- Aussie children shaping up for higher risk of heart disease and diabetes
- By Julie Robotham
- The Age
- 01/03/2009 Make a Comment
- Contributed by: The Rooster ( 258 articles in 2009 )
OBESITY among Australian children is more severe than studies of the epidemic have indicated, with an expert study revealing that weight gain by children is mainly fat, not muscle, which is settling disproportionately on their stomachs.
Associate Professor Tim Olds of the University of South Australia examined studies going back to the 1950s that used calipers to measure the thickness of children's skinfolds, which correspond to the amount of fat they were carrying.
He scrutinised the numbers from all the studies — mainly from Australia, Britain and the US — and concluded the proportion of fat in children's total body composition had been rising by nearly 1 per cent every decade, and was continuing to rise. The skinfold measure was a more reliable method of assessing children's true fatness, Professor Olds said, because the more usual body mass index (BMI) method, which calculates their height-to-weight ratio, could not account for muscle or lack of it.
"People can have a high muscle mass and a high BMI, but teenage girls who diet may have a normal BMI. They look very slim but when you measure the skinfold, there's quite a lot of fat and very little muscle mass," he said. This could store up health problems for the future, he said, because muscle promoted bone growth, too little of which was linked to the development of osteoporosis later in life.
Professor Olds also looked at the ratio between skinfolds from under the shoulder blade — a measure of the amount of fat deposited on the trunk — and from the upper arm. He found that, over the five-decade study period, the children's bodies had become relatively fatter than their limbs, which is of concern because stomach fat is closely linked to the development of heart disease and diabetes.
"A change in body shape is always of great concern," he said. It was possible some people were more likely than others to put down fat around their middle. But it was also possible that this was simply the normal pattern of fat acquisition for most people, which was being revealed for the first time as unprecedented numbers of children gained excess weight.
Joseph Proietto, head of the weight control clinic at Melbourne's Austin Hospital, said: "I'm staggered by the variety of patterns of fat distribution."
Associate Professor Tim Olds of the University of South Australia examined studies going back to the 1950s that used calipers to measure the thickness of children's skinfolds, which correspond to the amount of fat they were carrying.
He scrutinised the numbers from all the studies — mainly from Australia, Britain and the US — and concluded the proportion of fat in children's total body composition had been rising by nearly 1 per cent every decade, and was continuing to rise. The skinfold measure was a more reliable method of assessing children's true fatness, Professor Olds said, because the more usual body mass index (BMI) method, which calculates their height-to-weight ratio, could not account for muscle or lack of it.
"People can have a high muscle mass and a high BMI, but teenage girls who diet may have a normal BMI. They look very slim but when you measure the skinfold, there's quite a lot of fat and very little muscle mass," he said. This could store up health problems for the future, he said, because muscle promoted bone growth, too little of which was linked to the development of osteoporosis later in life.
Professor Olds also looked at the ratio between skinfolds from under the shoulder blade — a measure of the amount of fat deposited on the trunk — and from the upper arm. He found that, over the five-decade study period, the children's bodies had become relatively fatter than their limbs, which is of concern because stomach fat is closely linked to the development of heart disease and diabetes.
"A change in body shape is always of great concern," he said. It was possible some people were more likely than others to put down fat around their middle. But it was also possible that this was simply the normal pattern of fat acquisition for most people, which was being revealed for the first time as unprecedented numbers of children gained excess weight.
Joseph Proietto, head of the weight control clinic at Melbourne's Austin Hospital, said: "I'm staggered by the variety of patterns of fat distribution."
Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/aussie-children-shaping-up-for-higher-risk-of-heart-disease-and-diabetes-20090228-8l1i.html
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