Kids Growing Bigger Bellies

(Story from original article at http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/
0,22606,20708214-5005962,00.html)
There is an article in the Australian news “The Advertiser” from November 6, 2006 reporting that American children and teens are growing fatter bellies than 10 years ago. US researchers have concluded that the belly fat of children and teenagers has increased by more than 65 percent since the 1990’s. They say that belly fat is more dangerous than just being overweight, because the abdominal fat surrounding the internal organs is more clearly linked with disease than general body fat. This means that these kids are more prone to heart disease and diabetes. Even 2 to 5 year old boys had an 84 percent relative increase in abdominal fat as compared with the years 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2004. And, 18 to 19 year old girls had a 126 percent increase.
This does not sound like encouraging news. The study does not give any information regarding the possible causes of the increase in belly fat. However, I suspect that most people would agree that some contributing factors are lack of exercise and play, poor nutrition consisting of way too many empty calories, and the over abundance of synthetic chemicals in everything around us. I guess with all of our modern conveniences and technology we have so much free time to just sit around and get fat.