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CNN Live Today

'Daily Dose'

Aired May 05, 2003 - 11:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Sobering news out today about childhood obesity. It's at epidemic proportions and two new studies indicate that it's not going to get better any time soon.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more on this in today's daily dose of health news.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, the statistics are indeed sobering. One out of five American children is overweight, and that is way up from years ago, and it explains why there's been an alarming increase in type II diabetes among children. Type II diabetes is the kind that only adults used to get. Well, not children are getting it, too.

An interesting survey that has just come out from the federal government shows that maybe one of the reasons is that parents don't recognize the problem. They looked at 5,500 overweight children, ages 2 to 11. And one-third of the mothers of these children said their kids were not overweight when indeed they were. So experts say it's very hard to tackle a problem when the parents don't even recognize that there is a problem all the time.

HARRIS: I guess they, as they say, love is blind.

So if a parent does recognize it, then what?

COHEN: More sobering news. There's another study that just came out that showed even when parents do the right thing and try to get help for their kids, it doesn't always work. This was a study that was done that looked at about 110 kids who were seen by endocrinologists. Endocrinologists are specialists in helpings kids are adults lose weight. Well, when they looked at those 110 kids two years later, children on average were even more overweight than when they started the program. And this was, what appears to be a very good program. You had MDs who were helping them, who gave them advice about how to lose weight, followed up by dietitians. So they didn't just abandon these kids. They talked to the kids about exercise. So there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the program; it's just that often these programs don't work very well.

HARRIS: So then what is likely the current thinking about what does work and what doesn't work?

COHEN: Well, the current thinking is we have a long road ahead of us. And the reason for that is that because programs like this don't always work, because the situations families find themselves in are often very difficult. For example, when fast food is staring at you in the face all the time, being marketed to kids, high calorie, high-fat fast food, that really doesn't help the kids very much. Also a problem, communities today often aren't made with sidewalks, so kids can't walk places.

Also a problem that there are budget cuts, so that there aren't as many physical education classes as their used to be. So there's some very basic things about the way our society is working these days that really works against these families.

HARRIS: That's right, get rid of the X Box. Get rid of the Playstation 2s.

COHEN: That's right. That'll help.

HARRIS: Thanks, Elizabeth.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 5, 2003 - 11:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Sobering news out today about childhood obesity. It's at epidemic proportions and two new studies indicate that it's not going to get better any time soon.
Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more on this in today's daily dose of health news.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Leon, the statistics are indeed sobering. One out of five American children is overweight, and that is way up from years ago, and it explains why there's been an alarming increase in type II diabetes among children. Type II diabetes is the kind that only adults used to get. Well, not children are getting it, too.

An interesting survey that has just come out from the federal government shows that maybe one of the reasons is that parents don't recognize the problem. They looked at 5,500 overweight children, ages 2 to 11. And one-third of the mothers of these children said their kids were not overweight when indeed they were. So experts say it's very hard to tackle a problem when the parents don't even recognize that there is a problem all the time.

HARRIS: I guess they, as they say, love is blind.

So if a parent does recognize it, then what?

COHEN: More sobering news. There's another study that just came out that showed even when parents do the right thing and try to get help for their kids, it doesn't always work. This was a study that was done that looked at about 110 kids who were seen by endocrinologists. Endocrinologists are specialists in helpings kids are adults lose weight. Well, when they looked at those 110 kids two years later, children on average were even more overweight than when they started the program. And this was, what appears to be a very good program. You had MDs who were helping them, who gave them advice about how to lose weight, followed up by dietitians. So they didn't just abandon these kids. They talked to the kids about exercise. So there wasn't necessarily anything wrong with the program; it's just that often these programs don't work very well.

HARRIS: So then what is likely the current thinking about what does work and what doesn't work?

COHEN: Well, the current thinking is we have a long road ahead of us. And the reason for that is that because programs like this don't always work, because the situations families find themselves in are often very difficult. For example, when fast food is staring at you in the face all the time, being marketed to kids, high calorie, high-fat fast food, that really doesn't help the kids very much. Also a problem, communities today often aren't made with sidewalks, so kids can't walk places.

Also a problem that there are budget cuts, so that there aren't as many physical education classes as their used to be. So there's some very basic things about the way our society is working these days that really works against these families.

HARRIS: That's right, get rid of the X Box. Get rid of the Playstation 2s.

COHEN: That's right. That'll help.

HARRIS: Thanks, Elizabeth.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com