Obesity Rates, Studies, and Childhood Obesity

A new study conducted by researchers from Monash University explored how childhood obesity may impact consumers’ cognitive function as they go into midlife.

After following study participants for three decades, they learned that kids with the strongest physical fitness were likely to become middle-aged adults with the strongest cognitive function. However, they found that the inverse was also true.

“Clusters of low fitness and high obesity in childhood are associated with poorer health outcomes in later life, however their relationship with cognition is unknown,” the researchers wrote. “Identifying such profiles may inform strategies to reduce risk of cognitive decline.” 

Childhood habits can affect long-term health

For the study, the researchers followed over 1,200 participants for 30 years; all of the participants were between the ages of seven and 15 in 1985, and the team tracked their health outcomes through 2019. The children were enrolled in the Australian Childhood Determinants of Adult Health Study, and the team analyzed their waist-to-hip ratio, muscular power, cardiorespiratory fitness, and muscular endurance; the participants also completed cognitive assessments in the final two years of the study. 

The researchers learned that kids with the strongest cardiorespiratory fitness were likely to become adults with the strongest cognitive function. On the other hand, those with the weakest fitness levels during childhood didn’t perform as well on the cognitive assessments in middle age. 

The study showed that better muscular fitness, cardiorespiratory fitness, and a lower waist-to-hip ratio during childhood were linked with improvements in three key areas in middle age: overall cognitive function, processing speed, and attention. 

The researchers explained that these findings are important because they show that habits that are learned during childhood can affect consumers into middle age and beyond. The team said it’s important to identify what factors can influence physical and cognitive health throughout life. 

“Developing strategies that improve low fitness and decrease obesity levels in childhood are important because it could contribute to improvements in cognitive performance in midlife,” said researcher Michele Callisaya. “Importantly, the study also indicates that protective strategies against future cognitive decline may need to start as far back as early childhood, so that the brain can develop sufficient reserve against developing conditions such as dementia in older life.” 

A new study conducted by researchers from Edith Cowan University explored how lifting weights may benefit consumers with obesity who are trying to lose weight. 

One premise of the research is that aerobic exercise may not be possible for everyone. For consumers who are unable to run, jog, or perform other aerobic activities, the researchers say resistance training can be an effective way to become healthier and reach weight loss goals.

“Usually when we talk about obesity, body composition, or weight loss, we only hear about aerobic exercise,” said researcher Pedro Lopez. “This paper shows we can use resistance training and achieve meaningful effects with a diet based on caloric reduction. We can reduce body fat percentage, whole-fat body mass, body weight, and BMI. If you’re comparing the literature, these effects are similar to aerobic exercise with caloric restriction in adults who are overweight or obese.” 

Resistance training has health benefits

For the study, the researchers analyzed data from over 4,100 participants who were part of nearly 120 studies through December 2020. The different studies looked at the ways aerobic exercise, resistance training, and diet all affected health outcomes for those with obesity. 

Ultimately, the researchers learned that weight lifting was effective for those with obesity who were trying to lose weight. Participants had the greatest weight loss outcomes when they were able to cut back on their calories and follow a resistance training program. The team also observed the greatest improvements in body fat percentage and whole body fat mass for these participants. 

When the participants combined both aerobic exercise and resistance training, they were also more likely to have better weight loss outcomes. For those who aren’t able to perform aerobic exercises, or would prefer to have options when it comes to their physical activity, these findings show that resistance training can be a successful option. 

The researchers also learned that following a resistance training routine helped the participants improve their lean muscle mass, which can be difficult – especially when cutting back on calorie intake. The team explained that diet is an incredibly important piece of the weight loss process. 

“If you want to lose weight, you have to reduce your calorie intake,” Lopez said. 

Previous studies have highlighted the health risks associated with the use of pesticides. Now, researchers from McMaster University explored how a commonly used pesticide may be impacting obesity rates around the world. 

Their work showed that chlorpyrifos  --a pesticide banned in Canada that is used to clean fruits and vegetables -- may prohibit the body from burning calories, leading to weight gain. 

“Lifestyle changes around diet and exercise rarely lead to sustained weight loss,” said researcher Gregory Steinberg. “We think part of the problem may be this intrinsic dialing back of the metabolic furnace by chlorpyrifos.” 

The impact on metabolism

The researchers conducted a study on mice to determine how pesticides can impact metabolism, weight gain, and obesity. They gave the mice high-fat diets and then analyzed how exposure to chlorpyrifos affected their health outcomes. They also paid close attention to brown fat cells, which are the cells that aid in burning calories and weight loss. 

