After decades of warnings about the rising rate of childhood obesity, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some good news. A new report from the CDC suggests we’ve made some progress in the fight against childhood obesity in the nation’s youngest children – specifically those from low-income families.
The report examined geography of these children and found:
-
Nineteen states and the U.S. Virgin Islands saw a small but significant decline in preschoolers’ obesity rates between 2008 and 2011, according to the CDC.
-
Three states saw a small incline in childhood obesity rates and the rest remained unchanged.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
And the long term effects of childhood obesity are alarming:
-
Children who are overweight or obese as preschoolers are 5 times as likely as normal-weight children to be overweight or obese as adults.
-
Childhood obesity puts kids at greater risk for high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as diabetes and cardiovascular issues.
We’ve blogged about this before — these chronic diseases are costing us:
-
Three out of every four dollars spent on healthcare in the United States are used to treat patients with chronic diseases; and
-
Seven out of every ten deaths are a result of chronic disease.