Should Cup Cake Be Banned At Schools?

Childhood obesity has become a major health problem. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Prevention and Control), childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

Obese children are at a higher risk of having risk factors for cardiovascular disease like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Obese children are likely to be obese as adults and are more likely to develop chronic diseases such as heart disease, Type-2 diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer. Hence, childhood obesity is surely a legitimate concern for society.

Since July 1, 2014, schools in the United States can no longer sell unhealthy food in cafeterias or vending machines, or at school-sponsored events like bake sales and fundraisers. Such move follows a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandate to replace unhealthy food and drink options with more nutritious options for kids and teens.

The USDA standards, however, do not regulate treats brought from home. Such decisions are usually left up to individual districts and schools. Anyway, some elementary schools across the country have launched and many others might follow suit to launch bans on edible birthday sweet treats like cupcakes that are brought from home. The schools stressed that the cupcake decision is only part of a broader health program to fight obesity.

As sugar enters human body, a portion of it will be burnt for energy that is required by the body. The remaining amount of sugar, if available, will be converted to fat and store it in the fat cells. Therefore, eating too much sweet treats like cup cakes, ice cream and soda can raise the risk of being overweight or even obese especially for the kids. On particular days, students could have as many as 3 birthday parties. Each cupcake might contain as many as 298 calories.

Despite the objections from some parents, the cupcake bans are welcome by most parents as it is healthier for kids, it puts less stress on parents to provide dessert for the entire class, and it provides peace of mind to parents of children with allergies.

While the entire food environment of the school matters, some health experts feel that it is equally important for parents to be consistent about nutritional values at home. Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity can actually reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese and developing related diseases.

Does Number Of Obese Kids Decline?

Childhood obesity has always been a headache for most nations. When a child is overweight or obese, it is very likely that he or she will be an overweight or obese adult who might become a victim of chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and stroke.

Because of the prevailing lifestyle, childhood obesity has become an epidemic. Health organizations and government authorities have put in a lot of efforts in curbing the rising trend.

In a paper published in 2014 in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’s JAMA Pediatrics’, researchers from New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported that the most obese children in the New York City have taken off the most weight. 

For the study, the researchers looked at the annual weight and height data taken on nearly 950,000 school children aged between 5 and 14 in public schools for the 2006-2007 school year and compared the 2010-2011 school year. Their analysis showed that comparing to 2006-2007 school year, severe obesity among NYC public school students in grades K-8 decreased 9.5 percent and obesity decreased 5.5 percent.

Though the numbers are rather small, they did reverse a 40-year trend. Since the 1970s, the rate of obesity had more than tripled, and nearly 6 percent of the American kids are severely obese nationally.

On the other hand, data from very large national surveys show that all kinds of obesity are rising in American children. Some other studies, however, have shown that there are declines in extreme obesity among the very youngest kids who might be the easiest to influence. 

Measurement of obesity in kids is different from that in adults. Children are considered overweight if they are in the 85th to 95th percentile of the BMI (body mass index), for all children their age. Anything over the 95th percentile is obese; severe obesity (Class 2) is at 120 percent and morbid obesity (Class 3) is defined as 140 percent. 

According to researchers, a lot of things have been done in schools. The Department of Education has a program called ‘Move to Improve’ that trains public school teachers on means to incorporate fitness into classrooms. For instance, the youngest kids might be encouraged to stand up at their desks and walk in place as they imagine taking a nature walk, while older kids might dance. 

Meanwhile, schools have also been forced to improve the food they are serving. In fact, most New York public school kids get free meals at school, and this sets norms for what they eat outside school. But kids are exposed to other influences one they step out the school.

Clearly, many more need to be done. The city wants to work next to encourage supermarket chains to open more stores in neighborhoods. The city has also started a program called ‘Health Bucks’, which distributes $2 vouchers for people to use at farmer’s markets, to encourage people to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Heart Disease Prevention - Has Childhood Obesity Been Declined in America?

Earlier studies have suggested childhood obesity in the United States was beginning to turn around and kids in some places are becoming thinner. In fact, earlier this year, CDC reported obesity was starting to decline among preschoolers. But data from very large surveys showed that all types of obesity are on the rise across the country, and the very fattest children might be getting worse. Find out more at:

Heart Disease Prevention - Has Childhood Obesity Been Declined in America?

