Another reason to keep your children from developing the TV habit:

Children who watch more than two hours of TV a day are twice as likely to be obese and suffer high blood pressure, say researchers.

A U.S. study found those glued to the screen for between two and four hours a day were 2.5 times more likely to have hypertension, which can lead to heart disease and stroke in later life.

That increased to 3.3 times the risk for children watching TV for four hours or more each day, says a report today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study also found that children tended to be more seriously overweight the more time they spent watching TV.

There are fears that ‘couch potato’ children are not only physically inactive but also exposed to TV commercials selling high-fat and other junk foods.

Researchers at the University of Florida confirm that obesity reduces an individual’s lifespan:

Super-size meals and a sedentary lifestyle shorten the lifespan of the obese and cost the U.S. taxpayer billions in Medicare expenditures, a study found.

Lead study author Zhou Yang of the University of Florida said he found an elderly person who is overweight at 65 may spend $16,000 more — and the obese person may spend $26,000 more — than those who are a normal weight at age 65.

The study, published in the online issue of the journal Health Services Research, said 35 percent of U.S. adults are overweight and another 30 percent are obese — and the total extra cost of treating them could jump to hundreds of billions of dollars as they age.

Life expectancy for a man of normal weight is 76.1 years; for an overweight man it’s 75.9 and for an obese man, it’s 74.2. For a woman of normal weight, life expectancy is 74 years; for an overweight woman it’s 72.7 and for an obese woman it’s 71.6, the study said.

It was not so long ago that starvation and famine made headlines. Presently, the world also has another challenge to face:

Some 1,800 researchers will gather in New Orleans this weekend to discuss efforts to treat and contain the worldwide obesity epidemic.

More than 300 studies will be presented during the annual conference, organized by the Obesity Society, a US scientific association created 25 years ago to study the phenomenon.

Between 64 percent to 66 percent of adults in the United States are overweight, of whom 60 million are obese with the epidemic on the rise.

More than a billion adults worldwide are overweight, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and there are at least 300 million obese people on the planet.

In Europe, Britain leads with a 23 percent obesity rate, followed by Germany at 12 percent and Italy at eight percent, according to a study published at the end of 2006 by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In France, 5.9 million people are obese, of which 2.3 million are nine years old.

In China, the obesity rate can reach 20 percent in some cities, according to the WHO.

Over the four-day conference, scientists will review genetic research and how modifying genes can affect weight, the retention of body fat and appetite.

A major element of the conference will be devoted to sociological and behavioral studies as lifestyle, diet and a lack of exercise are the primary causes of the epidemic. Pediatric obesity is also a top priority, with 20 percent of American children deemed obese — a figure that has tripled in 40 years.

A major obesity study has just been released in the UK, projecting a gloomy future:

The extent of the obesity epidemic was laid bare yesterday as it was disclosed that more than half of adults and a quarter of children will be dangerously overweight by 2050.

The problem has reached such proportions that it will take 30 years to reverse, the Government’s chief scientific adviser Sir David King warned.

A report into the future trends in obesity compiled by 250 experts has produced a gloomy picture in which those who are a healthy weight will be in the minority.

Obesity is projected to cost the country £45 billion a year by 2050. By then, only 10 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women will be the right weight for their height.

Sixty per cent of men and 50 per cent women aged 20 to 60 are predicted to be obese. That compares to 24 per cent at present.

The study also found that being seriously overweight can cut life expectancy by as much as 13 years in contrast to smoking which reduces life by an average of 10 years.

Sir David King said if it was not tackled, the impact on the country’s economy and well-being would be huge.

Obesity in America and other Western nations is widely known, observed, studied and reported. The WHO (World Health Organization) has examined trends in other nations:

The World Health Organization, which considers global obesity an epidemic, notes that obesity rates for Europe have tripled in recent years. In eastern Germany, about 26 percent of women are obese, while 20 percent of men are. In Russia, the figure is 27 percent for women and 11 percent for men.

While the book “French Women Don’t Get Fat” has been popular in weight-conscious America, the fact is that French women do get fat. So do French men. Nearly 10 percent of French women and 11 percent of French men are considered obese by the WHO.

Like its fast-expanding economy, the waistlines of Chinese citizens have been growing; the obesity rate for both men and women has risen to greater than 20 percent, according to a recent study, up from less than 1 percent in 1990. Morocco, Indonesia and Brazil also have experienced large weight gains in recent years.

In Mexico, an astounding 71 percent of women are overweight. Popkin and others attribute this partly to an increased consumption of sweetened soft drinks.

“In virtually all of Latin America and much of the Middle East and North Africa, at least 1 of 4 adults is overweight,” Popkin, who is consulting with the Chinese and Mexican governments, wrote in this month’s Scientific American. Even “desperately poor countries such as Nigeria and Uganda are wrestling with the dilemma of obesity.”

Overall, 1.6 billion of the world’s adults were overweight in 2005, the WHO found, and more than 400 million were obese. By 2015, those numbers are expected to nearly double. Several countries have found themselves improbably struggling simultaneously with hunger and obesity.

