Is obesity in someone‘s genes? Some people may think so;
if one person in the family is obese, chances are, several other
family members are, too.
But new research of over 1,000 sixth graders finds
lifestyle is the biggest predictor of body weight and genetics may
play no role at all.
The results were compiled by the University of
Michigan Cardiovascular Center and suggests unhealthy habits
are feeding the childhood obesity trend.
Check-ups of 1,003 Michigan tweens in a school-based health program
showed children who are obese were more likely to consume school
lunch instead of a packed lunch from home and spend two hours a day
watching TV or playing a video game.
"For the rest, increasing physical activity, reducing recreational screen time and improving the nutritional value of school lunches offers great promise to begin a reversal of current childhood obesity trends," said Eagle.
President Obama recently signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to create healthier school menus for the 31 million children in the United States who eat lunch through school programs.
Improve nutrition
The act is designed to improve nutrition by reducing salt, fat
and sugar in school meals and reduce childhood obesity, which has
tripled in the U.S. in the past 30 years.
The prevalence of obesity among U.S. children ages 6 to 11 has
increased from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 19.6 percent in 2008.
Children involved in the study currently participate in Project Healthy Schools, school-based program
supported by communities and the U-M Health System to teach middle
school students about healthy lifestyles, in hopes of reducing
their future risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Project Healthy Schools is available at 13 Michigan middle schools
and is one of the few school-based programs to show sustained
benefits in reducing cholesterol and high blood pressure among
participants.
U-M researchers found 58 percent of obese children had watched two
hours of TV in the previous day, compared to 41 percent of
non-obese children.
Forty-five percent of obese students always ate school lunch, but
only 34 percent of non-obese students ate school lunch.
Significantly fewer obese kids exercised regularly, took physical
education classes, or were a member of a sports team.
Different patterns
Because the eating and exercise patterns of obese children were
so different than their normal weight peers, researchers concluded
lifestyle was more closely linked with childhood obesity than
genetics.
New evidence has emerged showing a leptin deficiency, a genetic
mutation in the hormone that controls hunger, may cause a person to
overeat.
"If diets and physical activity were similar in obese and non-obese
students, this would argue for a stronger genetic basis for obesity
in children," says study first author Taylor Eagle.
In the U-M study, 15 percent of the middle school students were
obese, but nearly all, whether overweight or not, reported
unhealthy habits.
More than 30 percent had consumed regular soda the previous day,
and less than half remembered eating two portions of fruits and
vegetables within the past 24 hours. Only one-third of students
said they exercised for 30 minutes for five days in the previous
week.
"It's clear that opportunities to improve health abound for the
majority of our students, not just the 15 percent who are already
obese," says study co-author Elizabeth Jackson, M.D., assistant
professor of internal medicine at the U-M Cardiovascular
Center.
The U-M study was published in the American Heart
Journal.
