Nutritional Wisdom

Cardiovascular risk rises in teens

The standard American diet has begun to do its damage on our children, placing them at much higher risk of chronic diseases than previous generations. New data published this week from a survey of thousands of U.S. teenagers has reported sobering news about the health of our nation’s young people.

They found that 49 percent of overweight teenagers and 37 percent of normal-weight teenagers had one or more risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including diabetes, high LDL cholesterol, and hypertension. Twenty-three percent of teens are prediabetic or diabetic - this number has more doubled in the past ten years. Twenty-two percent of teens have high or borderline high LDL cholesterol levels. Fourteen percent of teens have hypertension or prehypertension.

For the complete article see the 06-20-2012 issue.

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