40% New York City children either obese or overweight - report

A new report released on Sunday, according to the New York Times, says that the rate of childhood obesity in New York City in the 2008-9 school year was higher than it was nationally.

To be exact, 40 percent of the 637,000 children from kindergarten through the eight grade were either obese or overweight in the 2008-2009 school year.

In comparison, the national average rate of obesity and overweight was 35.5 percent of children aged 6 to 11 years, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also, the rate of childhood obesity in the city of New York was 22 percent, compared to 19.6 percent nationwide.

This is bad news for New York City residents. But there is some good news – and that is that childhood obesity and overweight rate did not increase compared to the prior year.

Detailed rates tallied by ZIP code showed that less affluent neighborhoods had a higher rate of obesity and overweight. In the 2008-9 school year, the highest rates were found in Corona, Queens (51 percent), Harlem (49 percent) and Washington Heights (47 percent).

The lowest rates of childhood obesity and overweight were found in the more affluent neighborhoods, such as the Hudson River in Manhattan (11.7 percent), TriBeCa (15 percent), and SoHo (17.7 percent).

New York City was among the first metro areas to ban the use of trans fat and to mandate calorie listings in restaurants.  But officials were cited as saying that these measures may not be enough to help the city to quickly lower the obesity and overweight rates among children.

Childhood obesity is not a problem that only New York City must face. The CDC says on its website that the rate of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years has increased from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 19.6 percent in 2008.

Childhood obesity is linked with an entire spectrum of health problems, such as the following: high cholesterol and high blood pressure, bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, asthma, diabetes mellitus, and social and psychological problems like stigmatization and poor self-esteem.

Additionally, obese children tend to become obese adults, who then become ultimately at high risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.

The CDC suggests that physical activity and healthy eating are both key to preventing childhood obesity.  

A health observer commented that parents should not count only on physical activity to burn out excess amounts of calories their children eat.  The best strategy, he said, is to let their children eat foods with low energy, which can be fiber-rich carbohydrates.

The type of food also matters when it comes to the obesity risk.

Early in March 2010, Princeton university researchers released a study in the Journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior suggesting that consumption of high fructose corn syrup caused more weight gain in lab animals than table sugar, when both were consumed in equal quantity.

Bart Hoebel, who specializes in the neuroscience of appetite, weight and sugar addiction, and his colleagues also found long term consumption of high fructose corn syrup caused abnormal increases in body adiposity; that is, fat is more likely to be deposited in the abdomen, and an increase in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. Both are considered signs of metabolic syndrome.

This and other studies linking high fructose corn syrup with elevated risk of obesity suggest that not all foods and beverages are “created equal” when it comes to their contribution to childhood obesity.

Jimmy Downs and editing by Rachel Stockton