Another Cause For Children Obesity!

Childhood obesity is a serious issue as obese children are at a much higher risk of developing many chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), stroke and even certain types of cancer later in their life.

Sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy diet have been crowned as the main culprits responsible for childhood obesity. However, researchers from Temple University had recently found a new cause.

In a paper published in the ‘Journal of Pediatrics’, they reported that toddlers who still drank from bottles at age of 2 were 33 percent more likely than other children to be obese at the age of 5.

Of the 6,750 children studied, 1 in 5 was still using a bottle at the age of 24 months, either at night or all the time. For those who were long-term bottle users, roughly 1 in 5 was obese at the age of 5, comparing to about 1 in 6 that has been weaned earlier.

After looking into other factors that could affect a child's risk of obesity, including mother's weight, family income and education, and if the child had ever been breastfed, the researchers found that prolonged bottle-feeding by itself could induce a 33 percent increase in children's risk of obesity.

According to researchers, the bottle might be providing a source of comfort, rather than meeting nutritional needs. Nevertheless, the extra calories could be substantial. For instance, for an average 2-ear-old girl, an 8-ounce bottle of whole milk fed at bedtime would provide 12 percent of her calorie needs for the day.

Though the findings could not conclude long-term bottle-feeding is directly responsible for the increased risk of obesity, they did suggest that weaning babies around 12 month old could help prevent weight gain.

In fact, pediatricians already advise parents to wean their children when they are about 12 to 14 months old, or even earlier. This is mainly because extended bottle-feeding, especially overnight, is believed to boost the risk of cavities and might contribute to iron deficiency.

Does the Child Obesity Epidemic Level Off in United States?

The ever-increasing rate of childhood obesity has been a headache for many developed countries, including United States. It is believed that overweight or obese children would be subject to a higher risk of getting heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. when they grow older.

In United States, level of overweight or obese children have held steady after rising without interruption since 1980. However, a recent study by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association on May 28, 2008 that roughly 32 per cent of children were overweight or obese in years 2003-04 and 2005-06. This is the first leveled off after a 25-year increase.

The study was based on 8,165 children ages 2 to 19 who participated in nationally- representative government health surveys in year 2003-04 and 2005-06. These surveys are based on in-person measurements rather than relying on children’s own reports, as such, they are regarded as the most accurate reflection of obesity levels.

Does this really mean that we should be optimized about the reverse of the epidemic? The responses vary among health professionals and experts. Some suspects that this could just be a statistical fluke. Others said that if the leveling-off is real, it could be because more schools and parents are emphasizing better eating habits and more exercise. Even so, they felt it would be too early to celebrate.

Most experts are looking forward to the CDC’s analysis of data for 2007-08, which is considered as the best evidence for determining what direction children’s rates are really heading, due next year.

No doubt, many people are trying to do things to help halt the epidemic. For example, some schools are providing better meals and increasing physical education, and as a whole, Americans are more aware of the importance of fruits and vegetables. Nevertheless, there are still children that are ignorance of their health. For instance, an obese child revealed to his doctor that he did not consume a single piece of fresh fruit in 3 days.

Unless a substantial decline in prevalence, the impact of the childhood obesity will continue in coming years. It usually takes many years for the obesity-related medical conditions to transform into life-threatening events like heart attacks and kidney failure.

Salty Food Can Put On Extra Weight On The Kids!

When kids eat too much salty food, they will get thirsty easily, and what they turn to is soda-filled sugary drink instead of plain water. Several studies have shown a link between sugary soft drinks and obesity in children. This may explain why childhood obesity has become an epidemic that both developed and developing countries have found it difficult to handle.

British researchers at St George's University of London found that cutting back on the salt intake for kids might be a good way to cut the calories they consume. This is the findings of a study published on February 20, 2008 in an American Heart Association Journal. Using the diet data from Great Britain's National Diet and Nutrition Survey, the researchers looked at 1,688 British boys and girls, with ages between 4 and18 years old, over a 7-day period in 1997.

The researchers indicated that salt is 'a hidden factor in the obesity epidemic'. About 80 percent of salt actually comes from manufactured food and not from the saltshaker, which only contributed less than 10 to 15 percent.

