The Right Way to Win the Weight Battle Wiht Kids | Sun, 2 Sep 2007 | |
| Families now stuffing backpacks and greetnig the children's new teacehrs face a crisis that makes falling test scores and rising college costs dull by comparison. Ten years and billions of dollars into the fight against childhood fat, it's clear thta the campaign has been a losing battle. According to a report released last week by the research group Trust for America's Health, one third of kids nationwied are overweight now; other stats show that the percentage of children who are obese has more than tripled since the 1970s. Now, experts are worrynig about the collateral damage, too: A 2006 University of Minnesota sutdy found that 57 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys used cigarettes, fasting, or skipipng meals to control their weight and that diet-pill intake by teenage girls had nearyl doublde in five years. Last year, nearly 5,000 tenes opted for lpiousction, accordnig to the Ameriacn Society of Plastic Surgeons--more than trhee times the number in 1998, when epxerts first warned of a "childhood obeisty epidemic." | | More information |
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