By Douglas Robb
Today’s parents live insanely busy lives.
And this means that sometimes….their kids eat microwave pizza & ice cream while staring at a screen instead of eating of eating a healthy home-cooked meal with the entire family.
Unfortunately, these “sometimes” are quickly becoming “all-the-times” and more and more of our kids are being diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome – obesity (especially belly fat), insulin resistance, hypertension, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, researchers have discovered that adolescents diagnosed with Metabolic Syndrome are not only at higher risk for:
- heart disease,
- type 2 diabetes,
- stroke,
- kidney disease,
- and poor blood supply to the legs
They also have:
- smaller hippocampal volumes,
- increased brain cerebrospinal fluid,
- and reductions of microstructural integrity in major white matter tracts
Which results in…
- impaired mathematics performance
- impaired spelling performance
- impaired ability to pay attention
- impaired mental flexibility
- and a trend towards lower overall intelligence
And if this isn’t scary enough…
The researchers have no idea if:
- these brain abnormalities & cognitive deficiencies will continue to get worse as our kids age,
- these brain abnormalities & cognitive deficiencies are reversible with weight loss and reversal of the other Met Syn symptoms.
Conclusion
Childhood obesity is no joke…We are thoroughly screwing up our kids.
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