As pointed out by a health expert, fast foods are just loaded with sodium, but processed foods are all very high in sodium.

Lower intake of salt can reduce the amount of soft drinks and therefore fewer calories consumed by kids. A modest reduction in salt could even help lower blood pressure. It is known that high blood pressure increases the risk of later-in-life heart disease, heart attack and stroke.

The researchers suggested that food manufacturers could reduce the salt gradually without even noticed by the public; a 10 to 20 percent reduction in salt can barely be detected. It is imperative for the food industry to make such a reduction because the study found that cutting in half the amount of salt British children consume (a decrease of about half a teaspoon a day) would lead to an average reduction of about 510 gm of sugar-sweetened soft drinks per week.

Should Parents Be Blamed For the Unhealthy Diet of Their Boys?

If your children love fries or other unhealthy stuffs, perhaps you as parents are the first to be blamed! Why do I say that?

This is because while I was searching for some health news last week, I saw the finding of a joint study done by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The researchers from the two institutions evaluated the eating patterns of 792 twins aged 7 years old, and found that genetics mostly dictates a child’s picky palate and craving for items like peanut butter or snack food.

In order to conduct the study, the researchers grouped foods into 9 categories, namely

1. bread and butter;
2. breakfast cereal and milk;
3. candy;
4. fish and lemon; and
5. fruit;
6. high-salt snack foods,
7. peanut butter and jelly;
8. red meat and pork;
9. vegetables

According to the study, the genetics seemed to influence the choice of food and beverages of the boys more often than that of the girls. Furthermore, identical twins, who have the exact same genes, seemed to choose more similar foods and beverages than the non-identical twins. On the other hand, the food choices of girls were more influenced by the shared environmental factors, like the number of snacks at home.

With the help of these findings, parents would perhaps understand why their children prefer or dislike certain foods. The findings are also important since they could help scientists determine whether genetically linked eating patterns play a role in childhood obesity.

Childhood obesity is now a big health issue facing many countries. Health experts believe that childhood obesity will bring more serious health problems like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. to these fat children when they grow older. In addition, many countries may have to shoulder the impending huge health cost associated with this.

This study also revealed that the body mass index of a child is generally unrelated to his or her specific food consumption. Nevertheless, the researchers too suggested carrying out further studies to determine if genetically influenced eating habits would actually result in calorie and nutrition changes that lead to obesity.

Breast-Fed Babies Unlikely To Develop Type-2 Diabetes Later!

Childhood obesity and the emergence of type-2 diabetes in youth have become a major health problem for many countries. This has actually prompted many researches to identify lifestyle approaches to primary prevention of both conditions.

A recent paper, published in the medical journal Diabetes Care by a team of researchers from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, revealed that breast-fed babies are less likely to develop type-2 diabetes when they become adolescence.

In order to investigate factors related to the development of type-2 diabetes in individuals between 10 to 21 years old, the researchers employed a subset of data from a larger study. The analysis included 80 subjects with type-2 diabetes who were compared to 167 'controls' without diabetes.

As compared with the control subjects, the breast-feeding rate was actually lower for subjects with type-2 diabetes. The rates of breast-feeding used in the study for the 3 ethnic groups were: 20 versus 27 per cent for African Americans; 50 versus 84 per cent for Hispanics; and 39 per cent versus 78 per cent for non-Hispanic whites, respectively.

Irrespective of ethnic group, the protective effect of breast-feeding against type-2 diabetes was mainly attributable to its effect in moderating current childhood weight. Nevertheless, breast-feeding in itself had a protective effect

With all other well-established reasons for breast-feeding, the researchers concluded that renewed efforts to encourage breast-feeding in populations at high risk for type-2 diabetes may be useful.

How Does Sleep Duration Link To Childhood Obesity?

Childhood obesity is a tough issue and many health experts have attributed such disorder to unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyle. However, a recent study has found that children who lack enough sleep face a greater risk of becoming obese than kids who get a good night's sleep.

An analysis of epidiomogical studies by the researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health revealed on February 5, 2008 that each extra hour of sleep cuts a child's risk of becoming overweight or obese by 9 percent. In comparison, children who got the least sleep had a 92 per cent higher chance of being overweight or obese than children who slept enough.

