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August 25, 2002
OAK PARK, Ill. -- By now, it's a well-known fact: the nation's younger generation is fatter than any before it, with 14 percent classified as obese or overweight.
Dana Jenkins was part of that statistic. Athletic but chubby much of his life, he weighed 212 pounds, 150 percent his ideal body weight, by the time he was 15.
Then he decided to do something about it. "I had to," said Dana, now 17 and a senior in high school. "It was time."
With the help of a nutritionist and his family, he changed his eating habits, started exercising more and has dropped 30 pounds during the last two years.
The method might sound tried, true -- and boring. But experts hope more young people will turn to healthier weight loss methods, and ignore the mixed messages about weight around them, from stick-thin models to super-sized fast food.
They say a multidisciplinary approach that gives young people and their parents access to teams of exercise therapists, child psychologists, doctors and nutritionists is proving most successful.
For some young people, it's a matter of avoiding serious health problems. Researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say obesity-related child hospitalizations have increased at a disturbing rate in the past 20 years. Diabetes diagnoses have nearly doubled and sleep apnea related to childhood obesity is up fivefold.
Dr. Rebecca Unger, a Chicago pediatrician, has noted the trend in her private practice and at the Nutrition Evaluation Clinic at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital, where Dana got help.
"A lot of times when kids are referred they're much worse off," Unger said. "They come in weighing 200 percent of what they should weigh."
Experts say the 14 percent obesity figure, which applies to children ages 6 through 19, represents a near-tripling of the number of severely overweight youth since the 1960s. They blame everything from young people's penchant for high-calorie snack foods and soft drinks to a more sedentary lifestyle encouraged by TV and computer games.
Busy parents, who play a key role in helping their children lose weight, also opt for faster, high-calorie meals.
"It's 7 o'clock and everyone's hungry. It's a lot easier to order a pizza than to prepare a balanced meal," says Kelly Schloredt, a staff psychologist and research associate at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle.
Schloredt, a member of the hospital's Child Obesity Action Team, helps "emotional eaters," those who turn to food when stressed or upset, find other outlets for their problems.
For Dana, who lives in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, spending too much time alone was part of the trouble.
"It was more of a habit," he says of snacking on chips and cookies, sometimes packages of them. "If I was bored, I'd find myself in the kitchen."
Another problem: He's allergic to most fresh fruits and vegetables. The hospital nutritionist helped him find alternatives -- crackers, cheese, canned peaches or fruit cocktail.
He started riding his bike more, drank more water and ate breakfast. He also worked out at the YMCA with his mother, Norma, who joined Weight Watchers and added more salads, rice and other low-calorie foods to family meals.
YMCAs across the country are noting the trend and adding fitness programs for teens -- part of a national movement to encourage young people to be more active.
President Bush has launched fitness initiatives for children, while former Surgeon General David Satcher has a national summit on child obesity planned for October in Washington.
Universities and corporate America also are getting involved.
Sporting goods retailer The Sports Authority developed a free "Fitness Authority" exercise program for Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide.
Nicole Dearing, an 18-year-old from Valparaiso, Ind., was one of 250,000 who participated in program competitions in the last year. This month, she became a two-time national champion in her age category, and lost 20 to 25 pounds.
"I've been feeling better. I've got more energy. I haven't been getting headaches," she said. "Overall, I've just been a happier person."
As Labor Day flickers on the horizon, many Americans are doubtless patting themselves on their sunscreen-slathered backs for avoiding excessive sun exposure. But this month, several scientists trotted out a theory that people who don't get enough sunlight and have diets low in vitamin D might be at higher risk of developing colon, prostate, rectal, ovarian and breast cancer.
Scientists have known for decades that vitamin D is essential to healthy bones and normal growth. But over the past 20 years, laboratory evidence has suggested that vitamin D might block the growth of malignant tumors. The rub is that the vitamin D we ingest in milk and other foods is chemically activated in our bodies only when our skin is exposed to sunlight.
This new advice to get more sun, of course, flies in the face of a decadelong campaign to prevent skin cancer by encouraging Americans to stay out of the sun. So what's a responsible beachcomber to do? How much sun is too much or too little?
Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, prescribes a large dose of common sense: "Nothing is perfect, but the best rule for maintaining good health is everything in moderation, including moderation."
NEW YORK -- West Nile virus is suspected in the deaths of an 81-year-old man on Long Island and a 65-year-old man in Michigan, health officials said Saturday.
If confirmed, the two cases would bring the number of deaths this year to 18. People have been diagnosed with West Nile in 20 states and the District of Columbia, but nearly 80 percent of the cases this year are in three states: Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.