A bit of encouraging news from California where investigators showed a small drop in the prevalence of childhood obesity from 2008 to 2013 (C Koebnick et al. J Pediatr 2015; 167: 1264-71). Using a population-based cohort of ~1.3 million patients, the authors found the following:
- Obesity prevalence decreased from 19.1% (2008) to 17.5% (2013). This was observed across all ages, sexes, races, and socioeconomic groups but with variability.
- Younger children had a greater decline in obesity prevalence compared with adolescents: ages 2-5 years: -15.4% decline, ages 6-11 years: -11,8% decline and in 12-19 years: -4.5%.
My take: This is a good indication that increased awareness of the obesity epidemic may be leading to some improvement.
Related blog posts:
- Family Meals -Protection Against Obesity? | gutsandgrowth
- Lack of Value of Breakfast for Weight Loss | gutsandgrowth
- Challenging the Obesity Myths | gutsandgrowth
- Heavy Heart due to Obesity | gutsandgrowth
- Could Obesity Be Cured/Created at Birth with Manipulation of …
Lights at Life University
gutsandgrowth 
That the youngest groups had the biggest improvement speaks to how important it is to address this early — way before school, and often in the first year, when manipulative eating patterns often seem to develop. Much harder to fix these later.
Agree.
(Sorry– autocorrect changed the word “maladaptive” to “manipulative” — tho there’s a germ of truth in the corrected word, too.)