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American Morning
Paging Dr. Gupta: Childhood Obesity
Aired August 04, 2003 - 08:44 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: Millions of American children are overweight. And now the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that doctors put a new emphasis on identifying and helping obese kids.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center. He joins us with more details on this.
Good morning, Sanjay.
What's the word?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
You know, when your children go to the doctor's office. they typically get their height and weight plotted on a curve. That's to sort of target their growth and figure out how they're growing. Well, the American Academy of Pediatrics is also recommending that in addition to those two things, that body mass index also be plotted to try and target obese children early.
At issue here, Leon, over the past couple of decades, the number of overweight and obese children has more than doubled, and researchers have confirmed what a lot of people already knew, that the problem actually starts very early. In fact, for a 4-year-old, if a 4-year-old is obese, they have a 20 percent chance of developing into an obese adult. Pretty high number, one in five. If an adolescent is obese, those numbers increase dramatically to about 80 percent. So overweight adolescents, the chance of them becoming an overweight adult about 80 percent.
In part, the problem is genetic. In if the child has one obese parent, the chance of them becoming obese themselves about three times. If both parents are obese, 10 times the chance of becoming an obese adult.
So the American Academy of Pediatrics has a lot of recommendations to target these obese children early. You can take a look at the list there. A lot of them are commonsensical, but important to remember, checking body mass index yearly, really plotting that along and seeing if there's any jumps, identify and track patients at high risk, encouraging physical activity as well. There's certainly not enough physical activity, and that's because probably because too much television, no more than two hours daily, promote healthy eating. Encourage breast-feeding. That seems to have an association with decreased obesity, and promoting anti-obesity programs. We've heard a lot about these recently, Leon, including decreasing sugary sodas in schools, things like that. They say it's a huge problem. It's linked to a lot of common adult problems later on in life. It's something that needs to be targeted -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, you know, that's a conversation we've had plenty of times both in the studio and I've had it in my home as well. Got to get rid of that XBox sometime.
But you mentioned the genetics angle here. Is there much of a difference between adult obesity and child obesity?
GUPTA: For a long time, people believed that children would simply grow out of their obesity. And what the statistics are showing now is that that isn't always the case. There is a good chance if you're younger than 4 years old, an obese child may, in fact, outgrow that.
But around the age of 4, the numbers start to increase dramatically, around 1 in 5. The obesity problems that you see in adults can also be linked in children, common problems associated with obesity, cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin resistance, which can be a precursor for diabetes, irregular menstruation, depression, low self-esteem. I think that's a big one, certainly for children versus adults, low self-esteem. There's a huge stigmatization associated with being an obese child. That's something that the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to target, as well.
HARRIS: Very good. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with some good advice with folks out there. Have that conversation with your doctor. Take care, Sanjay. We'll see you soon.
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 August 4, 2003 - 08:44 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of American children are overweight. And now the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that doctors put a new emphasis on identifying and helping obese kids.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center. He joins us with more details on this.
Good morning, Sanjay.
What's the word?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
You know, when your children go to the doctor's office. they typically get their height and weight plotted on a curve. That's to sort of target their growth and figure out how they're growing. Well, the American Academy of Pediatrics is also recommending that in addition to those two things, that body mass index also be plotted to try and target obese children early.
At issue here, Leon, over the past couple of decades, the number of overweight and obese children has more than doubled, and researchers have confirmed what a lot of people already knew, that the problem actually starts very early. In fact, for a 4-year-old, if a 4-year-old is obese, they have a 20 percent chance of developing into an obese adult. Pretty high number, one in five. If an adolescent is obese, those numbers increase dramatically to about 80 percent. So overweight adolescents, the chance of them becoming an overweight adult about 80 percent.
In part, the problem is genetic. In if the child has one obese parent, the chance of them becoming obese themselves about three times. If both parents are obese, 10 times the chance of becoming an obese adult.
So the American Academy of Pediatrics has a lot of recommendations to target these obese children early. You can take a look at the list there. A lot of them are commonsensical, but important to remember, checking body mass index yearly, really plotting that along and seeing if there's any jumps, identify and track patients at high risk, encouraging physical activity as well. There's certainly not enough physical activity, and that's because probably because too much television, no more than two hours daily, promote healthy eating. Encourage breast-feeding. That seems to have an association with decreased obesity, and promoting anti-obesity programs. We've heard a lot about these recently, Leon, including decreasing sugary sodas in schools, things like that. They say it's a huge problem. It's linked to a lot of common adult problems later on in life. It's something that needs to be targeted -- Leon.
HARRIS: Yes, you know, that's a conversation we've had plenty of times both in the studio and I've had it in my home as well. Got to get rid of that XBox sometime.
But you mentioned the genetics angle here. Is there much of a difference between adult obesity and child obesity?
GUPTA: For a long time, people believed that children would simply grow out of their obesity. And what the statistics are showing now is that that isn't always the case. There is a good chance if you're younger than 4 years old, an obese child may, in fact, outgrow that.
But around the age of 4, the numbers start to increase dramatically, around 1 in 5. The obesity problems that you see in adults can also be linked in children, common problems associated with obesity, cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin resistance, which can be a precursor for diabetes, irregular menstruation, depression, low self-esteem. I think that's a big one, certainly for children versus adults, low self-esteem. There's a huge stigmatization associated with being an obese child. That's something that the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to target, as well.
HARRIS: Very good. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, with some good advice with folks out there. Have that conversation with your doctor. Take care, Sanjay. We'll see you soon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
