Allergies Linked to Obesity

Obesity rates among young people are rising. So is the number of young people with asthma and allergies. Now, a new study of the largest nationally representative data set of allergy and asthma information ever assembled in the United States says there might be a connection.

According to an article published in the May issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, obese children and adolescents are at increased risk of having some kind of allergy – especially food allergies.

The study is the first to be published using new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a large national data set collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control.

People with allergies and asthma tend to have elevated levels of an allergen-specific immunoglobulin-E, or IGE, in their bodies. After crunching the numbers from the case files of more than 4000 children and young adults from 2 to 19 years old, the researchers found higher levels of I-g-E among the kids who were obese or overweight. Obese children were about 26 percent more likely to have allergies of any kind than children of normal weight, and 59 percent more likely to have a food allergy.

Correlation is, of course, not the same as cause. The presence of elevated I-g-E levels and allergy symptoms in the test subjects may be entirely coincidental, or related to some as yet unidentified third factor.

The researchers of this study say that more research is needed to determine a definitive link between obesity and allergies.

Love Can Be Blind to Childhood Obesity

After studying data from 20 international research studies over the past decade, researchers have found that parents worldwide tend to fail to recognize the difference between what they think their kids weigh and what they actually weigh.

Moms everywhere are more likely to classify their daughters as overweight than their sons, and parents worldwide can closely estimate the weight of their normal weight children but usually fail to accurately guess the weight of their overweight children. And if parents can’t recognize when their child is overweight, they can’t take steps to help them stay healthy.

Today, with childhood obesity growing at an alarming rate, our kids need parents who understand the risks of childhood obesity and are willing to take steps to prevent these from being realized.

Researchers in the study are calling on parents to educate themselves on childhood obesity and learn to recognize its warning signs, before it creates health problems for their children.

Fructose Tied to Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes

Most people who struggle with their weight have been told to avoid high levels of sugar, at one point or another, and for good reason.

Doctors from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore are among many in the medical field who blame the high levels of fructose in snacks and beverages for increased rates of Type 2 diabetes and the current obesity epidemic in America.

Fructose is a sweetener found naturally in fruits. But massive amounts of it are used in corn syrup, which is found generously in foods and beverages – hence the ingredient “high fructose corn syrup” that can provide up to 13 teaspoons of sugar in a 12-ounce can of soda.

Studies show that consuming fructose stimulates the appetite and leads to a bigger appetite for more food, most of it loaded with even more fructose and empty calories.

This stands in contrast to glucose, a sugar that is found in carbohydrates, which decreases appetite. The high intake of fructose can also lead to insulin resistance, which can be a precursor to Type 2 diabetes.

Professor M. Daniel Lane of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine noted that the average American consumes 145 pounds of sweeteners a year – much of it fructose – and teenagers and children likely consume more.

Dr. Lane notes that this level of consumption, coupled with a sedentary lifestyle, raises serious health concerns, given the continual increase in obesity rates among kids and adolescents.

Study Shows Obesity Puts Toddlers at Risk

Almost 17% percent of U.S. kids ages 2 to 19 are obese, according to the CDC. And now a nationwide study of children 3 to 6 years old by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reveals that childhood obesity can trigger health problems as early as age three.

The study measured the waist circumference and body mass index of each child, then compared these with the child’s cholesterol levels. The presence of arterial inflammation in the children was also noted, since inflammation is a precursor to the formation of arterial plaque, which can lead to blockage and future heart disease.

Unsurprisingly, the kids with high BMI and larger waist measurements were found to have low levels of HDL, or ”good” cholesterol, and significant levels of C-reactive protein, a sign of arterial inflammation and, which we just discussed, is also found in infertile women.

According to University of Miami professor Sarah Messiah, lead author of the study, overweight toddlers “are experiencing a childhood at the edge of disease, potentially setting them up for chronic problems”.

While the study’s authors can’t say with certainty exactly why obesity is becoming so widespread among young children, they advise parents to watch their child’s weight even in preschool years, and ask their child’s pediatrician to add a BMI measurement [D] to their toddler’s regular checkups if he or she hasn’t done so already.

United Kingdom Clothing Sizes Adapting to Bigger Kids

UK clothing manufacturers are actually having to change the sizing standards for kidswear. As part of this effort to accommodate the clothing needs of today’s kids, the major children’s clothing manufacturers in Britain have decided to measure children while they are out shopping to see how the body shape of the typical British child has changed.

The project is called the National Childrenswear Survey, and it kicks off in March. Researchers will use 3-D body-imaging scanners located in major childhood clothing retailers to measure the height and build of at least 6,000 anonymous boys and girls between four and 17 years old. Each of the high-tech scanners will use an array of 16 sensors and 32 cameras to size up a child’s body and obtain the data needed to calculate a ‘virtual’ body image. The manufacturers will then use these virtual bodies to design clothing to fit today’s kids.

Believe it or not, this upsizing of British clothing has happened before. Select Research, the company that will actually perform the scans, conducted similar scanner-based research on adults several years ago. Their 2001 survey found the average dress size among British women was a 16 – much higher than the sizes carried by most shops. The resulting reassessment of women’s fashion created a small uproar in the U.K. media – the likes of which is expected again in the wake of the children’s survey.

Does eating food fast make you fat?

A team of researchers in the U.K. thinks it might – and that the tendency to scarf down a meal can be passed down from parents to kids. In a recent study, doctors from the Health Behavior Research Centre at the University College London measured the eating speed of several pairs of twin children, who were divided into three body-type groups: overweight, high-normal and low-normal.

The twins were videotaped eating standardized portions of food, and researchers then counted the number of bites per minute the children took while chowing down.

To analyze the data, researches noted the changes in eating speed during the meal, and cross-indexed the information with the inherited body type of each pair of twins.

What they found was that the overweight twins not only consumed MORE food on average than normal-weight twins, but they also ate FASTER, as well. From this, the study team concluded that faster eating can lead to weight gain, and that it’s likely that the TENDENCY to eat quickly is passed from parent to child genetically.

Even so, DNA is not destiny: The study’s lead author noted that children most likely learn the actual BEHAVIOR of eating quickly from their parents and said that – quote – the “early promotion of slower eating for all children could…help to control current obesity trends.”

So all you parents out there, teach your youngster’s to take it slow at the dinner table, and you’ll help them keep off the pounds in the long run.

Now, what about grown-ups who struggle with obesity? A new study from the National Cancer Institute that will be released next month notes that obese post-menopausal women may have a higher risk of ovarian cancer.

It seems that it’s time to slow down the fat- by not eating food too quickly.