Childhood obesity could be linked to parents’ weight problems in a gender-specific way, research has suggested.
Girls whose mothers were clinically obese and boys whose fathers had the same condition were more likely to follow suit at a young age, according to a study.
Researchers from the EarlyBird Diabetes Study found the trend did not exist between mothers and sons and fathers and their daughters.
This suggests behavioural rather than genetic factors could hold the key to finding out why so many British children are obese, scientists claimed.
This research supports my long held knowledge that obesity is a man-made disease. Children today are often fed milk formulas (which are nutritionally deficient) and fed a diet far too high in carbohydrates. A growing child requires a high amount of fat in their diet to help aid growth and brain development. A diet too high in carbohydrates doesn’t get used due to the lack of exercise and voila, you have an over-fat child.
The study also suggests that children follow their same-gender parent. This suggests that they take on the same behavoiurs and lifestyle which further suggests this problem is due to lifestyle and not genetics.
If you wish for your children to be fit and healthy, you can not tell them how to do it, you have to show them by be a shining example of health.