Medical X-Press – Kristie Auman-Bauer
“Childhood obesity rates have more than doubled in the last 30 years, with pre-adolescence emerging as a critical window for preventing excess weight gain. In a new Penn State project, researchers are investigating why some children are more prone to weight gain than others, by studying how children’s brains respond to food portion size. According to Kathleen Keller, the Mark T. Greenberg Early Career Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Penn State and principal investigator on the project, dietary approaches to treating obesity lack long-term success. “Given the challenges of obesity treatment, preventing the disease before it develops is a public health priority,” she said.”(more)