Sleepy kids at greater risk of obesity

Sleepy kids at greater risk of obesity

This was the title of an article published on the internet and dated 17th March 2006. Here is the article http://news.netdoctor.co.uk/news_detail.php?id=17071351 - And here is an extract from the article:

"Kids who get less sleep are at a higher risk of becoming overweight or obese, researchers have claimed.

Experts from Laval University in Quebec, Canada, said that busy parents and a lack of strict bedtimes could be a major factor in rising levels of childhood obesity.

In a study of 422 children aged between five and ten years old they found that those who slept for just a couple of hours less each night were 40 per cent more likely to be overweight.

Of the children taking part in the study, one in five of the boys was overweight or obese compared to a quarter of the girls."

The researchers clearly believe that lack of sufficient sleep is a major factor in the causation of childhood obesity.

In my opinion they have confused cause with effect. Obesity causes a host of adverse physical and emotional health outcomes, and it is these adverse health outcomes that lead to reduced sleep.

In any case, obesity, whether of children or adults, is caused by sensitivity to salt, so to reduce obesity AND improve sleep, the most effective and reliable measure is to reduce salt/sodium intake. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html and other pages on the website.