The researchers reviewed 17 published studies on sleep duration and childhood obesity, and the finding was published in the journal Obesity. The results clearly shows there is association between sleep duration and the risk for overweight or obesity in children, and the risk decreased with more sleep.

When comparing with other measures, desirable sleep behavior may be an important low cost means to prevent childhood obesity. As such, it should be considered in future intervention studies, as recommended by the researchers.

The findings may also have important implications for societies where children with insufficient sleep due to the pressure for academic excellence and where the rate of obesity is rising, such as in many East Asian countries.

As recommended and supported by other researches, those children under 5 years old sleep 11 hours or more a day, while children age 5 to 10 should get 10 or more hours of sleep, and children older than 10 should sleep at least 9 hours.

One should bear in mind that childhood obesity may lead to many chronic diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, etc. when these obese children become adults later on.

Fat Boys More Likely To Have Heart Disease Than Fat Girls!

No one will deny that obesity will have a higher chance of developing heart disease. This conclusion is not limited to adult only: obese teens can develop heart disease as well just like the adults. Nevertheless, are you aware that there is a gender difference for fat teens towards developing coronary heart disease?

Let us take a look of a study in Denmark of 280,000 people born between 1930 and 1976. The finding, conducted by the researchers from The Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen, suggested that fat boys are far more likely to get heart disease as adults than fat girls are. The risk is higher if boys are obese at the age of 13 than if they were obese at age 7 but had slimmed down.

What the study discovered was that a 13-year-old boy of average height who is 11.2kg heavier than the norm has a 33 per cent higher risk of getting coronary heart disease when he grows up.

An accompanying commentary by Associate Professor David Ludwig of Harvard Medical School also predicts that childhood obesity would shorten lives in the United States by 2 to 5 years by mid-century. This is an effect equal to that of all cancers combined.

Kids Don't Like Healthy Foods, Do You Agree?

If I say nowadays teens do not love vegetables or other healthy foods, I bet many of you will hardly disagree. Reason is simple, healthy foods are simply not yummy to them.

The youngsters just eat whatever they like. The types of food they enjoy most are fast foods, and unarguably, these are usually unhealthy. Either they know very little about what they should eat and what they should not or they simply find these irrelevant to them. That is why so many youngsters become overweight or even obese. The childhood obesity has already become a global epidemic that cause headache for the respective governments.

Adopting unhealthy diet will make these obese kids become victims of many chronic diseases. Heart disease is only one of the many medical disorders they may have to face when they grow up. However, when one is young, it is extremely difficult to talk to them about things that they do not really anticipate. When I was young, I could not listen and agree to advices given by my parents or seniors.

This is understandable because at that time, I just could not visualize exactly the scenario that they tried to depict for me. Surely many of you would have the same experience as mine. Therefore, it is necessary to instil the correct dieting habits to teens from the outset. Perhaps parents should first adopt healthy lifestyle and become role model for their children.

I know a family that seldom dines out. The mother cooks almost every single meal at home and the father and children make effort to come back for almost every single meal. Occasionally, when they dine out, they will simply reject salty or oily foods even they are very delicious. In other words, healthy diet has become part of their life and their subconscious mind tells what they should eat and what they should not.

The following video news titled 'tips to keep kids hale and hearty', posted at The Straits Times reveals the general attitudes towards food for teens in Singapore and what the Health Promotion Board (HPB) in Singapore do to help cultivate the correct mindset about food for youngsters in Singapore.

Enjoy watching!

Tips to keep kids hale and hearty

Britain Finally Ban Advertisements on Junk Food!

The ban by the British government on advertisements to under-16s comes in force on the 1st day of 2008. The aim of this measure is of course to promote healthy eating and counter growing childhood obesity.

The new rule is an extension of the measure already in place for under-10s. In addition to curb television commercials for food and drink products with high fat, salt and sugar content, the new measures will specifically ban commercials for junk food and drink around all programs of particular appeal to children under the age of 16.

Official data shows that half of the Britons will be obese in 25 years if current trends are not halted. Furthermore, 86 percent of men will be overweight in 15 years and 70 percent of women in 20 years.

Nevertheless, the new measure does not satisfy some campaigners who feel that a total ban on junk food advertisements should be implemented instead in order to get the full effect. They believe that it is necessary to take urgent action right now to help people, especially children, stay away from the less healthy, less happy and shorter life that obesity leads to. It is known that obesity will bring many health issues including heart disease, diabetes, cancer and high blood pressure to the body.

A new 100-million-pound program has also been launched in October last year by British Prime Minister with an aim to increasing the number of hours of physical education in schools from 2 to 5 per week.

While it is too early to see how this new ruling can really help stop the obesity epidemic, the new measure initiated by Britain indicates that they have realized the seriousness of the epidemic.

Perhaps other countries, for the sake of their younger generation, should follow suit before it is too late!

Diabetes Are Not For Adults Only!

Diabetes has been regarded as a problem for ageing population in Singapore. But now, as a result of modern lifestyle and diet, the number of pregnant women and children diagnosed as diabetics continues to rise. This really worries the health authorities.

In the National University Hospital (NUH), the number of pregnant women with gestational diabetes has climbed from 13 a month in 2005 to 21 a month in 2006. For 2007, the number of cases was found to be 28 per month.

The problem was partly due to the poor awareness of the issue when most pregnant women tend to eat more and some eventually eat excessively. If they eat more carbohydrates and fried items, instead of proteins and vegetables, their weight will very likely to gain. And weight gain may cause these pregnant women to get diabetes.

Women who have a family history of diabetes, who had a previous baby weighing more than 4 kg, and who weigh 85 kg during the pregnancy are at risk of developing diabetes. The reason behind this is that the birth hormones disturb metabolism needed to clear glucose after meals.

Although 98 percent of pregnant women will return to their normal pre-diabetic state after giving birth, the condition do have some complications like prolonged labour and delivering asymmetrically big babies who may develop neck problems.

This will also make the newborns unhealthy. If the mothers' blood sugar levels are higher, their babies are very likely to have low blood-sugar levels and high insulin levels. This could place them on the list of diabetes, obesity, overweight and hypertension (high blood pressure), and will also increase their chances of developing heart disease.

Diabetes Type 2 used to affect adults. Now, the number of young children suffering from diabetes Type 2 is increasing because of the calorie-rich environment and less physical activities. On the other hand, Type 1 diabetes is the genetic variation affecting someone from childhood. The upward trend corresponds to childhood obesity rates around the world.

Some Ideas To Fight Global Childhood Obesity

I came across the following heading:

"Australia offers some ideas to fight globesity in kids."

"Globesity? What does this mean?" I have not seen this word before so naturally I looked up dictionary for answer but in vain. Then, I "googled" and straightaway I got my answer:

"Globesity" is a recent WHO (World Health Organization) term for the global obesity epidemic.

The recent Educating For Health Conference, organised by the Singapore Ministry of Education, provided an opportunity for educationists in the region to look for ideas to beat obesity in children. Australian officials suggested some ways that their government had used to fight obesity in kids, and here are their solutions:

Firstly, school children were asked to participate in compulsory weekly physical education lessons lasting for 2 hours.

Secondly, an active government-funded programme was launched to immerse children in sports or activities after school.

Thirdly, healthy menus were created in school tuckshops.

Fourthly, multimillion-dollar advertising and education campaign targeted at children and their parents were funded.

Nevertheless, they also stressed that effort from government alone is not sufficient to combat childhood obesity successfully. The campaign should also include contribution from individuals, families, and the industries.

In Australia, fast-food giant McDonald's, for instance, had responded to offer more healthy food in its outlets in 18 months by stating the nutritional information on healthier food options. In addition, the chain cut back on advertising during children's television programmes by 40 per cent.

Being the world's fourth fattest nation, lagging behind United States, Britain, and Mexico, Australia acted accordingly to fight obesity among its young. It is known that 3 million people are overweight or obese in Australia: 67 percent are men and 57 percent are women; 1 in 5 children is overweight and 1 in 10 is obese.

The Australian federal, state and territory governments have in fact jointly set up a sum of A$500 million to launch more community-based healthy lifestyle initiatives.

You may be wondering why Australian government is willing to spend such a huge amount of money for such campaign? This is because each year, obesity costs Australia A$3.7 billion in direct costs and A$21 billion in indirect and lost-productivity costs. Overweight or obesity could lead to many diseases including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.