For U.S. children, the challenge maintain a normal weight is not an easy one:

The studies — published in a special supplement of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine — show the myriad challenges youngsters face every day in trying to maintain a healthy weight. Today’s kids live in a world where it’s often easier to get a fast food meal than fresh fruit, where walking to school is the exception rather than the norm, and where they’re bombarded by ads telling them to eat more junk food and sugary beverages.

“It’s a minefield out there for kids,” said registered dietitian Alexandra Salazar, a pediatric nutritionist at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore in New York City. “Schools have a big part to play, but kids often aren’t offered the best choices at school or in the community. It’s up to parents to lead by example.”

Almost one in six American children and teens are overweight, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, which also warns that 70 percent of overweight teens will grow into overweight or obese adults. Overweight children are now increasingly at risk for type 2 diabetes, a disease formerly associated only with adults. Kids carrying extra pounds may also have a higher risk of developing low self-esteem or depression.

There is much talk about what role the public school system must take in confronting childhood obesity. The worst thing to do is to keep talking and take no action. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial points out the politics involved in Georgia schools that slow the removal of sugary drinks in vending machines (not atypical at all in America):

The availability of junk foods in so many schools ought to be of special concern in Georgia, where 43 percent of third-graders are overweight or obese. A recent study ranked Georgia 14th in the nation for adult obesity and 12th among youths aged 10 through 17. Schools know that their students would be better off quenching their thirst at the water fountain than at the vending machine, but the fountain doesn’t pay for band uniforms or football fields.

Because of the tremendous profits from vending machine sales, schools set aside the nutritional values they maintain in their cafeterias and preach in their health classes. Districts boost their profits by entering into exclusive lucrative contracts with Coke or Pepsi, thus teaching their students that everything has a price, even their health.

Not surprisingly, obesity in the workplace has measurable costs and consequences for businesses:

Obese workers filed twice the number of workers’ compensation claims, had seven times higher medical costs from those claims and lost 13 times more days of work from work injury or illness than other workers, according to a Duke University Medical Center study of the health records of more than 11,000 Duke University employees. The results were published in April’s Archives of Internal Medicine.

The average medical claims costs per 100 employees were $51,019 for the obese and just $7,503 for the nonobese.

Obesity is a major public health crisis, as statistics show. How society and government should respond is often debated and discussed. Recently in the news is the effort of city council in Los Angeles to use zoning laws reduce the number of fast foods being built in neighborhoods:

The city council will be asked this fall to consider a moratorium of up to two years on new fast-food restaurants in south Los Angeles, a part of the city where fast food is at least as much a practicality as a preference.

“The people don’t want them, but when they don’t have any other options, they may gravitate to what’s there,” said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who proposed the ordinance in June and whose district includes portions of South Los Angeles that would be affected.

In just one-quarter of a mile near the University of Southern California, there are about 20 fast-food outlets.

“To be honest, it’s all we eat,” Rey Merlan said one recent lunch hour at a Kentucky Fried Chicken. “Everywhere, it’s fast food everywhere.”

Merlan said it wasn’t likely that a limit on new restaurants would change peoples’ habits, even though he thinks it’s a good idea.

Thirty percent of adults in South Los Angeles are obese, compared with 20.9 percent in Los Angeles County overall, according to a county Department of Public Health study released in April. For children, the obesity rate was 29 percent in South Los Angeles, compared with 23.3 percent in the county.

As with yesterday’s report on gas prices and obesity rates, it is clear that lifestyle choices do matter and are measurable. The challenge is to make those changes regardless of circumstances. We do not need to wait for legislators nor do we need to move to another neighborhood. If we find ourselves in a neighborhood of fast food restaurants instead of green markets we must make the effort to seek out the fruits and vegetables instead of the fast food meals. It is still a matter of individual choice and will.

University of Washington researchers have found remarkable disparities of obesity rates between Seattle’s most affluent and least affluent neighorhoods:

…The rates range from less than 10 percent in parts of central Seattle and Bellevue to more than 25 percent in some south county neighborhoods.
The strongest predictor of obesity rates wasn’t income or education but property values, the study found. Each additional $100,000 in median home value for a ZIP code corresponded with a drop in obesity of 2 percentage points.

It’s further evidence, experts say, that weight isn’t solely about individual behavior and that the environment you live in matters.

“If you have this mind-set that obesity has to do with the individual alone, then ZIP codes or areas really should not come into this. But they do, big-time,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Center for Obesity Research.

However, as the articles goes on to point out, what appears to be important are not property values per se, but the resources which the individual finds in his or her neighborhood.

“If people are concentrated in a neighborhood with no grocery store and little access to fresh fruits, this is not the place to go in and say, ‘Eat nine servings of fresh fruits and vegetables and play a bit of tennis.’ Get a grip,” Drewnowski said. “The strategies need to be targeted and sensitive.”

In less affluent areas, a lack of access to fresh produce, health insurance or nutritious groceries that are affordable likely influence obesity rates, experts said.

People often use limited money to buy cheap, calorie-dense foods rather than more nutritious fruits and vegetables, said Paul Haas, resource development director for Solid Ground, which works on hunger issues in the region.

“It’s something that’s counterintuitive to a lot of folks, how people with a greater level of food insecurity and who struggle with hunger are at a greater risk of obesity,” he said.

Once again, research confirms what casual observation might suggest.