Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Presented at this year's American Heart Association's Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention researchers claim overweight children as young as age 3 can starting showing signs of cardiovascular disease. Data on over 3,090 kids, ages 3 to 6, revealed good cholesterol levels (HDL) were lower in overweight children and C-reactive protein levels, associated with coronary events, were elevated in kids with higher body mass indexes; HealthDay News explains.

It’s true. Dr. Fuhrman points out that lipoprotein abnormality, i.e. high LDL and low HDL, which cause heart attack deaths in adulthood start to develop in early childhood. What you eat as a kid affects lifetime cholesterol levels, but don’t fret! Maybe you’re like me and ate fairly crappy early on, no worries. Start gobbling down fruits and veggies and you can aggressively reverse any damage you’ve done!

Now this is really scary. Children already have the attention span of a flea and previous studies link low HDL to poor memory. And worse, when kids grow up and want to play football, they’re encouraged to get big and bulk up which just like professional football players, inflates their risk of heart disease.

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Eating low calorie foods may offset genes strongly associated with obesity. Printed in PLoS ONE, experts studied 2,275 children, finding kids who consumed an energy (or calorie) dense diet, such as fatty foods, had more fat mass after 3 years. Researchers then looked to see if children carrying the obesity gene had an increased risk of getting fat with a high energy diet. They did not. Meaning the effects of eating a low-energy diet, more fruits and vegetables, may not be impaired by genetics; EurekAlert reports.

Another report indicated kids with a certain gene variant are more likely to consume junk food, such as sweets, which can lead to weight gain. But I guess ditching the sweets and eating more fruit and veggies would squash this gene too. So can family lifestyle! If a family eats healthfully, it reduces the risk of obesity linked to family history.

Fruits and vegetables are excellent low-calorie foods, specifically green veggies. Foods like Romaine lettuce, broccoli, kale and Swiss chard are low-energy and highly nutritious!

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When I was just a little blogger, my mom put the kibosh on a lot of foods. No chips. No bacon. No white bread. No fast food. No snack cakes. And I’m sure there were others, but I’m too emotionally scarred to remember. Now, did all this make be neurotic? No, never!

Sorry. Sarcasm doesn’t translate well in written form. But seriously, some doctors and nutritionists believe uber vigilant parents who classify certain foods as bad, such as salt and sugar, and other foods as good, like veggies, might be driving their kids crazy.

Some say parents can be too obsessive about their children’s diet and despite their good intentions cause food anxieties. Experts worry this can lead to clinical eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia, which have been diagnosed in increasing numbers among young people over the past two decades. In the past, weight-gain was the criteria for bad foods, like fat and sugar, but that has evolved into a broader concept of health concerns, such as diabetes, heart disease and hyperactivity; The New York Times investigates.

Personally, I wouldn’t say my mom’s food tyranny made me anxious. For the most part, it kept me in check. To this day I’ve never had Whiz. Even when I was fat and bloated I avoided the horrible foods. Sure, I ate poorly, but never Big Macs, nachos or Little Debbie.

Now, if I have kids—wow, I just got the chills—I’ll lead by example, like Dr. Fuhrman says. I’ll eat my veggies and encourage my kid to do the same. I won’t keep crap in the house. And if little Gerry asks, I’ll tell him other daddies let their kids eat junk because they’re mean. Kidding!

Via Slash Food.

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To be published in an upcoming issue of Thorax, new research claims children who watch more than two hours of television each day have a higher risk of asthma. The study tracked respiratory function of 3,000 children from birth to 11.5 years of age. Starting at age 3.5, parents were asked to describe their child’s respiratory health and if they manifested any symptoms, such as wheezing, or if they had been diagnosed with asthma. Data revealed only 6% of kids developed asthma, but those watching two or more hours of TV each day were twice as likely have asthma; HealthDay News reports.

Sitting around watching Sponge Bob all day isn’t healthy, especially since previous research has associated obesity with a greater likelihood of asthma, as well as exposure to common household chemicals like cleaning sprays and air fresheners. So get the kids out of the house!

In related news, traffic pollution, specifically polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the byproduct of incomplete gasoline combustion, has been linked to asthma risk in babies.

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