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Obese Kids Face Health Risk as Adults
Two scientific studies released last week expressed concern about kids who are seriously overweight or obese. The studies indicate that the number of overweight young people will grow in the upcoming years and those kids will be more likely to get sick in their adult lives than kids who aren't overweight.
Researchers in Denmark discovered that overweight children, especially boys, develop heart disease more often as adults. The study followed 250,000 kids from 1930 to 1976. It found that if a 13-year-old boy weighed 25 pounds over the normal weight, then he faces a 33 percent higher risk of having a heart attack or other problems from heart disease by the time he turns 60.
A second study predicted that there would be more obese kids in the US in the future. There are about nine million overweight kids in the United States today. That's 17 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls. The numbers are expected to increase steadily.
Overweight kids have a higher chance of developing health problems such as heart disease or diabetes later in life. But no one can say for sure what will happen in the future. All kids who get plenty of exercise and cut down on sweets are developing the habits that will make them healthier now and as adults. You know, maybe I'll skip that candy bar today!
I'm Ben and that's what happened in our nation this week.
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