Obesity & Children: the Good News and the Bad News

Bad news first?

Okay, the bad news is that children who are overweight and obese and stay that way into adulthood, have a much greater risk of developing some serious problems.  This risk ranges from about double the chance of having abnormal cholesterol levels to more than five times the chance of developing diabetes.

The good news is pretty good though.  According to an article released today in the New England Journal of Medicine, if those children become nonobese–in other words, if they loose the excess weight–by the time they become adults, their risk for these problems goes back down.  In fact, it seems to go back to the same risk as people who were never overweight or obese as children.

So, it’s never to late to encourage our kids to start exercising and eating well!