Research news: Childhood obesity "epidemic" seems to have leveled off

The News:
Childhood obesity "epidemic" seems to have leveled off
By Alan Zarembo Los Angeles Times
Article Last Updated: 05/28/2008 01:14:54 AM MDT

The stunning three-decade rise in childhood obesity that prompted the government to declare an "epidemic" of fat appears to have leveled off, although the rate is still more than three times as high as in the 1970s, researchers reported Tuesday.
The analysis was based on data from tens of thousands of children showing that the percentage of obese youngsters has been roughly stable since 1999 in every age and racial group they surveyed.
The level of obesity "is still too high," said lead author Cynthia Ogden, an epidemiologist with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But she added, "Maybe there is some cause for optimism."
What caused the plateau is a mystery. A leading possibility is that educational and regulatory campaigns to get children to eat less junk food and exercise more have begun to pay off.
The findings "may signal that this national epidemic is not an unstoppable force," said Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has committed $500 million to promoting physical activity and improving school nutrition.
"When parents, government, schools, the food and beverage industries, other businesses, and the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors work together, we can make progress, and we can reverse this epidemic," she said in a statement.
Some researchers, however, said the answer could be that the epidemic has simply reached a saturation point — kids just can't get any fatter. read on...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.