from Baylor University
Childhood obesity is often blamed on lack of physical activity, but a better explanation may be what our kids eat. A Baylor University team studied children in the rural Amazon of Brazil, in part, because of the lack of outside influences on their diet and activity. The study found urban children averaged sixty-five percent more body fat than rural children despite similar levels of physical activity. Urban children ate more than four times as many market-acquired items as rural children. Lead author Samuel Urlacher says exercise is still essential for living a healthy life, but their study is in line with other research pointing to a poor diet being the most important factor in childhood obesity.