Children who are obese by 8 find it harder to lose weight
CHILDREN who are obese by the age of eight will find it much harder to lose weight than their peers, a study has found.
Researchers found that those who became overweight as young children actually ate fewer calories in their teenage years than their slim peers.
But despite eating less they were unable to shift the weight they had put on as young children.
This suggests that the die is cast for obesity at a young age and that prevention is the best way to control the epidemic, the experts said.
A third of 11-year-olds in England and Wales are now overweight or obese, double the number in the 1990s.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina say the finding also explains why dieting tends not to work for overweight teen-
‘Physical activity’
agers and suggest more exercise could help them lose weight.
They examined the diet and weight of 12,600 American children aged between one and 17 over several years.
Obese and overweight girls over the age of seven and boys over ten were found to consume less than children of a healthy weight.
Lead author Dr Asheley Cockrell Skinner, an assistant professor of paediatrics, said once a child had become obese it seemed to be ‘self-perpetuating’. Normal weight children probably expend more energy running around, while overweight children will be significantly less active.
The authors, writing in the journal Pediatrics, say it is vital parents don’t over-feed young children. In later childhood or adolescence the focus should switch to increasing physical activity.
Dr Skinner added that if older children cut their calorie intake they will lose weight – but they have to eat less than their slim friends which can be difficult.
Tax-dodgers bleed Greece of £22billion
THE shocking scale of tax dodging in Greece was laid bare yesterday in a report showing that professionals are among the worst offenders.
The study found that selfemployed Greeks evaded £22.4billion of tax in 2009 – almost half the size of the country’s deficit in 2008 and a third of the 2009 shortfall.
The chief offenders were doctors, engineers accountants, lawyers and those working in financial services, said the report by economists at Booth School of Business at Chicago University.
They estimate that on average the true income of the selfemployed is 1.92 times higher than their reported income in Greece.
The report came as Greek ministers held talks with inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund over its emergency aid.
Greece is struggling to persuade its foreign lenders that it is making the reforms demanded in exchange for aid payments to stave off bankruptcy. It has been told to cut government spending and increase the tax take.