Tag: obesity

phthalates linked to obesity in black children

childhood obesity

Childhood obesity is a growing health concern in the United States. A new study has just come out showing that in black children, greater exposure to phthalates was linked to being overweight. From Scientific American:

Black children have much higher levels of the chemicals in their bodies than children of other races, and for every tripling of certain compounds, they were 22 percent more likely to be obese, according to data from 2,884 children aged 6 to 19. No links to obesity were found in white or Hispanic children.

“The takeaway is we need to consider environmental exposures when looking at the obesity problem,” said Leonardo Trasande, a professor at New York University School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “Environmental chemicals may contribute independently of diet and exercise.”

But of course correlation is not causation. And even if it were, no one can determine which problem might cause the other from this study:

It’s a big study and nationally representative, which is good,” said Joe Braun, an epidemiology professor at Brown University who was not involved with the research. “But since they measure phthalates levels in urine and obesity at the same time, it’s a chicken and egg problem. Do phthalates cause obesity or are obese children more exposed?” It’s unclear, he said, when they were exposed relative to when they became obese.

Much more here.

say no to sugary drinks

If you didn’t already know, sugary drinks cause weight gain

This comes as no surprise but avoiding sugar drink limits weight gain. From the New York Times:

In one of the new trials, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital randomly assigned 224 overweight or obese teenagers to receive home deliveries of bottled water and diet drinks for one year. The children also were regularly encouraged to avoid sugary drinks. Those who received the shipments gained only 3.5 pounds on average during that year, while a comparison group of similar teenagers gained 7.7 pounds. The differences between the groups evaporated after the deliveries stopped.

In the second trial, researchers at VU University Amsterdam randomly assigned 641 normal-weight schoolchildren ages 4 to 11 to drink eight ounces of a 104-calorie sugar-sweetened or noncaloric sugar-free fruit-flavored drink every day from identical cans. Over 18 months, children in the sugar-free group gained 13.9 pounds on average, while those drinking the sugar-added version gained 16.2 pounds.

 

today’s no duh headline

“Fruit and Veggies Linked to Lower Obesity Rates…” Isn’t this nutrition 101? Read the story at NPR’s the salt blog.

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