Ultimately, the researchers found that chlorpyrifos altered the normal function of brown fat cells. Rather than burning calories, exposure to the pesticide made the mice more likely to store extra calories, which is likely to contribute to weight gain and obesity. 

“Brown fat is the metabolic furnace in our body, burning calories, unlike normal fat that is used to store them,” Steinberg said. “This generates heat and prevents calories from being deposited on our bodies as normal white fat. We know brown fat is activated during cold and when we eat.” 

Though the study was conducted on mice, the researchers believe the findings can translate to human metabolisms. They explained that an extra five pounds of weight gain each year can greatly increase the risk of obesity. Unfortunately, putting on that much weight isn’t hard. Storing only 40 extra calories per day through chlorpyrifos exposure would be enough to do the trick.

Losing weight and keeping it off can be a difficult process for many consumers, but researchers from the University of Copenhagen are exploring ways to maintain a healthy weight loss. 

Their study focused on obese participants who first changed their diets to lose weight. The team found that consistently engaging in moderate to intense physical activity and taking an appetite-suppressing drug helped people maintain weight loss while staying healthy.

“The problem is that people are fighting against biological forces when losing weight,” said researcher Signe Torekov. “The appetite increases simultaneously with decreased energy consumption, and this counteracts weight loss maintenance. We have an appetite-stimulating hormone, which increases dramatically when we lose weight, and simultaneously the level of the appetite-suppressing hormone drops dramatically. 

“In addition, a weight loss can provoke loss of muscle mass, while the body reduces energy consumption. Thus, when the focus in obesity treatment has been on how to obtain a weight loss -- rather than how to maintain a weight loss -- it is really difficult to do something about your situation,” Torekov said. 

The keys to maintaining weight loss

The researchers analyzed 215 participants with obesity who had lost roughly 30 pounds before the study began but had no exercise routine in place. 

To see what methods worked best to maintain a healthy weight loss, the team created four groups: two received an appetite-suppressing drug and two were given a placebo. The groups were divided even further based on exercise; one group in each of the drug and placebo subgroups was given a moderate to intense workout routine, while the other was told to carry on with their existing physical activity regimen. 

Ultimately, the researchers learned that the combination of an exercise routine and the appetite-suppressing drug yielded the best health outcomes. Participants in this group saw improvements to key health measures, such as blood sugar, fat mass, and overall quality of life. They also lost more weight over the course of the one-year study by adhering to both treatments. 

However, not all of the groups had such positive responses to their interventions. Those who were given the placebo pill and didn’t adopt an exercise routine had a higher risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes; they also gained back half the weight they had lost. Participants who had either just received the drug or had just started exercising maintained their weight loss, but they didn’t gain any additional health benefits.

Having support is important

The researchers believe a key component of this study was the support services that were available to the participants over the course of the year. Having these resources in place helped guide participants through their weight loss and health goals, and the team believes this should be adopted more widely. 

“Without a follow-up on whether people actually have support to perform exercise, the treatment will not be enough,” Torekov said. “Therefore, we also followed up with the participants on an ongoing basis to ensure that they received the support they needed in order to exercise. That is necessary, because maintaining weight loss is extremely hard. People need to understand this. Once you have lost weight, you are not ‘cured.’ The ongoing exercise and effort will likely need to continue for many years.” 

As many consumers are looking to follow healthier diets, experts continue to find how the things we put into our bodies can affect everything from our immune response to life expectancy. 

Now, researchers from Princeton University have discovered that the development of obesity and disease could stem from evolutionary diet changes. They explained that our bodies were made to digest the types of food our ancestors ate; however, because present-day diets have shifted so much from that, our metabolisms struggle to keep up, which increases the likelihood of disease. 

“Humans evolved in a very different environment than the one we’re currently living in,” said researcher Amanda Lea. “No one diet is universally bad. It’s about the mismatch between your evolutionary history and what you’re currently eating.” 

Observing dietary changes

For this study, the researchers studied the Turkana population in Kenya. In recent years, the group has split in two: the remote portion of the population continues to rely on the animals and plants around them for food, while another portion has moved into more urban areas and has incorporated more processed foods and carbohydrates into their diets.  

“We realized that we had the opportunity to study the effect of transitioning away from a traditional lifestyle, relying on almost 80 percent animal byproducts -- a diet extremely protein-rich and rich in fats, with very little to no carbohydrates -- to a mostly carbohydrate diet,” said researcher Julian Ayroles. “This presented an unprecedented opportunity: genetically homogenous populations whose diets stretch across a lifestyle gradient from relatively ‘matched’ to extremely ‘mismatched’ with their recent evolutionary history.” 

