Metabolic Abnormalities in Obese Teens May Relate to Poor Diets

More nutritional child abuse.

Obese teens may feel healthy, but blood tests show they have inflammation, insulin resistance, and high homocysteine levels, researchers report at the American Heart Association's Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions.

"The metabolic abnormalities suggest that the process of developing heart disease has already started in these children, making it critical for them to make definitive lifestyle and diet changes," said Ashutosh Lal, M.D., senior author of the study and a pediatric hematologist at the Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland in California.

Researchers compared the diets and blood test results of 33 obese youthss (ages 11 to 19) with 19 age-matched youths of normal weight. Obesity in youths is a body mass index (BMI) higher than the 95th percentile of children the same age.

Normal weight youths had a BMI below the 85th percentile. Body mass index is a measure of weight related to height. Two thirds of the participants in both groups were girls. All of the participants were receiving regular health maintenance care at an inner city clinic in Oakland.

Blood tests revealed that the obese teens had:

C-reactive protein levels almost ten times higher than controls, indicating more inflammation in the body.
Insulin resistance, a precursor to type 2 diabetes, with greater amounts of insulin needed to keep blood sugar levels normal.
Homocysteine levels 62 percent higher than controls. High levels of the amino acid homocysteine are related to greater heart disease risk.
Total glutathione levels 27.9 percent lower than controls, with oxidized glutathione levels 125 percent higher. A higher ratio of oxidized to non-oxidized glutathione indicates oxidative stress, an imbalance in the production of cell-damaging free radicals and the body's ability to neutralize them. Oxidative stress leads to more inflammation and an increase in blood vessel damage and stiffening.

Fat parents have fat kids.

Kudos,fatsos.