Urgent warning to parents of kids as young as SIX over life-threatening heart issues
BEING too tubby can start harming kids’ health from the age of six, research reveals.
A study found overweight youngsters already had “detectable” changes to heart and diabetes risk after their sixth birthday.
And carrying excess pounds as a child significantly raises the likelihood of becoming an obese adult.
Being too heavy raises the chances of diabetes, heart and liver disease, and several common cancers.
Danish researchers tracked nearly 1,000 children aged between two and eight for the study set to be presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Maastricht.
Blood tests found no greater risk for tubby pre-schoolers compared to those with a healthy weight.
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But at the age of six, the checks found a “clear difference” between the overweight six-year-olds and their slimmer counterparts.
Portly primary schoolers had significantly higher levels of fasting glucose, insulin, triglycerides and alanine aminotransferase, which indicate a higher risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and liver disease.
Lead researcher Dr Christine Frithioff-Bøjsøe, from Copenhagen University Hospital Holbaek, said: “Overweight in early childhood often tracks into adolescence and adulthood and is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, liver disease, type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions in later life.
“As a result, the early identification and treatment of overweight provides a crucial opportunity to improve a child’s health for years to come.”
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The study is published in the journal Obesity Research & Clinical Practise.
Lockdown has fuelled record levels of childhood obesity in England – with the number of kids starting school too fat rocketing by 45 per cent last year.
Official data reveals 14.4 per cent of four and five-year-olds were dangerously heavy last year, up from 9.9 per cent in 2019/20.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said: “UK children must be measured yearly from the age two-and-a-half years old to prevent these serious conditions taking hold.”
The NHS recommends:
- be a good role model
- encourage 60 minutes, and up to several hours, of physical activity a day
- keep to child-sized portions
- eat healthy meals, drinks and snacks - do not follow adult style diets
- less screen time and more sleep
More detail can be found here on
It comes as Britain is on course to become the fattest nation in Europe by 2033 fuelled by our Deliveroo lifestyle.
A damning report warns levels of flab will rocket by a third in a decade — with nearly four in ten adults obese.
The UK currently holds the title as the tubbiest nation in Western Europe, with 27.8 per cent of Brits dangerously overweight.
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Only Malta and Turkey weigh-in heavier on the scales, according to the 220-page dossier.
But Britain will soon overtake them all on current trends to top European charts, with experts forecasting obesity levels surging to 37 per cent by the start of the next decade.
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