http://www.commonvoice.com/article.asp?colid=6621

Study: Children Need More Dietary Fats
Regina Wilshire
January 26, 2007

An email this morning provided a link to a recently published paper at
the Göteborg University Library, Nutrition and health in 4-year-olds
in a Swedish well-educated urban community. It is the dissertation of
PhD candidate Malin H. Garemo, designed to "analyze nutrition in
healthy 4-year-olds´ in a Western urban community in Sweden in
relation to socio-economy, life style and different aspects of health
in order to improve the understanding of possible associations."

As reported in The Local, an english language newspaper in Sweden, the
study showed "that one in five four-year-olds have a body mass index
(BMI) that is considered too high, while 2 percent are obese. But
children who regularly eat fatty foods are not the ones with a high
BMI. It was instead found that a third of the children need to consume
more saturated fat." [emphasis mine]

essential nutrients, vitmain D, omega-3 fatty acids and iron; we also
learn that "higher BMI was associated with lower fat and higher
sucrose intake;" and these children were not consuming more calories
than required for their energy needs.

Even more alarming in the findings, "girls had significantly higher
metabolic markers than the boys. In girls, the HOMA ß-cell function
was negatively associated with the intake of fat and positively with
the intake of carbohydrates."

Folks, these were four-year-olds - not teens, not adults - but very
young children!

The summary says it all "A lower fat intake was associated with higher
BMI and higher HOMA ß-cell function. fS-insulin and insulin resistance
were associated to increased growth rate from birth to the age of 4
(upward centile crossing). Risk factors for the metabolic syndrome can
be identified already in healthy 4-year olds, especially in girls."

How can that be?

When children are found deficient in vitamin D, the first things that
comes to mind is the diet; it may be lacking enough eggs, butter,
cream, fish, liver and/or whole milk and dairy foods like yogurt.
That, and depending upon the time of the year, inadequate exposure to
sunlight.

When children are found deficient in n-3 fatty acids, the first things
that come to mind is the diet may be lacking enough eggs, alpine
cheese, fish, oil-packed fish, nuts, but butters/oils and vegetables
like squash.

And when children are deficient in iron, the first things that come to
mind is the diet may be lacking enough eggs, green vegetables, meats,
liver, and.or beans.

In this review, the children were lacking all three of the above and
lower fat intake was inversely associated with higher BMI too.

If we review these major deficiencies in the diet of these children,
and consider the conclusion they need more dietary fat and less
carbohydrates (specifically sugar), it's easier to understand the
importance dietary fats have in growth and development for children.

Their little bodies are akin to perpetual energy, and constantly
needing a much higher level of calories than just looking at them
would suggest. Honestly, who would think a little 3-or-4-foot kid
would need as much as 1,500-calories a day?

That's because they're constantly in a state of growth - whether it be
physically growing taller, physically laying down muscle or fat
stores, or internally growing nerves or blood vessels - they're always
growing something, and that requires not only calories for energy, but
specific building blocks to make it happen properly - vitamins,
minerals, trace elements, amino acids, and fatty acids.

In previous generations the focus was mainly on getting and providing
enough food to meet these energy needs; today we've modified our view
and extrapolated our notions about a "healthy diet" - carbohydrate-
rich, low-fat - to our children. Not a day goes by that there isn't an
article or segment in the news that we need to feed our kids less fat
and more "good" carbohydrates.

But, as this study found - lower fat, calorie compensated with more
carbohydrates; that is an energy balanced diet - is inadequate for
essential nutrients and is leading to profound metabolic consequences,
especially in girls. The changes noted for girls are those that lead
to PCOS, infertility, diabetes and a host of other health ailments
later in life including cardiovascular disease and some cancer.

But Im pretty darn sure we're going to continue to read and hear we
need to cut fat out of our children's diets and feed them more
carbohydrate; afterall, a proper diet is plant-based, low-fat, with
limited artery-clogging animal-based foods.

Or is it?

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See... I'm not the only one to come to these conclusions.

TC