Buscar en este blog

jueves, 5 de abril de 2018

OBESITY IN THE USA


OBESITY IN THE USA


Adapted from www.nytimes.com

Last Tuesday federal health authorities reported a 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade. The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh. The trend came as a welcome surprise to researchers. New evidence has shown that obesity takes hold young: children who are overweight or obese at 3 to 5 years old are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults. This is the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke. A smattering of states have reported modest progress in reducing childhood obesity in recent years, and last year the federal authorities noted a slight decline in the obesity rate among lowincome children. But the figures on Tuesday showed a sharp fall in obesity rates among all 2- to 5- year-olds, offering the first clear evidence that America’s youngest children have turned a corner in the obesity epidemic. There was little consensus on why the decline might be happening, but many theories. Children now consume fewer calories from sugary beverages than they did in 1999. More women are breast-feeding, which can lead to a healthier range of weight gain for young children. Federal researchers have also chronicled a drop in overall calories for children in the past decade, down by 7 percent for boys and 4 percent for girls, but health experts said those declines were too small to make much difference. Barry M. Popkin, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who has tracked American food purchases in a large data project, said families with children had been buying lowercalorie foods over the past decade, a pattern he said was unrelated to the economic downturn. He credited those habits, and changes in the federally funded Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, for the decline in obesity among young children. The program, which subsidizes food for low-income women, reduced funding for fruit juices, cheese and eggs and increased it for whole fruits and vegetables. Another possible explanation is that some combination of state, local and federal policies aimed at reducing obesity is starting to make a difference. Michelle Obama, the first lady, has led a push to change young children’s eating and exercise habits and 10,000 child care centers across the country have signed on. The news announcement from the C.D.C. included a remark from Mrs. Obama: “I am thrilled at the progress we’ve made over the last few years in obesity rates among our youngest Americans.

No hay comentarios: