In a study that could have been completed in any grocery store or mall, it has been discovered that overweight mothers are 15 times more likely to have overweight kids by the time they reach age 6. Imagine that! With 10% of U.S. kids between the ages of 2 and 6 now considered obese, this is not a small problem. The study appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Because the children in the study showed a rapid increase in bodyfat between the ages of 3 and 6, the researchers concluded that genetics must play a role in the weight gain. However, they also found that children from poorer families, just like the adults, are more likely to be overweight, a finding that contradicts the gene theory. My sense is that blaming genetics, however true it might be in a few cases, absolves people of the responsibility to be healthy.
The fact remains that genetics can't explain why we are so much more overweight now than we were at the turn of the last century (1900), despite only a modest increase in caloric intake. It's not how much we eat (although that it is part of it) -- it's what we eat and the fact that we eat it sitting on our behinds in front of the television. We eat junk and we don't get enough exercise. And with video games replacing sports as the primary "activity" for kids, it's no wonder they are getting fat as well.
The bottom line is this: fat kids grow up to be fat adults. Adult-onset diabetes (a weight-related disease) is now simply called type-II diabetes because kids are getting the disease in their teen years, rather than the traditional after-40 onset. We need to feed our kids whole foods, not soda and refined foods. And we need to send them outside to play and away from the television.
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