Childhood Obesity has many causes, but one of the factors we can actually change is the diet.
Water
Sugar (or corn syrup) flavored drinks are unnecessary and have very high levels of useless calories. Researchers wondered if offering water to overweight children would actually lead to weight loss.
This study in New York was performed in schools that already had removed sugar sweetened drinks from the cafeterias. The study involved 483 public schools that installed “water jets” (large, fast-dispensing, electrically-cooled, water jugs costing about $1000 each) in cafeterias from 2008 to 2013 and 744 schools that did not.
They found small but significant decreases in obesity in the schools offered water; one of the reasons could have been that students in schools with water jets bought about 14 fewer half-pints of fat-free chocolate milk per student per year - a savings of money as well!
Schwartz AE et al., JAMA Pediatr 2016 Jan 19
Fats
In another study researchers looked at whether (in adults) calorie equal low fat or low carb diets were more effective. Interestingly low fat diets led to greater fat loss (not weight loss). However the difference was small. So it is not as critical you avoid carbs to lose weight; as long as you avoid excess calories!
Fructose
fructose is a natural sugar found in many fruits and vegetables. It is also the main sugar found in high-fructose corn syrup; an inexpensive sweetener very often substituted for raw sugar in processed foods. Many pundits have claimed that this is unhealthy. A recent study confirms this.
Forty-three obese U.S. children (age, 8-18 years) with high sugar intake followed a diet for 9 days that replaced added sugar with starch. The goal was to reduce total sugar intake to 10% of daily calories, and fructose intake to 4%, while maintaining baseline caloric intake and weight. All food was provided by the researchers.
After 10 days there was an average weight loss of over 2 pounds (even though they ate the same amount of calories!), as well as decreases in blood pressure, fasting sugar, and cholesterol.
These sugars are bad for you and should be avoided!!
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21371/epdf
With common sense we can stop this epidemic!
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