Pat Hartman | Childhood Obesity News

Coronavirus Chronicles — Two Current Plagues, Obesity and COVID-19

Pat Hartman September 17, 2020 1 Comment

They are the worst couple since Bonnie and Clyde. If COVID-19 and obesity were humans, they would be diagnosed as suffering from “folie à deux,” or shared mental disorder. They are like two people mutually ensnared by a pair of toxic beliefs. Both see it as their mission to devastate the world, and both believe they can destroy more efficiently as a team.

Dr. William Dietz, director of the STOP Obesity Alliance, is not the first or only expert to connect statistics with socially relevant conclusions. He told reporter Kim Doleatto,

In a study of more than 4,000 New York City COVID-19 patients, even among COVID-19 patients younger than 60, those with obesity were twice as likely to be hospitalized and 1.8 times more likely to need critical care.

Obesity makes the virus worse and the virus makes obesity worse. The children of Ireland have been held up as an example of the physical harm that can be caused by insufficient and interrupted sleep. Conor Pope writes for The Irish Times,

[A]s a direct result of children experiencing changes in their sleep routine, 49 per cent are eating more unhealthy snacks or treats, 54 per cent are less active and 67 per cent are engaging in more screen-time, all of which can contribute to childhood obesity.

Most kids thrive on routine, a commodity made scarce by the pandemic. When food insecurity becomes a factor, or a family is evicted, people miss their old boring normality. Old parenting standards may have to take a back seat to more exigent concerns. If a family is packing up to go live in the car, the kids eating junk food or staying up late does not, in the moment, seem as much of an issue. Nutrition specialist Dr Marian O’Reilly is quoted:

Sleep influences appetite hormones and being up for longer means there are more opportunities to eat, which can impact on their weight.

James Shea and other researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University surveyed approximately 600 American families about food in the time of COVID-19, and published the results in the journal Obesity. As always, statistics tell stories:

[O]ne-third of families have increased the amount of high-calorie snack foods, desserts and sweets in their home during the pandemic, while nearly 50% increased the amount of nonperishable processed foods. On the other hand, 60% of families decreased the amount of take-out, fast food, and already prepared meals while about 70% increased the number of home-cooked meals.

Those different reactions fuel a number of arguments, but probably no one would maintain that the pandemic has slowed down obesity.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Childhood obesity and COVID-19 can be a dangerous mix,” HeraldTribune.com, 07/27/20
Source: “More junk food for children as Covid disrupts sleep patterns,” IrishTimes.com, 08/19/20
Source: “COVID-19 has exacerbated food insecurity,” MedicaleXpress.com, 08/20/20
Images by listener42 and City of Greeley

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Tale of Two Bullies

Pat Hartman September 16, 2020 2 Comments

Childhood obesity was swaggering around, bragging about the threat it represents to humanity, when along came COVID-19 and said, “Hold my beer.” But rather than become rivals of each other, the two joined forces, the better to cause maximum damage. Of course, each aggressor has other allies.

Via social media, medical student and Ph.D. candidate Robert Rosencrans voiced his commentary on a study not of COVID-19, but of the flu known as H1N1, which behaves similarly in some ways. Rosencrans wrote,

Much rhetoric around obesity as a critical pre-existing condition for Covid-19. A key lesson from H1N1 epidemic: meta analyses (n=25,189) showed an odds ratio of 1.8 for fatality amongst obese people.

Until they controlled for one key variable.

Smaller bodied people systematically received earlier antiviral treatment than larger bodied people. Controlling for this difference eliminates impact of obesity on H1N1 fatality. Obesity kills, but the critical mediator is not biology, it’s bias.

The modifiable variable here is not peoples’ sizes. It’s provider behavior.

Food for thought. And proof once more that some problems, whether we like it or not, are multifactorial in ways that point accusatory fingers.

The enemy within

Among mental health professionals, it is generally accepted that eating disorders (along with many other self-harming behaviors) constitute an attempt by the patient to exert some modicum of control over life’s exhausting changes. The strongly-opinioned writer known as Róisín S. says,

We cannot rely on getting rid of an eating disorder whilst coping with the same circumstances that enabled the illness to develop in the first place. We must also build a treatment model that centres the patient and their complex experiences.

That first sentence embodies the most formidable challenge in the field of child obesity prevention. A child’s circumstances are the home and the parents. If that is where the illness developed, the prognosis cannot be hopeful unless the parents are ready and willing to do some work.

