Health Care News
Three key behaviors can help prevent childhood obesity
Mar/01/2010
American Academy of Pediatrics 
New research shows that adopting three healthy lifestyle behaviors – eating dinner as a family, limiting television time, and getting a good night’s sleep – can have significant benefits for obese children, according to a recent article in Time.
The study gathered data on 8,550 4-year-old children, focusing on whether or not they practiced the three healthy lifestyle behaviors mentioned above. Researchers found that those who watched less than two hours of TV a day and slept for 10.5 hours each night were the least likely to be overweight or obese. Data from the study shows that the results of these lifestyle behaviors are cumulative – the more healthy routines families adopt, the lower the risk for childhood obesity.
According to lead researcher Sarah Anderson, children who had all three routines were 40% less likely to be obese than those who had none of the routines. The good news is that these three lifestyle changes are relatively simple to implement and accessible for American families.
Click here for an abstract of the study, available online from the journal Pediatrics.