Keeping to a healthy diet and regular exercise are the keys to fight obesity, but this is indeed a very challenging task, judging from the effort and amount of money governments need to offer to their target audiences.

Fight Against Obesity For Students in US Schools

Out of a population of about 300 million people in US, more than 200 million of them are overweight or obese. And, nearly 13 million children and adolescents are found to be overweight. Some obese children, who are admitted at the hospitals for treatments, weigh as high as 400 to 500 pounds (180 to 225 kgs), and they can barely breathe.

Four culprits of childhood obesity quoted by health experts are:

• Fast food,
• Television,
• Soft drinks, and
• A sedentary lifestyle

Most of the families do not really make any effort to stop their children from becoming overweight or obese, therefore, the burden to prevent outbread of such epidemic naturally falls on the schools. As we know, overweight or obesity can easily lead to diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure) or even heart disease.

The educators and health officials are beginning to make effort to replace greasy fast food with healthy meals in schools. Small by encouraging results are observed.

For example, in Arkansas, measurements of the students' body mass have been taken in their schools for the past three years and the schools have begun sending letters to warn the parents of school-children who are obese. Banning on junk food in cafeterias and soda drinks in vending machines coupled with greater emphasis on sports have reduced the rate of obesity from 20.9 percent in 2004 to 20.6 percent in 2007. Though the reduction is merely marginal, the measures adopted seem to stablize the rate of obesity.

According to another report In Texas (close to EI Paso), a similar health program has in fact brought the percentage of children with weight problems from 25.8 percent in 2002 down to 23.4 percent in 2005.

Nevertheless, schools cannot offer all the solutions because the time spent by American children at school accounts only 19.5 percent of their time, with vacations and weekends being factored in.

As such, some experts think that depending solely on local initiatives to fight the war against obesity is not sufficient. Instead, they urge active involvement of the federal government in a systematic way.

"We won the war on hunger in 1964, we need to win the war on obesity." This was a statement made by one of the health professionals, who also believe the government should forbid advertising of junk food to children.

Personally, I would think that support from the families of these obese kids also plays a very important role if significant results are to be seen. Perhaps, the parents should start doing something for themselves without delay so as to set examples for their overweight children to follow.

Childhood Obesity Can Be Caused By Carbonated Drinks!

It is unarguable that the ultimate reason for excessive weight gain in children is energy imbalance.

A study conducted in United Kingdom revealed that more than 70 percent of adolescents consume carbonated drinks regularly.

With an aim to preventing obesity, a project took place in 6 schools with children aged between 7 to 11 years between August 2001 and October 2003. Anthropometric measurements (that is height, weight and waist circumference) were taken at intervals of 6 months. Doing so was to discourage the consumption of fizzy drinks. After 12 months, consumption of carbonated drinks had decreased in the intervention group.

The above finding concluded that a school-based program to discourage children from drinking carbonated drinks can in fact help reduce the number of overweight and obese children in school.

Interestingly, just small changes in energy intake can have a major impact on obesity risk. For example, daily consumption of 1 can of sweetened carbonated drink over a 10-year period can actually cause a person to gain up to 50 kg of weight. Conversely, reducing one's daily intake of such sweetened drinks may help prevent weight gain. As we all know, maintaining healthy weight may cut down the risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, and other unhealthy issues.

Changes in Lifestyle Can Improve Blood Vessels in Obese Children

The blood vessels of obese children show changes that can lead to heart disease later in life. However, research showed that these changes can be reversed through changing their diet and doing regular exercise.

The study was conducted on 82 overweight children. The children were put on a low-fat diet either alone or in combination with a structured exercise program for 6 weeks. After this period, all 41 children from the diet-only group and 22 of the 41 children from diet and exercise group continued their respective regiments for 1 year.

During the first 6 weeks, both groups of children did experience a drop in blood cholesterol levels and an improvement in blood vessel function. However, researchers noted that the beneficial effects on blood vessel function were more pronounced among children from the diet and exercise group, as compared with children from the diet-only group. At a later stage of the study, further improvements were noticed in blood vessel function of those children who continued their exercise programs. Fewer benefits were observed in children who were on the diet-only program.

This study provides conclusive evidence that blood vessel dysfunction in overweight children can be corrected by lifestyle modification including dietary changes and physical exercise.