Any treatment program that is not 100% parent-backed will definitely face a struggle. Short of removing morbidly obese children from their homes — and that comes with its own set of traumas — very little can be done by even the most benevolently-intentioned therapist or state.

Of course, parents are not always 100% to blame. For the most part, they are not at cause. At the moment, most families have limited choice in the areas of cohabiting, shopping, eating, learning, entertainment, transportation, and physical exercise. You name it, and it is a problem for someone.

Journalist Agnieszka de Sousa gives a perfect example of how COVID-19 promotes obesity:

When Britain went into lockdown, market stalls closed and shoppers were told to limit outings for essentials at stretched supermarkets. Lynn, a 38-year-old mother of four who relies on state support, could no longer scour her neighborhood in east London for the best bargains on apples or milk. With her options limited, she’s put on almost 30 pounds (14 kilograms) since March.

It’s no secret that the cheapest food in the western world is often the stuff that’s worst for you: fast meals and ultra-processed food, usually loaded with salt, fat and sugar. For the poorest, it’s typically what they can afford, and that’s only grown more acute during the coronavirus pandemic.

The virus and the food insecurity landscape conspire to cultivate eating disorders, some of which lead to obesity, and the virus has a special fondness for obese victims. What is more, this dire situation transpires in the United Kingdom, a place highly conscious of its dedication to reversing the obesity trend.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Eating Disorder Treatment is Broken, and Only Abolition Can Fix It,” Medium.com, 08/30/20
Source: “Weight gain is new problem of poor in rich nations as Covid puts healthy diet out of reach,” ThePrint.in, 09/09/20
Image by Átomo Cartún/(CC BY-SA 2.0)

Coronavirus Chronicles — Crisis Becomes Status Quo

Pat Hartman September 15, 2020 No Comments

In early August, around 65 people went to a wedding reception in Millinocket. By late August, the small Maine town had closed its town hall and schools, and the local hospital barred visitors. Aysha Qamar reported that altogether 366 people, their ages ranging from 4 to 98 years, were tested for the novel coronavirus. Many were positive, and many had symptoms.

By September 10, the number of people believed to have contracted the disease due to that one event had risen to 161. Similar events have been shown to lead back to a lone original patient who, for some reason, is enabled to act as a “superspreader.”

Some of the affected are second-hand or third-hand victims who had not even been present to toast the newlyweds with champagne. Three of the people have died.

Message not being received

The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally proceeded as usual, much to the dismay of those who believe COVID-19 is real. At least 250,00 people crammed into the South Dakota town over a 10-day period starting August 7. They dispersed to travel through or return to 61% of America’s counties. As of August 27, more than 100 novel coronavirus cases had been linked to the event.

But by September 10, barely two weeks later, both the number of attendees and the number of consequently sickened Americans were revised upward, after anonymized cellphone location data had been analyzed by researchers from four universities. Ciara Linnane writes for MarketWatch.com:

The 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota in August, which drew more than 400,000 people, has now been linked to more than 250,000 coronavirus cases, according to a study by the IZA Institute of Labor Economics… The event “was prolonged, included individuals packed closely together, involved a large out-of-town population, and had low compliance with recommended infection countermeasures such as the use of masks,” the researchers wrote. The event will cost an estimated $12.2 billion in health-care costs…

A jaded public hears stories like these, and still mingles unmasked. Short videos that illustrate the parable of the chessboard are not an exact analogy to the contagion mechanisms of a disease, but they do serve to show in a clear, concise way how quickly numbers can get out of hand.

The concept of exponentiality is not to be taken lightly. Again, the Centers for Disease Control reminded the public of cold facts:

Coronavirus can spread from asymptomatic carriers of the disease to others… The CDC estimates that 40 percent of individuals who have contracted COVID-19 are asymptomatic, and that individuals exhibiting no signs of the disease have a 75 percent chance of spreading it to someone else.

Now, here’s the thing — no, two things. Obese people, including children, face higher risk right from the start. For some reason, the disease loves them and seeks them out. In addition, normal-weight people, including children, who survive the disease come out of it weaker, less active, less mentally acute, less ambitious about maintaining health regimes, and more likely to succumb in the future to a condition that will promote and exacerbate obesity.

