 How import is sleep for babies? A new report says that children under the age of 4 who don’t get enough sleep are at a higher risk for obesity later in life.
Lack of sleep has long been associated with obesity in adults (it decreases metabolism), but now it looks like children who don’t sleep enough are 80% more likely to be obese five years later than kids who slept longer. The researchers from the University of Washington also make a distinction between night time sleep and napping — the latter of which is not a substitute for a good night’s sleep.
It’s recommended that 1-year-olds get between 13-15 hours of sleep (total), while kids 3-5 need 11-13 hours a day, naps included.
Great, as if parents didn’t have enough to worry about.
Does your baby get enough sleep?
From CNN. Photo by Dr Craig.
 There have been murmurings that childhood obesity rates are plateauing — which is better than rising, which they have been for a long time now — but a new article from Pediatrics has some discouraging news in the battle against obesity. While rates are dropping for some people, it’s rising for others.
Babble reports: “Obesity rates for African American and American Indian girls rose steadily through the years, reaching 22 and 23 percent, respectively. Latino girls and boys plateaued in weight gain, steadying off at 26 percent. And obesity in White and Asian children fell starting in 2005, dropping to 12 and 13 percent by the end of the study.”
Obviously, socioeconomic forces are at work here, which makes sense: eating healthy is more expensive. The study looked at eight million children in California from 2001 to 2008. It’d be interesting if we could see if these trends are national.
From Science Daily. Photo by Combined Media.
 In an interview with Ladies Home Journal, Michelle Obama said that she avoids talking about weight with her daughters, Sasha and Malia. Why? Because being healthy isn’t about the number on a bathroom scale, but about pursuing a healthy lifestyle.
“I never talk about weight with my girls. I try not to even talk about my weight… We have conversations around health, food, and activity,” Michelle Obama said. “I tell them sports are something I want them to engage in because it’s good for them. It’s good to practice teamwork, to understand what it means to suffer a loss, to win with grace. It has nothing to do with weight, it has everything to do with being a well-rounded person.”
I really like this attitude. Encouraging healthy living and becoming a “well-rounded person” is a much better attitude than setting goals to shave a few pounds.
Do you talk about weight with your kids?
From Ladies Home Journal.
 Michelle Obama’s campaign against America’s obesity problem is starting with school lunches, but perhaps there’s an aspect of the obesity problem that no one’s focusing on: the socioeconomic element.
In a seminar covered by Lylah Alphonse at the Children’s Museum in Boston, two researchers — Dr. Elizabeth Goodman and Dr. Beth DeFrino — explained how social and biological factors affect the health of children, of which there are many. Mrs. Obama might be on the right track by improving school lunches, but it might be more difficult than it sounds. How is an already budget-crunched school system supposed to improve its cafeteria meals?
“With cash-strapped schools cutting recess and sports programs in order to make ends meet, children are spending more sedentary time at their desks and less time being physically active — if they’re at school at all,” Lylah writes.
She also cites a few startling statistics. Overweight/obese children are 59% more likely to miss more than two weeks of school, and since schools with low test scores due to No Child Left Behind, they are at even higher risk of obesity.
“Having to work to put food on the table trumps the hallowed family dinner hour, and if the only stores you have access to don’t carry fresh produce — or if it’s prohibitively expensive — you can’t tout ‘eat leafy greens’ as the solution.”
From In The Parenthood.
 The Daily Beast gathered the top 25 least healthy (or most unhealthy, if you’re a pessimist?) kids meals available at franchise restaurants across the country. Number one? The Mac and Cheese Quesadilla Meal at Friendly’s, which features a whopping 2,270 calories (TWO THOUSAND AND SEVENTY CALORIES, if you’re a pessimist?). That is bananas. Never let your kids eat that.
And let’s not forget to give credit where credit is due. Chevy’s is responsible for four items in the top 10.
