served to them 10 times or more before they will eat it.

Be aware that some high-fat or high-sugar foods and beverages may be strongly marketed to kids. Stay away your kids from this kind of foods.

The next step is increase the physical activity.
You must help your kids to stay active. Regular physical activity has many health benefits. Do it with the whole families and make it a fun time. Family bike ride, or a walk through a local park on Sunday is a good idea.
Encourage your child to join a sports team or class, such as soccer, dance, basketball, or gymnastics at school. Help him or her find which one physical activities that are fun and comfortable.

Do not put your child on a weight-loss diet unless your health care provider tells you to. If children do not eat enough, they may not grow and learn as well as they should.

Think about a treatment program only if changed your family’s eating and physical activity not reached a healthy weight or your child’s health or emotional is at risk because of their weight.

Children cannot lose weight on their own. They need a parent who can help them make smart food choices and who will encourage them to exercise. Childhood obesity associated with serious medical consequences, so do your best to help your children.

What are the major contributors to childhood obesity? There are a number of factors that have contributed to the rise in childhood obesity. Because obesity is an exceedingly complex group of diseases and probably should be characterized as a syndrome.

Approximately one-fourth of children ages 6–11 and adolescents ages 12–18 are obese, making childhood obesity one of the most serious pediatric health problems in the Unites States.

Environmental factors such as diet, physical activity, the impact of familia and environment are major contributors to obesity, and in turn are influenced by genetic traits.

Food choices
The effects of eating habits on childhood obesity are difficult to determine. Some literature has found a relationship between fat food consumption and obesity. Including a study which found that fast food restaurants near schools increases the risk of obesity among the student population. Soft drink, low intake of fruit and vegetables, low fiber, and whole milk consumption may contribute to childhood obesity. These foods tend to be high in fat and/or calories and low in many other nutrients.

Physical inactivity
Physical inactivity of children has also shown to be a serious cause, and children who fail to engage in regular physical activity are at greater risk of obesity. The popularity of television, computers, and video games translates into an increasingly inactive lifestyle for many children in the United States. Fewer than half of children in the United States have a parent who engages in regular physical exercise. Based on data from NHANES II and III, among children twelve to seventeen years of age the prevalence of overweight increases 2 percent for each additional hour of TV viewed daily.

The impact of familia and environment
Familial impact on children’s weight includes both genetic and shared lifestyle influences. Whereas twin, family, and adoption studies suggest a strong genetic contribution for childhood obesity, Statistics show that a child with two obese parents has an 80 percent risk of becoming overweight. Genetics alone does not cause obesity.
Parents may have a direct influence by providing an environment that nurtures physical activity in the child, and have indirect influence through modelling of physical activity participation. Young children (four to seven years of age) whose parents were physically active were nearly six times as likely to be physically active. In a report released, the Institute of Medicine said television advertising strongly influences what children under 12 eat. The foods advertised are predominantly high in calories and low in nutrition

The factors that may cause children to become overweight and obese include:

Metabolic factors have the potential to influence the onset of obesity. However, much of the research in this area has been conducted on adults and not the childhood population.
Psychological factors. Feelings of depression can cause a child to overeat.
The other factors are the use of private transport has increased, physical education in the school curriculum has reduced and medical illness.

Obesity in childhood is related to both negative physic and psychosocial consequences. Read this post about medical consequences identified as resulting from overweight or obesity in childhood. Also this post about Ideas to help/prevent children from obesity.

When I first became a parent, I tried to read all I could about the best foods for my daughter’s health. I learned her early eating habits could have lifelong effects on her personal health and wellness.

I am sure as a parent, we will try hard to make our kids got the best food and nutrition. Unfortunately our kids are bombarded by messages that counteract our efforts.

So, what exactly can parents do to teach their kids about healthy eating habits.

First of all, be a model and they will follow you. Get the whole adult family member involved to doing this effectively.

Make sure to prepare a variety of foods, so your family gets all the vitamins and minerals their bodies need to function properly. This practice will help your children learn how to make healthy food choices.

Eat meals together as a family as often as possible. Try to make mealtimes pleasant with conversation and sharing. If mealtimes are unpleasant, children may try to eat faster to leave the table as soon as possible. They then may learn to associate eating with stress.

Persuading children to eat more fruits and vegetables
Keep lots of fresh fruits available, and in a place where children know to look when they want a snack. Easy fruits and vegetables to grab and eat on the run.

Serve your kids with junk food alternatives like baked fries, baked or grilled chicken, unbuttered popcorn, baked potato chips, soy crisps, etc.

Soft drinks are highly caloric and not nutritious – kids should have water or milk instead. Encourage your children to choose water as their beverage.
So I think you need to limit your kids’ consumption of iced tea, fruit drinks, lemonade (sweetened drinks), soft drinks, candy, etc

It’s important to be aware of your school-aged children’s special nutritional needs and to help them choose what food is good.
Now's the time to get started on the road to a healthier you. You can do it!

How you modeling food habits for your children? Please share with us.