Australian children’s body shape is changing, according to South Australian researchers. Children’s excess weight is mainly fat, not muscle, which is settling disproportionately on their stomachs, they say.
After examining many US, UK and Australian caliper skinfold tests done since the early 1950s, the researchers concluded: “the proportion of fat in children’s total body composition had been rising by almost 1 per cent every decade, and was continuing to rise in the most recent surveys.” Worryingly, they also found that children’s bodies were now relatively fatter than their limbs.
Read more: Sunday Age, 28 Feb 2009