Obese Teenage Girls Have High Risk Of Middle Age Death
A girl in her teens who is obese has a much greater chance of dying during middle age than a teenage girl of normal weight, according to researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health. With childhood obesity in many parts of the world on the increase, in years to come we could see life-expectancy coming down. In much of the developed world, and some parts of the developing world, teenage obesity is growing at an alarming rate. In the USA 15.5% of teenagers are overweight. [click link for full article]

Terminology for childhood obesity (AP)
AP - A committee convened by the American Medical Association, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and others is studying childhood obesity. Among the proposals is the use of clearer language to define the problem for doctors and the public.

Blue Cross Of California Launches BMI Training And Promotion Program To Make Childhood Obesity Screening A Statewide Standard
Blue Cross of California (BCC) haskicked off "Taking Measures for Their Future" -- a statewide Body MassIndex (BMI) training and promotion program for clinical staff (registerednurses, licensed vocational nurses, and medical assistants) throughoutCalifornia -- as part of its $9 million, three-year statewide initiative toaddress the childhood obesity epidemic. [click link for full article]

More Adults This Year See Childhood Obesity As Major Problem In The U.S.
More Adults This Year See Childhood Obesity as Major Problem in the U.S. A new Wall Street JournalOnline/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll finds that a growing number ofU.S. adults see childhood obesity as a problem in the U.S., with 84 percentcalling it a "major problem," up from 77 percent from 2005. However, amongthose who are a parent or guardian of a child aged 12 and under, only 74percent say it is a major problem (compared to 70% in 2005). [click link for full article]

Hispanic 3-year-olds More Likely To Be Obese Than Black Or White Children, USA
A study of more than 2,400 children in 20 U.S. cities suggests that Hispanic 3-year-olds have a higher prevalence of obesity than black or white 3-year-olds, a disparity that does not seem to be explained by socioeconomic factors typically linked to childhood obesity, according to an article in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Researchers know that by the time U.S. [click link for full article]