Childhood obesity

Dietary factors may be important determinants of obesity and the metabolic syndrome both in children and adults. Conclusive data, however, is scarce, especially in children. The aims of this PhD project were to monitor the development of childhood obesity in Switzerland, to investigate differences in the dietary intake of normal weight and overweight children, to identify dietary determinants of potential early, underlying risk factors for the development of inflammation, hypertension, type 2 diabetes or coronary heart disease in overweight children, and, based on those results, to develop a dietary intervention program for overweight children aiming at a reduction of those risk factors. Even though childhood obesity rates have been shown to be decreasing slightly, one child out of six in Switzerland is still too heavy. Higher intakes of protein and meat may be partly responsible for this together with low physical activity levels. Several potential dietary determinants for metabolic abnormalities have been identified and still it has proven very difficult to implement a dietary intervention in families of overweight children.