In many places, the situation is getting worse — including places where things were looking pretty bright for a while.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Millinocket, Maine, area wedding now connected to 161 coronavirus cases,” BostonGlobe.com, 09/10/20
Source: “53 people who tested positive for COVID-19 linked to Maine wedding reception,” AlterNet.org, 08/23/20
Source: “Cell phone data indicates that Sturgis rally attendees later visited 61% of U.S. counties,” DailyKos.com, 08/27/20
Source: “Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota in August linked to more than 250,000 coronavirus cases, study finds,” MarketWatch.com, 09/10/20
Source: “Legend of the Chessboard,” YouTube.com, 01/01/11
Source: “CDC’s New Testing Guidelines Appear to Follow Trump’s Call to “Slow the Testing”,” TruthOut.org, 08/26/20
Image by Andrew/CC BY 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — Stay Home, Stay Fit

Pat Hartman September 14, 2020 No Comments

Must we say it? These are difficult times. For mental health at home, Nina Renata Aron offers suggestions gleaned from the 12-step program paradigm. Even if just one of these ideas makes life better, well, that’s an improved life. Of course, readers will want to consult Aron’s article on Medium for details, but here are the subheadings:

Take things one day at a time
Take it easy
Don’t just do something, sit there
Stay in your lane
Pray or meditate
Let it go
Be grateful
Value people

The Childhood Obesity Foundation of Canada makes some recommendations for mental health, and appreciation is also high on its list. Never mind the birthday parties unplanned and the theme parks unattended. Cultivate gratitude for the survival of loved ones, and the communication channels that are still open — even if the technology is frustrating.

Sheltering in place provides a great chance to find out whether all that stuff about getting enough sleep is actually true. Some people have been too busy for years to even keep track of whether they are drinking enough water. This is a splendid time to pay attention to seemingly humble matters like sufficient hydration.

For those with food available, having everyone at home is a wonderful opportunity to cook and eat together, preferably with nutritional consciousness. The uncredited author says,

Involving the entire household in planning and preparing meals also has many benefits. It shares the workload, helps to develop planning, shopping and food preparation skills in other family members, and builds a sense of belonging within the family.

Remember, parents and adult family members are role models. Kids will learn from what you do.

This article also points to online resources for staying physically fit with minimal equipment: Active For Life, Flaghouse Activity Channel, and Y Thrive.

From overseas, Rhys Gregory reports that “A pioneering exercise programme for kids has been launched in North Wales amid fears the Covid-19 lockdown could lead to a huge increase in childhood obesity.” He directs readers to the Bangor University video series Dynamic Dudes, which “teaches children how to perform a wide range of key moves in martial arts, dance, football and gymnastics.” The program is designed for ages 4 to 11, and offers three difficulty levels — Beginner, Advanced and Peak Power — and is specifically adapted for families stuck in apartments.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “12-Step Strategies Anyone Can Use for a Better Life,” Medium.com, 04/14/20
Source: “Steps Canadian Families Can Take for a Healthy Lifestyle During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” ChildhoodObesityFoundation.ca, undated
Source: “University Experts Come Up With Dynamic Videos To Help Lockdown Kids,” Wales247.co.uk, 05/15/20
Image by Honza Soukup/CC BY 2.0

Did the World Really Need This Children’s Cookbook?

Pat Hartman September 11, 2020 No Comments

When the existence of a popular children’s cookbook was brought to Dr. Pretlow’s attention, it inspired the following comments:

What were the authors thinking when they created such an appalling cover for their book??? It is horrifically irresponsible to promote such highly pleasurable foods in the midst of a global childhood obesity epidemic and with mounting scientific evidence that such foods may be addicting.

It is tragically ironic that Food Network, the author of the book, lists the most addictive foods on its website, which include the foods on the book’s cover!

The cover’s pictorial centerpiece is the bland yet weirdly breast-like top part of a hamburger bun. There is also a much less prominent lower piece, and together they embrace a brown patty, some vegetative tendrils, and white sauce.

The item on the right seems like something that would be a hit with kids, who often have extreme tastes. They will reject a familiar food whose texture is slightly different from what they are accustomed to, and then pounce on the opportunity to eat something that could imaginatively be interpreted as fried worms or an equally gross concoction. (The book includes such child-friendly celery-based snacks as Ants on a Ranch, Ladybugs on a Log, and Pigs in a Pen.)

