Childhood obesity: dietary fat absolved, but diet is often deficient

Obesity in children: omega 3 helps, but diet must be controlled

BMI (Body Mass Index) is linked to sugar consumption. Nutritional deficiencies including omega-3s highlighted. Childhood overweight is an emerging problem, and Italian children are the fattest in Europe. This is the result of an alarming statistic from a few years ago. It is not a cosmetic problem: excess weight can lead to health problems, and with good approximation a fat child will become an obese adult.

But what are the causes of childhood overweight?

Some answers in a Swedish study involving 180 Swedish 4-year-old children. Twenty percent of these children, all of whom were middle class and healthy, were overweight, and the increase in BMI (Body Mass Index) was due to an increase in fat. How to make these children lose weight? Is it necessary to eliminate fat? No! On the contrary, the study reveals that the chubbier children were precisely those who consumed less fat. A finger pointed instead atexcessive sugar consumption, and poor diet quality: on average, children ate less than half of the recommended fruits and vegetables, and a quarter of the calories consumed came from "junk food": sweets, snacks, ice cream, soft drinks, cookies. Several deficiencies were highlighted: calcium, vitamin D, iron, but especially too few omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The children with the greatest polyunsaturated fatty acid deficiencies were those who weighed the most, in agreement with a previous study that indicated omega 3 deficiency in obese children. Many girls were already showing early signs of metabolic syndrome, a condition characterized by central obesity, hypertension, and disturbances in glucose and insulin metabolism. Metabolic syndrome is linked to an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 

Source: 

M. H. Garemo - Nutrition and Health in 4-Year-Olds in a Swedish Well-Educated Community. Swedish Research Council.