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20% of 4-Year-Olds Already Obese: Study

By the Associated Press

Posted Apr 6, 2009 7:08 PM CDT
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(AP) – A striking new study says almost 1 in 5 American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children, with nearly a third of them obese. Researchers were surprised to see differences by race at so early an age. Obesity is more common in Hispanic and black youngsters, too, but the disparity is most startling in American Indians, whose rate is almost double that of whites.

Overall, more than half a million 4-year-olds are obese, the study suggests. The lead author said that rate is worrisome among children so young, even in a population at higher risk for obesity because of other health problems and economic disadvantages. "The cumulative evidence is alarming because within just a few decades, America will become a 'minority majority' nation," one health professor said.

  (M. Sherman)
  (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 1 of 1 comment
Doctor-Zaius
Apr 7, 2009 11:12 AM CDT
Tax shitty food that masquerades as healthy. Apple juice for one. When you take the fiber out of the apple and make it juice it pretends to be a healthy drink for your children when all it has become is sugar water.

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obesity • childhood obesity • obesity epidemic • children • obese

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