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It's in the genes

Researchers have found that the best predictor of youths being at a healthy weight is having two parents who are of normal weight. For those teenagers who did have an obese parent, the best protective factor against being overweight was eating breakfast every day.

The report appears in the January issue of The Journal of the American Dietetic Association.

In a sample of 1,890 youths ages 12 to 16, about 71 per cent of both boys and girls were of normal weight, with body mass indexes from the 15th to 85th percentile. But only 62 percent of children whose mothers were obese were of normal weight. Fewer than 40 per cent of children with two obese parents had normal weights.

Participation in two or more organised exercise programmes during the preceding year provided some protection against obesity, but neither hours spent watching television nor the number of times per week that teenagers exercised had much bearing.

COURTESY: NEW YORK TIMES

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