- Friendly’s Mac and Cheese Quesadilla Meal (2,270 calories)
- Houlihan’s Chicken Fingers Meal (1,293)
- Chevy’s Flour Flautas (1,240)
- Outback Steakhouse’s Kookaburra Chicken Fingers Meal (1,030)
- Applebee’s Grilled Cheese Meal (1,020)
- Chevy’s Quesadilla Meal (1020)
- Chevy’s Bean and Cheese Burrito Meal (1020)
- Culver’s Hot Dog Meal (991)
- A&W’s Cheeseburger Meal (990)
- Chevy’s Kiddie Cheeseburger Meal (1060)
Are you surprised by the calorie counts in these meals?
More at The Daily Beast.
 Are parents responsible for keeping their kids skinny? While parents can be charged for neglect if they don’t provide adequate treatment for chronic illnesses, such as asthma, diabetes, and epilepsy, a new article in the British Medical Journal suggests that obesity should be added to that list.
“We suggest that childhood obesity becomes a child protection concern when parents behave in a way that actively promotes treatment failure in a child who is at serious risk from obesity and when the parents or carers understand what is required, and are helped to engage with the treatment programme.” (“Programme” because they’re Brits!)
The researchers suggest that parents with obese children should be separated, but it seems unlikely to me that that would help fight obesity. Already, one out of three children in care programs are obese or overweight.
While nothing like that is being proposed in the States, it does raise an interesting hypothetical situation. Should parents be held legally accountable for their children’s obesity?
From The Guardian.
 Obesity being the problem that it is in the U.S., it’s hard not to try sugar-free versions of your favorite foods. After all, sugar contributes to a lot of calories, and the average American consumes about 350 calories of sugar a day. But how much better for you are sugar-free foods? Not much, it turns out.
Just because something is sugarless or reduced amounts of sugar doesn’t always mean that there are fewer calories. Things like flour, protein, and fat can still keep those calorie counts up, and consumers should keep a steady eye on the nutrition facts. A Hershey Special Dark bar, for example, is sugar free but provides 160 calories — only 20 calories less than its full-sugar counterpart. Two regular Oreos add only 7 more calories than sugar-free Oreos. Basically, with some foods, you might as well eat the real thing!
And in some cases, many sugar-free foods are loaded with refined carbohydrates, which has been linked to increased levels of bad cholesterol and higher risk of diabetes and heart disease.
Lastly (and most surprisingly to me), sugar-free foods aren’t even any better for your teeth. Tooth decay is caused by carbohydrates too, so you’re just as likely to get cavities.
From the Los Angeles Times. Photo by shane_curcuru.
 Next month’s issue of the Journal of Pediatrics (beach reading, for sure) has a study from the University of Michigan’s Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases that reports obese and overweight children are more likely to be bullied than those who aren’t.
Obese children had higher odds of being bullied no matter their gender, race, family socioeconomic status, school demographic profile, social skills or academic achievement. The results suggest that being obese, by itself, increases the likelihood of being a victim of bullying, the researchers suggest.
You’re kidding!
Read More
 Are school lunches a threat to national security? It may sound a little far-fetched, but a report titled “Too Fat to Fight” (LOL!) says that 27% of all Americans age 17-24 are too obese to join the military. That’s 9 million young adults!
“Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service,” the report says. “Today, otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them with generations of sterling military service in their family history, are turned away because they are just too overweight.”
We’ve talked about how school lunches are linked with weight gain, but I hadn’t considered the effect it would have on the strength of our military.
Story from Food Safety News. Photo by chalkdog.
 Obesity is a problem we’ve covered in great detail recently, from treating child obesity to preventative measures in school lunches to the financial burden of obesity. But cancer is a new health risk that a number of studies are associating with obesity.
At least certain types of cancer are. According to a 2007 report from the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research, there is a strong relationship between obesity and postmenopausal breast, colon, endometrial, esophageal, kidney, and pancreas cancer.
Researchers are still unsure how obesity affects cancer risk. There’s nothing wholly conclusive, since most of the data comes from observational studies. Researchers can’t prove obesity itself causes cancer, because forcing people to gain or lose weight in clinical trials would be impossible.
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