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Tall children 'more at risk of obesity'3 August 2006 Tall children who grow quickly are at risk of childhood obesity, a new study has indicated. Lead researcher Dr Iain Buchan, writing in the International Journal of Obesity, said that taller stature among young children is now increasingly important as a risk factor for obesity. The most common benchmark of healthy weight is based on height and weight and is called the BMI (body mass index). The BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight (kg) by their height squared (m2). The team studied over 50,000 three-year-old children over a 16-year period. They compared the BMI measurements for the tallest and the shortest children during the study period, and found that the BMI of the tallest children had increased 12 times more than the shortest children. "The largest increase in BMI in our study occurred in the tallest children, while that for the smallest hardly changed," said Dr Buchan. He added that young children who are tall and growing quickly may be more likely to become obese because they are feeding a larger appetite. "Our study shows that the UK needs to change its eating and exercise habits. The more children eat, the more they show the effects of what we are offering them - basically far too much unhealthy food and far too little chance to exercise," Dr Buchan concluded. Related links
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