The trend continues

In the background reposes a dish of a red substance that might, in the eyes of a mischievous kid, appear to be coagulated blood waiting to be applied to some other child who is only trying to eat lunch. (It is warmed tomato sauce, for dipping.) Further research, on page 103, reveals that the cover photo is, in fact, an Italian Burger with Spaghetti Fries. The burger is indeed meat; not to say there is anything fundamentally wrong with that, one way or another. From an obesity-prevention point of view, however, it would be better without the bun.

The nutritional value of deep-fried pasta is debatable. The strands are cooked, not surprisingly, in hot oil, a process that some parents do not want a child anywhere near, even when the child is just watching and the parent is doing the many transfers of spaghetti to and from the hot oil.

The little pictures along the book cover’s side are not too bad, until we get to the cupcake. Of course, dessert and snacks are a part of life, but must they be on the front door?

Words of unwisdom?

The title is somewhat problematic: The Big, Fun Kids Cookbook. Let’s take that to mean, “the cookbook that belongs, in an ownership sense, a custodial sense, or possibly a creative sense, to kids.” It seems like “Kids” should have an apostrophe, either in the place that would make it the book of one kid (Kid’s) or that would imply it belongs to several or all kids (Kids’).

But without that distinction, Kids becomes ambiguous, just another plural noun. The title includes both big and fun, but perhaps the adjectives apply not to the book, but to the kids. Encountering a cookbook for big, fun kids, would a morose child feel rejected? What about the child who does not enjoy thinking of herself or himself as big — would that child reject the book?

Dr. Pretlow also mentions what a sad commentary on current awareness it is, that this is a best seller. However… for a book to be described as a New York Times Bestseller does not mean as much as it used to. Apparently, accounting loopholes and system-gaming have reduced the prestige factor considerably.

A review from Publishers Weekly mentions the food trivia quizzes, and lauds the dozens of facts, for instance:

“There are 10,000 varieties of grapes in the world,” they write next to a recipe for candied grapes…

Candied grapes? To some, this is sacrilege. The grape is nature’s most perfect snack: wet yet tidily self-contained, and sweet. The grape cannot be improved upon. The piece also mentions the “coloring pages that are bound to spark enthusiasm.” With detailed and intricate designs, the coloring pages are a hybrid of food drawings and psychedelic art, and in fact seem more likely to be enjoyed by the grandparents of the child audience.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Look Inside!,” Amazon.com, undated
Source: “The Big, Fun Kids Cookbook,” PublishersWeekly.com, 04/28/20
Image by Evelyn Lim/CC BY 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — Birth in the Age of COVID-19

Pat Hartman September 10, 2020 No Comments

Any numbers the Centers for Disease Control can lay hands on, that agency will crunch, mash and hash to a fare-thee-well. As always, the fate of newborns is of particular interest. There is some indication that a prospective mother who tests positive for COVID-19 might be more likely than a non-pregnant woman to wind up in the ICU. For the benefit of agencies who try their best to learn from statistics, a whole special report form exists for pregnant women.

Because so much else is going on with the still-mysterious novel coronavirus, interpreting the raw data is a demanding job. Here are a few suggestive excerpts from an article on the subject, by Meredith Wadman. As always, the good news mingles with the bad:

Data on pregnancy and COVID-19 are woefully incomplete… Fetal infections later in pregnancy appear to be rare, and experts are cautiously optimistic that the coronavirus won’t warp early fetal development… Pregnancy does appear to make women’s bodies more vulnerable to severe COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.

Birth and breastfeeding in the pandemic

In the days before COVID-19, the conscientiously-run labor and delivery unit was tasked with the obligation to “strike a balance between patient safety and celebrating the birthday party.” They had it down pretty well, especially when it came to finding ways to safely include fathers. Now, the stark question is whether even babies and mothers can coexist safely. Here is Dr. Jeff Livingston on why this is so crucial:

The first 60 minutes of life is known as the “golden hour.” This period immediately after delivery contributes to infant temperature regulation, reduces stress for mom and baby, improves mother-baby bonding, and increases breastfeeding success.

Considering that they are born with immature immune systems, babies are getting a raw deal from Nature. Add to that a positive-testing mother, and the situation gets dicey. Of the children born to mothers who tested positive, somewhere between 2% and 5% of them have tested positive within their first few days on earth. Some, including the famous Mexican triplets, have been born testing positive. Babies less than a month old have needed to be hospitalized because of severe infection.

There is a National Registry for Surveillance and Epidemiology of Perinatal COVID-19 Infection, on which the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) bases its guidelines. Currently, if precautions are taken against droplet transmission, it is considered safe for an uninfected baby to room with its infected mother. There is, as far can be determined, no risk reduction gained by separating them.

