Tackle obesity now and reap the benefits later, says expert
A new study has revealed that obese people who lose weight are at no greater health risk than those who have always been a healthy weight.Writing in The Journal, Dr Sarah McMullen says that her team’s findings fully justify the drive to tackle childhood obesity, as they show that bad health as a child does not need to translate into poor health as an adult.
One result from the study that took the University of Nottingham researcher by surprise was the discovery that people who gain weight later in life are at most risk of developing high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes and heart disease – even above those who have been overweight for a long period of time.
Dr McMullen told the newspaper: “This is a very important finding, as our results suggest that the work of nutritionists and dieticians might be missing an important at-risk group.”
According to the Statistics on Obesity report published by the NHS in February, the amount of overweight children in England is rising, with 16 per cent of boys and 15 per cent of girls classified as obese in 2009.
This compares with 11% and 12% respectively in 1995.
