American kids heavier than Canadian children; Are more US tots obese?

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A report published online by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that more than 15 percent of children and teens in the US are obese.

According to the report by CBC, approximately 17.5 percent of US children and teens ages 3 to 19 are obese. Meanwhile, Canadian children in the same age bracket have an obesity percentage of 13 percent. This is in stark contrast to the rate of obesity in the '70s where there were only 5.6 percent and five percent obese kids in the US and Canada respectively.

The findings are considered to be the highest level of obesity in both countries.

"Even if we're flat-lining, it's at the highest level ever," Mark Tremblay, director at Eastern Ottawa's Children's Hospital, who was not involved in the study, told the outlet. "The cost is enormous in terms of physical, emotional, mental, social impact, which suggests to me more needs to be done."

HealthDay reports that obese kids are very likely to become obese adults and are at risk with several health problems including diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. The study is an interesting prospect for more research as US and Canada are close by and have many things in common.

"There are a number of factors that could be contributing to this difference, but no one's really done a study to uncover what those factors are," said Professor Peter Katzmarzyk of Louisiana State University.  "It gives us an opportunity to explore why these differences are and maybe lead us to some interventions."

Professor Michael Goran, the director of Childhood Obesity Research Center at the University of Southern California, told Live Science that childhood obesity in other ethnic groups are rising while decreasing in some. The reason why this could be so are probably environmental factors.

"Given that the prevalence is much, much higher in lower-income populations than [in] affluent populations, you have to believe that it has something to do with the particular environments of those low-income populations," Goran explained.

Live Science reported that a contributing factor of obesity is sugary foods and sweet beverages that many children eat whilst they are very young.

As for lowering obesity rates in the country, Goran suggested that children below one-year-old to not be introduced to sugar as this will increase the likelihood of obesity. Another suggestion was to have parents breastfeed their children longer than 12 months and introducing more healthy foods at home to prevent childhood obesity.