Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

House Call: Obesity May be Cause of Kids' High Blood Pressure

Aired March 07, 2003 - 07:47   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.


PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Making a "House Call" now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who joins us from CNN Center.
Good morning -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

A couple of stories for you today, interesting ones. Looking at the obesity epidemic, we've been talking so much about that and its effect on adults, but it's having a profound effect on kids as well, sort of an unexpected rise in hypertension rates among kids; 16-year olds, almost 20 percent of them surveyed in this particular study had hypertension, and 4.4 percent of 9-year-olds as well with hypertension.

These hypertensive kids may become the hypertensive adults of tomorrow, and it's probably linked almost solely to the obesity epidemic.

Another story, Paula, about diet and cholesterol. We see a lot of advertisements on television for cholesterol-lowering drugs. But just how well does diet work? The conventional wisdom was it could probably lower your cholesterol by about 10 percent, but a new diet now could possibly lower your cholesterol by about 30 percent.

Here's the catch: The diet itself is made up of soy, soluble fibers such as oat, barley, legumes, egg plant and okra, and almonds perhaps for desert. Not a very tasty diet and not a very appetizing diet, but a diet that works. Researchers no surprise are concerned that people may be not able to stick with it.

Paula -- back to you.

ZAHN: And the name of the diet is not so enticing either. It's what? The portfolio diet?

GUPTA: The portfolio diet.

ZAHN: Ooh, yum, yum. I'm going there for those almonds for desert. Thanks, Sanjay.

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




Pressure>


Aired March 7, 2003 - 07:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Making a "House Call" now, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who joins us from CNN Center.
Good morning -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

A couple of stories for you today, interesting ones. Looking at the obesity epidemic, we've been talking so much about that and its effect on adults, but it's having a profound effect on kids as well, sort of an unexpected rise in hypertension rates among kids; 16-year olds, almost 20 percent of them surveyed in this particular study had hypertension, and 4.4 percent of 9-year-olds as well with hypertension.

These hypertensive kids may become the hypertensive adults of tomorrow, and it's probably linked almost solely to the obesity epidemic.

Another story, Paula, about diet and cholesterol. We see a lot of advertisements on television for cholesterol-lowering drugs. But just how well does diet work? The conventional wisdom was it could probably lower your cholesterol by about 10 percent, but a new diet now could possibly lower your cholesterol by about 30 percent.

Here's the catch: The diet itself is made up of soy, soluble fibers such as oat, barley, legumes, egg plant and okra, and almonds perhaps for desert. Not a very tasty diet and not a very appetizing diet, but a diet that works. Researchers no surprise are concerned that people may be not able to stick with it.

Paula -- back to you.

ZAHN: And the name of the diet is not so enticing either. It's what? The portfolio diet?

GUPTA: The portfolio diet.

ZAHN: Ooh, yum, yum. I'm going there for those almonds for desert. Thanks, Sanjay.

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




Pressure>