Gosh, shucks, gee whiz - guess what - breastfeeding helps prevent obesity.
  
Evi Adams
   
   
  New York Post
'OBESE CHILD' SHOCK 

By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN 

August 23, 2006 -- Kids, especially infants, are more likely to be overweight today, an alarming Harvard medical study reveals. 

The rate of chubby children under age 6 ballooned 59 percent and those at risk of becoming overweight jumped 30 percent, according to a study in Massachusetts of 120,000 children over a 22-year period through 2001. 

What surprised researchers was a 74 percent increase in the number of tubby infants from birth to six months. 

"The obesity epidemic has spared no age group, even our youngest children," said project head Dr. Matthew Gillman, who warned that accelerated weight gain in the first few months after birth could lead to obesity later in life. 

"These results show that efforts to prevent obesity must start at the earliest stages of human development, even before birth," he said. 

Gillman said not smoking and avoiding excessive weight gain during pregnancy would also help prevent a child being born with diabetes. 

He also recommended breast-feeding, which produces slimmer children. 

"Unfortunately I'm not surprised at these statistics," said Dr. Marc Bessler, director of the Center for Obesity Surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. 

"Obesity is the Number 1 nutritional disease in the world, having overtaken malnutrition, especially in kids," he said. 

Although the Harvard study didn't say why kids are fatter today, Bessler said it's because kids are leading a more sedentary lifestyle, watching TV and sitting in front of the computer. 

He added that kids eating junk food are taking in lots of calories and sugar. 

"When the sugar level drops, it makes you feel hungry again. It's a vicious cycle." 

Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, director of the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, did say he was surprised that obesity "reached down to such young level." 

"It's a serious problem we need to investigate," he said. "Whether it's bigger portion sizes and richer, more calorically intense food, I really think it needs to be looked at." 

Pi-Sunyer says parents should be careful of restricting diets, which can cause growth problems, but called for more exercise in schools. 

Bronx City Council member Joel Rivera has proposed a fat-busting plan that would limit fast-food eateries in neighborhoods where obesity is epidemic among kids. 

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