Dr. Jeff Livingston summarizes the AAP guidelines as social distancing, face covers and hand hygiene, and specifies that “Mothers are asked to maintain a six-feet separation when not providing hands-on care.” The same precautions are required for non-infected birth partners or family members.

Childhood Obesity News has discussed the virtues of breastfeeding, which is believed to give baby a slight advantage in avoiding childhood obesity. Remnants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been found in breast milk, but there is no evidence that the active virus can be secreted. There is also no evidence that the baby gains any advantage of protective antibodies.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Data on COVID-19 during Pregnancy,” CDC.gov, 09/03/20
Source: “Why pregnant women face special risks from COVID-19,” ScienceMag.org, 08/04/20
Source: “The Latest Covid-19 Recommendations for New Moms and Babies,” Medium.com, 08/10/20
Image by Marco Verch/CC BY 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Deadly Duo

Pat Hartman September 9, 2020 No Comments

This blog has previously mentioned the dangerous affinity between obesity and the novel coronavirus, and sadly, there is more to say about that fraught subject. We mentioned Dr. Rami Bailony, who warns that obesity is “a leading risk factor in mortality and morbidity from Covid-19.” He cites a New York University study which found that if a person is going to be hospitalized because of the virus, the most likely co-morbidity is not heart or kidney disease, diabetes, or even smoking, but obesity.

Strangely, it took a while for the American health care apparatus to identify the obese as high-risk individuals. According to Dr. Bailony,

Insurance providers, including Medicare, continue to deny coverage for obesity treatment, and obesity counseling continues to be one of lowest-reimbursed codes in medicine… It’s time for our society and our health care system to devote the same amount of resources toward medical obesity treatment as it does toward diabetes and heart disease.

By 2030, which is only 10 short years away, it is predicted that nearly half of the U.S. population will be obese, and, if the disease is still around then, this is good news for COVID-19 and bad news for the rest of us. Actually, Dr. Bailony uses the word “terrifying.” With or without the disease as a complicating factor, what would really help is for the health care system, including the insurance industry, to begin treating obesity like a chronic disease rather than a lifestyle choice.

But not just the U.S. In China and France, to give just two examples, obese patients have a much more difficult course of illness and are much more likely to not survive. Dr. Bailony also mentions that at first (and rather inexplicably), the World Health Organization “left obesity off its list of preexisting conditions likely to make patients more vulnerable.” He says,

Fighting obesity means waging a multifaceted war on a number of fronts — not just diet and lifestyle, but also with regard to environmental, psychological, medical, genetic, and microbiomic factors.

To continue ignoring the mounting evidence of obesity’s deadly toll — before, during, and after the Covid-19 outbreak — will be to continue ignoring the most costly pandemic in human history.

And what about the children?

This is, after all, Childhood Obesity News, so let’s consult a pediatrician. Dr. Mason Gomberg of White Plains Hospital Physician Associates is very concerned with “how continued social distancing and canceled activities can lead to an increase in childhood weight gain and, with it, a host of related diseases.”

As we have seen, parents are going bananas. Depending on their degree of in-place sheltering and desperation, they are adapting either to unemployment or remote work; trying to teach kids at home, which includes obtaining the needful equipment to do that; struggling to keep up with all the virus news; and hoping to prevent the family’s weight from doubling.

How can that be achieved? Glad you asked! Please check out Dr. Gomberg on the subject of “What Parents Can Do to Help Prevent COVID-19 From Affecting Children’s Weight.”

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Dangerous Link Between Coronavirus and Obesity,” Medium.com, 05/28/20
Source: “COVID-19 and Childhood Obesity: What Parents Can Do According to a Local Pediatrician,” WestchesterMagazine.com, 08/18/20
Image by Cristina/CC BY-SA 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — A Remarkably Unhealthy Alliance

Pat Hartman September 8, 2020 1 Comment

“Exacerbate” is a ten-dollar word that describes a sick relationship. When two conditions help each other to become worse, only they win, while any humans who happen to be caught up in the situation are big losers. This, as we have seen, is the unfortunate situation regarding obesity and the novel coronavirus. They work in alliance, mutually promising, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.”

