If your Mom had read the headline above, do you think she would've let you eat that second or third hamburger lovingly appointed with heaps of lard-soaked French fries back in the day? Don't think so...
Having been overweight for most of my entire life, this Swedish study about the long-term effects of obesity for kids beyond childhood -- one of an alarming handful that have hit the media recently -- really hit home with me.
After studying the health of nearly 5,000 American Indian children over some 40 years for links, researchers learned adults who had been obese kids with the highest body mass index more than doubled their risk of premature death before their 55th birthday. In addition to obesity, high blood sugar levels elevated a patient's early mortality risks by an alarming 73 percent.
Don't be too quick to dismiss these numbers as unique either, because, scientists say, previous studies of American Indian patients tend to predict the future health of Americans accurately by 10-20 years.
Just a reminder, obesity also contributes in a major way to cancer, at a rate of 100,000 new cases every year.
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New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 362, No. 6, pp. 485-493, February 11, 2010 Free Full Text Study
BusinessWeek February 10, 2010
New York Times February 10, 2010