Travis Saunders, a PhD candidate with HALO, recently published a review article in ISRN Pediatrics, “Potential Contributors to the Canadian Pediatric Obesity Epidemic.” Full citation details are below.

Travis SaundersPotential Contributors to the Canadian Pediatric Obesity Epidemic. ISRN Pediatrics, Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 917684, 10 pages.

ABSTRACT: As a group, Canadian children and youth are heavier than at any time in the recent past. However, to date there has been no critical examination of the factors which are likely to have contributed to these deleterious trends. A review of the evidence suggests that there is robust evidence supporting the role of reduced sleep, increased sedentary time, increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, and secular increases in adult obesity as contributing factors to the current epidemic of childhood obesity. There is moderate evidence that these trends are related to changes in either total energy intake or physical activity, while there is very little evidence supporting the role ofmaternal age, breastfeeding, exposure to endocrine disrupters, or inadequate calciumintake. These findings suggest that targeting sleep, sedentary time, and sugar-sweetened beverage intake in Canadian children and youth may
help to prevent future weight gain at the population level.

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