A 600-family survey on food insecurity and child feeding practices aimed to learn how the pandemic has affected children’s nutrition. The results were published in the journal Obesity. The authors found that…

[…] one-third of families have increased the amount of high-calorie snack foods, desserts and sweets in their home during the pandemic, while nearly 50% increased the amount of nonperishable processed foods.

Still, there is a bright side. More than half the families in the study had cut down on what is known as “fast food,” and a slightly larger number had stepped up their home-cooking game. Overall, the findings confirmed the ongoing paradox that is the association between food insecurity and childhood obesity. According to Elizabeth Adams, Ph.D., of Victoria Commonwealth University,

Many of these families typically participate in the National School Lunch Program and get free or low-cost lunches each day at school. The closing of schools due to the pandemic forced many parents to provide more meals at home. School districts have helped by offering food at centralized locations or delivering it to neighborhoods.

There is, of course, always a downside. Parents want to do the right thing, but sometimes their efforts are misguided. Adams stated that in some cases they have been restricting access to certain foods, and encouraging children to eat when perhaps that is not the best idea at the moment. When parents are too controlling in general, and about eating habits in particular, over time it “could lead to unhealthy eating behaviors and weight gain in children.”

Of course, in an ongoing food insecurity situation, parents can get very nervous, and might tend to push children to eat whatever is in the kitchen, because who knows where the next bag of groceries will come from?

For the future

Hopefully, the pandemic will not last forever, but researchers are taking advantage of this atypical situation to study the link between child obesity and food insecurity, the better to improve everyone’s situation when more “normal” conditions return.

Dr. Rami Bailony, Stanford Medical Entrepreneurship fellow and co-founder of Enara Health, comes right out and says it:

Our world is facing two pandemics right now. The acute one, Covid-19, is swift and relentless — and it’s disproportionately preying upon people affected by an even larger, more-enduring pandemic: obesity.

Obesity is a leading risk factor in mortality and morbidity from Covid-19. And yet we’re not acknowledging this truth in our plans for protecting our most vulnerable populations. This speaks to a much larger deficiency within our society and our health care system today: the stubborn refusal to recognize and treat obesity as the chronic, deadly disease that it is.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “COVID-19 has exacerbated food insecurity,” MedicalXpress.com, 08/20/20
Source: “The Dangerous Link Between Coronavirus and Obesity,” Medium.com, 05/28/20
Image by flowcomm/CC BY 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Pat Hartman September 4, 2020 1 Comment

Yes, of course this topic has been mentioned here before. Obesity and the novel coronavirus are besties. They seem to have linked their pinky fingers together and made some kind of “ride or die” loyalty pledge — except, in this, case, the dying is being done by humans.

So let’s catch up. Dr. William Dietz is the bearer of several impressive credentials, including Director of the STOP Obesity Alliance, and he told journalist Kim Doleatto:

In a study of more than 4,000 New York City COVID-19 patients, even among COVID-19 patients younger than 60, those with obesity were twice as likely to be hospitalized and 1.8 times more likely to need critical care.

The wrinkle in this particular piece of news, though, is another thing that has been mentioned frequently by Childhood Obesity News. Obesity is tightly linked with food insecurity.

Yes, this may sound strange. If people do not have enough to eat, how do they turn out fat? Somehow, it happens. Dr. Dietz also alerted the reporter that…

In a 12-state study of 66,553 adults, those who were food insecure had 32% greater odds of having obesity compared with those who were food secure.

It is almost too obvious to need stating, but in an economy where millions are jobless and a landscape where cars line up for miles to receive the sustenance offered by food banks, the heavy thumb of COVID-19 has once more sneakily pressed on the scales of justice. Obviously, if the pandemic did not exist, food insecurity would not be nearly the huge problem it is at this time.

Yes, sleep matters

Word comes from Ireland of another way in which the disease makes obesity worse. According to the health agency Safefood, 43% of the children surveyed are going to bed later, while a similar number are sleeping later in the morning. Not at all surprisingly, decreased physical activity plus more screen time are two factors that join forces in a recipe for weight gain.

As often happens, disrupted sleep correlates with increased junk food consumption. Empty calories are calories that nobody needs, but there is no stopping them when a society is in semi-emergency mode for weeks and months on end.

Unfortunately, this is not a supposition or a guess. Journalist Conor Pope notes,

[A]s a direct result of children experiencing changes in their sleep routine, 49 per cent are eating more unhealthy snacks or treats, 54 per cent are less active and 67 per cent are engaging in more screen-time…

Consequently, the government is urging parents to get children’s bedtimes “back on track.” But apparently they don’t quite feel up to the job, as it was difficult enough in pre-pandemic times to achieve this. Of all the parents surveyed, 60% have “expressed concern” about how to successfully reinstate healthier routines.

