The Californian – K Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D.
“A child’s eating habits, and weight, can adversely affect his or her health later in life. The healthy eating habits you set with young kids not only influence their eating habits later in life, they also influence the chemistry of your kids’ bodies so they are less likely to get fat as adults. All the talk about childhood obesity is not just media hype. The number of children who are overweight or obese is increasing at an alarming rate. These kids are at much higher risk for developing serious health problems as adults — high blood pressure, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Not only that: They’re even at increased risk for developing “adult” diseases when they’re still children. A growing number of obese kids are developing the condition that used to be called “adult onset” diabetes (better called Type 2 diabetes). When I was a medical student, you rarely saw people with that disease who were younger than 50. Today, you see it in teenagers who have been obese since early childhood.”(more)