In another sign that efforts to reduce childhood obesity may be having an impact, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics has found increases in physical activity and the consumption of healthy foods among 11 to 16-year-old Americans.
Michelle Healy reports on another positive step in addressing one of America's foremost public health challenges. "Between 2001 and 2009, U.S. adolescents increased physical activity, ate more fruits and vegetables, ate breakfast more, watched less TV and ate fewer sweets, a new study says."
"'It's only recently, in the past decade, that some studies have begun to see some leveling off' in obesity-related behaviors, says Ronald Iannotti, chairman of the department of exercise and health sciences at the University of Massachusetts in Boston and co-author of the study in October's Pediatrics, online Monday."
"Over the previous decades, the pattern had been that kids were getting less physical activity, and it's been very hard to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption," Iannotti says. "We've got a long way to go, but the good news is that those are increasing."
FULL STORY: New signs of improvement in the youth obesity epidemic?
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