The consequences of this corpulence and inactivity are devastating and will be long-term. According to a study spanning sixty years and published in 1992 in The New England Journal of Medicine, being overweight during the teenage years can lead to life-threatening chronic disease in adulthood, even if the individual later sheds the excess weight. In fact, the study indicated that adolescent obesity was even more strongly linked to health risks than being overweight in adult life.
The lasting effects of the chubbing of America’s teens are most pronounced among boys. Those in the heaviest quarter of the population in weight relative to height were found to be more likely to suffer fatal heart attacks, strokes, colon cancer, and other health problems before their seventieth birthdays. Men who were over-weight as teenagers had death rates nearly double those of men who had been slender during adolescence.
Women who were overweight as teens were found to be at greater risk of developing arthritis, atherosclerosis, and diminished physical abilities. By the time they reached their seventies, these women had trouble coping with the tasks of daily living—climbing stairs, lifting objects, or walking a quarter of a mile.
The study’s director, Dr. Aviva Must, an epidemiologist at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, concluded that it is essential that we prevent overweight in our youth by reducing dietary fat to no more than 30 percent of the calories consumed and by increasing the amount of exercise undertaken. Fortunately these goals can be easily achieved.
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