By now you may have heard about surprising and welcome results from a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found a 43% drop in childhood obesity among American children aged 2 to 5. In 2012, about 8% of 2- to 5-year-olds were obese, decreasing from a rate of 14% in 2004. The New York Times gives a solid recap here.
As always, it’s important to keep in mind that childhood obesity is just one symptom of larger problems in our food environment, as even thin children can suffer the ill effects of a junk-food laden diet or chronic inactivity over the course of their lives. And experts admit that we can’t pinpoint with perfect accuracy the particular factors which may have caused the 43% drop.
Nonetheless, it’s hard to characterize this study’s results as anything but good news.
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Annabel says
Thank you for pointing out that “obesity” is really just a physical characteristic and not indicative of health.
Adina Ariel says
That’s actually a great improvement. Well, thanks Bettina for pointing this out.