In addition to analyzing the diets of both groups, the researchers also evaluated several different biomarkers that could be linked to disease, including body mass index (BMI), cholesterol, blood pressure, and body fat percentage, among others. 

They learned that those who had maintained the traditional Turkana diet had the lowest disease risk and the greatest health outcomes compared to those who had adopted a more current diet and lifestyle. Those in the latter group were more likely to develop high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes, among several other conditions.  

“There’s a cumulative effect,” Lea said. “The more you experience the urban environment -- the evolutionarily mismatched environment -- the worse it’s going to be for your health.” 

Moving forward, the researchers don’t recommend that all consumers follow the Turkana diet. Instead, the goal is personal: what part of our ancestors’ diets could most benefit our health and wellness today? 

“One of the most remarkable things about the Turkana if that if you and I went on the Turkana diet, we would get sick really quickly!” Ayroles said. “The key to metabolic health may be to align our diet and activity levels with that of our ancestors, but we still need to determine which components matter most.” 

Experts have recently found ways that probiotics can help consumers’ physical and mental health, but a new study is exploring how these bacteria can help young people stay healthy. 

According to researchers, childhood obesity is likely to be more manageable when kids follow a healthy diet and take a daily probiotic. 

“Probiotic supplements are frequently given to people without proper evidence [or] data,” said researcher Dr. Flavia Prodam. “These findings start to give evidence of the efficacy and safety of two probiotic strains in treating obesity in a younger population.” 

Encouraging healthier habits

The researchers had 100 kids between the ages of six and 18 participate in the eight-week long study. While all of the participants were instructed to follow healthy diets for the duration of the study, half of the group was given a probiotic supplement and the other half was given a placebo. At the end of the eight weeks, the researchers assessed the participants’ health outcomes to determine the best course of action for childhood obesity. 

Ultimately, the researchers found that the combination of the probiotic supplement and a healthy diet were more effective than dieting alone. The study revealed that kids who took a probiotic had improved metabolisms, lower body mass indices (BMIs), and better insulin resistance than the group who was given a placebo. 

Because of these health benefits, the researchers are hopeful that this simple intervention can be implemented more widely among young people struggling to maintain a healthy weight. While everyone reacts differently to supplements, and a healthy diet is imperative, probiotics could be beneficial in helping keep childhood obesity at bay. 

“The next step for our research is to identify patients that could benefit from this probiotic treatment, with a view to creating a more personalized weight-loss strategy,” said Dr. Prodam. “We also want to decipher more clearly the role of diet and probiotics on microbiome composition. This could help us to understand how the microbiota is different in young people with obesity.” 

While many studies have discussed the risks linked with childhood obesity, a new study conducted by researchers from the European Society of Cardiology found that the condition can affect kids into adulthood. 

The study revealed that children who struggle with obesity and high blood pressure could be at an increased risk for heart disease as adults. 

“The study provides evidence from a large general population sample for a connection between cardiovascular risk factors in children and adolescents -- namely high blood pressure and obesity -- and subsequent deleterious changes in the blood vessels,” said researcher Julia Bueschges. 

Reducing the health risks

To better understand how obesity and blood pressure can affect children’s heart health, the researchers evaluated data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents. 

The study took place over the course of 11 years. At the onset, nearly 5,000 children between the ages of three and 17 had their basic vitals assessed, including height, weight, and blood pressure. Over a decade later, those same children were monitored again, and they also underwent ultrasounds to evaluate their arteries. 

The goal was to determine how their health as children affected their health as adolescents and young adults. The researchers explained that the thickness of arteries can determine heart health, as clogged arteries can lead to any number of serious heart conditions. 

In cases where blood pressure and obesity didn’t improve between evaluations, the risk for problematic heart health increased. Obesity was associated with a 53 percent higher risk of thicker arteries, while high blood pressure increased the risk by nearly 65 percent. 

While improvements in health between the two check-ups reduced the risk, childhood obesity and high blood pressure were still associated with a greater chance of thicker arteries. 

The researchers hope that these findings can inspire consumers to start adopting healthy habits, like healthy diets and exercise, in the hopes that they can last through adulthood. 

“These findings underline the importance of good cardiovascular health from an early age,” said Bueschges. “Physical activity and a healthy diet can help prevent high blood pressure and obesity. Alcohol and tobacco should be avoided. Last but not least, it is important to manage stress.”