But it must be done. Pope quotes nutrition specialist Dr. Marian O’Reilly:

Sleep influences appetite hormones and being up for longer means there are more opportunities to eat, which can impact on their weight. Many parents have told us that they have found sleep, snacking, managing treat foods and other healthy behaviors difficult over recent months. A good sleep routine is the key to unlocking these challenges.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Coronavirus Chronicles — Kids, Schools, and Transmission

Pat Hartman September 3, 2020 3 Comments

Coronavirus is still with us, and this blog has been looking at transmission and how to stop it, especially relative to schooling. As things stand, it seems that everyone is being shortchanged. Children, parents, teachers, taxpayers, government agencies, medical experts… Nobody is happy about the very confused and confusing condition that the American education system is in during this period.

Even amongst all the problems and potential problems caused by the virus and the seemingly unreachable goal of its elimination, many experts find the time and energy to issue warnings about obesity. Also, as Childhood Obesity News has mentioned, obesity and the virus enjoy a troublingly close relationship. Shamelessly, they aid and abet one another.

Let’s keep moving!

Growing children need a plethora of physical activity, not only to burn calories and resist fat, but to keep all of the body’s systems alert and functioning. And yet, in any setting where physical activity can take place, there is almost certain to be a risk of contagion. School, home, neighborhood, park — nowhere can be guaranteed safe, and there are logistical problems for overextended parents who are asked to put in time as park play monitors, on top of everything else.

As Indiana University’s academic year began, students gathered “in large groups without masks or practicing social distancing.” The administration ordered masking and distancing, and good luck to them, with enforcing compliance in this age bracket. On August 25 a headline proclaimed that the University of Alabama had confirmed more than 500 new cases of COVID-19, in addition to the 311 already discovered during re-entry testing. (A couple days later the campus total was up to 1,000.)

In Iowa, Des Moines Public Schools, (32,000 students, 5,000 employees) wanted 100% online learning. The state said no, there must be at least 50% in-person instruction. The district announced that it would sue the state. In Detroit, the teachers’ union agreed on the possibility of a safety strike, calling for distance teaching only. In Topeka, Kansas, the state’s biggest school district put middle schools and high schools into remote mode.

Not good news

Very recently, John Anderer reported on a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics that seems to confirm “a potential worst case scenario.” Children, it appears, are excellent “silent spreaders,” more capable than adults of distributing the contagion. Just because they don’t have as many immune receptors for SARS-CoV2, or as many symptoms, it does not mean they carry lower viral loads. Anderer writes,

The study, led by doctors from Massachusetts General Hospital and Mass General Hospital for Children, suggests that kids likely play a much larger part in the spread of COVID-19 than originally thought… Identifying coronavirus-infected children is difficult because most don’t exhibit symptoms. Even the ones that do often develop symptoms that can be confused for influenza or the common cold. With all this in mind, there’s no telling just how many young “silent spreaders” are unknowingly infecting others.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “The Latest: S. Korea orders nationwide pandemic restrictions,” Go.com, 08/21/20
Source: “University of Alabama reports more than 500 confirmed COVID-19 cases,” AL.com, 08/25
Source: “Coronavirus more contagious among children,” StudyFinds.org, 08/20/20
Image by Patrick Emerson/CC BY-SA 2.0

Coronavirus Chronicles — Two Current Plagues, Obesity and COVID-19

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Tale of Two Bullies

The enemy within

Coronavirus Chronicles — Crisis Becomes Status Quo

Message not being received

Coronavirus Chronicles — Stay Home, Stay Fit

Did the World Really Need This Children’s Cookbook?

The trend continues

Words of unwisdom?

Coronavirus Chronicles — Birth in the Age of COVID-19

Birth and breastfeeding in the pandemic

Coronavirus Chronicles — The Deadly Duo

And what about the children?

Coronavirus Chronicles — A Remarkably Unhealthy Alliance

For the future

Coronavirus Chronicles — With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?

Yes, sleep matters

Coronavirus Chronicles — Kids, Schools, and Transmission

Let’s keep moving!

Not good news

Profiles: Kids Struggling with Weight

The Book

About Dr. Robert A. Pretlow

Presentations

Food & Health Resources