Despite policies that have been created with the goal of limiting kids’ sugar intake via sweetened drinks, a new study conducted by researchers from the UConn Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity identified a trend among young people’s beverage choices. 

The researchers found that sugary drinks comprised over 60 percent of all children’s drink sales over the last year.

“Beverage companies have said they want to be part of the solution to childhood obesity, but they continue to market sugar-sweetened children’s drinks directly to young children on TV and through packages designed to get their attention in the store,” said researcher Jennifer L. Harris, PhD. “Parents may be surprised to know that pediatricians, dentists, and other nutrition experts recommend against serving any of these drinks to children.” 

Understanding the labels

To get a better sense of the advertising that goes into kids’ drinks, as well as the sales and the nutrition facts, the researchers assessed both sugar-sweetened drinks -- such as drink mixes and soda -- and unsweetened drinks -- like sparkling water. 

While the overwhelmingly high sugar-sweetened drink sales were the primary takeaway from their study, the researchers also noticed a great deal of confusion surrounding the nutrition labels on these drinks. Many of the marketing methods used to draw kids to these products were also confusing to consumers. 

Not only were sugary drinks dominating commercial time for children, but the study also revealed that labels on children’s drinks can be incredibly misleading, especially for parents looking to make healthy choices for their kids. 

Of the companies involved in this study, all of which made at least $10 million in sales in 2018, the researchers found that promises of low sugar or no sugar came with additional low-calorie sweeteners, which companies had failed to print on the front of the labels. 

“You shouldn’t have to be a nutritionist to figure out whether or not a product is healthy for your child,” said researcher Maria Romo-Palafox, PhD. “The fronts of packages make children’s drinks look healthy, but there’s no way to know which ones have added sugars or low-calorie sweeteners reading the front. You have to read the nutrition facts panel on the back and you have to know the names of low-calorie sweeteners, such as acesulfame potassium and sucralose, to realize they are in the product.” 

Despite the high sugar content found in many of these drinks, and the extra work required on parents’ part to see past pictures of fruit or popular cartoon characters, the researchers hope that parents take necessary steps to ensure that their kids are following as many healthy habits as possible.

For many consumers, breakfast is hit or miss. Some don’t have the time to commit to a meal in the morning hours, while others choose to wait until lunch -- but a new study could have some people re-thinking their breakfast habits. 

According to researchers from the University of Sao Paulo Medical School, young people who skip breakfast could be increasing their risk of developing obesity. 

“We found that skipping breakfast is associated with adiposity markers in adolescents regardless of where they live and how much sleep they get, or whether they’re male or female,” said researcher Elsie Costa de Oliveira Forkert. 

“By skipping breakfast, millions of children and adolescents around the world are probably replacing a more healthy homemade meal including dairy products, whole-grain cereal, and fruit with fast food at a venue on the way to school, or at the school itself.” 

How breakfast helps

The researchers utilized two surveys, one conducted in Brazil and the other conducted in Europe, to understand how skipping breakfast affected adolescents’ likelihood of developing obesity and their overall energy levels. Combined, the two studies evaluated approximately 4,500 young people, ranging in age from 12 to 18. 

After charting the participants’ height, weight, and body mass index (BMI), the researchers distributed questionnaires that asked about eating habits, sleeping habits, and screen time. Of all the hobbies and habits the researchers looked at, skipping breakfast was the one that most highly correlated with a predisposition to obesity, regardless of any potential risk factors, gender, or average sleep time. 

However, because of the wide range of data explored in these two studies, Forkert and her team hope that parents of adolescents try to encourage their children to not only eat breakfast every morning, but also follow healthy lifestyles on a regular basis.

While breakfast was just one variable, too much time spent in front of screens, too little time spent engaging in physical activity, and a poor, unbalanced diet were also linked to greater risk of developing obesity. 

“The adolescents with more sedentary habits who spent more time watching television, using a computer, or playing video games probably had an unbalanced diet and consumed unhealthy food while watching television or playing,” said Forkert. “Sedentary behaviors associated with relatively high calorie consumption lead directly to obesity.” 

Can skipping meals be healthy?

Many recent studies have tackled the subject of intermittent fasting: a process where consumers either consume only 500-600 calories for two days out of the week or fast for 16 hours of the day and eat in the remaining eight hours. 

The process has been found to help consumers lose weight, and some evidence shows that it actually reduces the risk of diabetes and improves overall health. 

“What we are doing is time-restricted feeding,” said researcher Matthew McAllister. “It is a way to use fasting each day to promote various aspects of cardio-metabolic health.”