Page 11 - HOH

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 7 april 2018

Getting kids to a good weight by 13 may help avoid diabetes

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE higher risk than men who'd
AP Chief Medical Writer never been overweight.
There may be a critical win- "They are hopeful results"
dow for overweight kids that show there are benefits
to get to a healthy level. if parents can help chubby
Those who shed their ex- kids "grow into a healthy
tra pounds by age 13 had weight," said Steven Gort-
the same risk of develop- maker, a childhood obesity
ing diabetes in adulthood researcher at the Harvard
as others who had never School of Public Health.
weighed too much, a large "If you can slow the rise of
study of Danish men found. obesity in very young chil-
Diabetes can develop dren you have a chance
when the body can't prop- of really preventing future
erly use insulin to turn food cases of diabetes."
into energy. Being over- Why might the teen years
weight at any age raises matter so much?
the chances of the most "At adolescence you be-
common form, Type 2. come more insulin resistant,
But it's not known wheth- just sort of a natural part
er or how much that risk of puberty," Daniels ex-
is reduced if people lose plained.
weight, and when. The muscles and organs
"This study seems to suggest don't use insulin as well af-
that overweight in adoles- ter then, so it takes more to
cence is particularly harm- get the same job done, he
ful" and that reversing it by said.
then can do a lot of good, The study had many limita-
said Dr. Stephen Daniels, tions — it was only in men,
pediatrics chief at the Uni- and there was no informa-
versity of Colorado School tion on what they weighed
of Medicine in Denver. in adulthood, when the di-
He had no role in the study, This Tuesday, April 3, 2018 photo shows a closeup of a beam scale in New York. New research abetes developed.
released on Wednesday, April 4, 2018 suggests there's a critical window for overweight kids to get
which was led by research- to a healthy level. It was a different time and
ers at the University of Co- Associated Press place — decades ago in
penhagen, sponsored by Denmark, only 5 percent
the European Union, and service exams enabled how many developed dia- weight. to 8 percent of these men
published Wednesday by tracking their health for de- betes in adulthood. Those who were over- had been overweight as
the New England Journal cades. Heights and weights Men who were overweight weight only at 13, or only children or teens. Today in
of Medicine. were measured when they at age 7 but weren't by at 7 and 13, had a lower the United States, about
It involved 62,565 men in were 7, 13, and between age 13 had similar odds of risk than those who stayed 35 percent of kids are, and
Denmark, where manda- 17 and 26. National health diabetes later in life as men overweight throughout more than 23 percent are
tory school and military records were used to see who'd never been over- young adulthood but a worldwide.q

Scientists harvest 1st vegetables

in Antarctic greenhouse

BERLIN (AP) — Scientists in Researchers at Germany's dropped below -20 de-
Antarctica have harvested Neumayer Station III say grees Celsius (-4 Fahren-
their first crop of vegeta- they've picked 3.6 kilo- heit).
bles grown without earth, grams (8 pounds) of salad The German Aerospace
The undated photo provided by the German aerospace center daylight or pesticides as greens, 18 cucumbers and Center DLR, which coor-
(DLR) shows engineer Paul Zabel with fresh salad he harvested part of a project designed 70 radishes grown inside dinates the project, said
in the EDEN-ISS greenhouse at the Neumeyer-Station III on Ant- to help astronauts cultivate a high-tech greenhouse Thursday that by May sci-
arctica. fresh food on other planets. as temperatures outside entists hope to harvest 4-5
Associated Press
kilograms of fruit and veg-
etables a week.
While NASA has successful-
ly grown greens on the In-
ternational Space Station,
DLR's Daniel Schubert says
the Antarctic project aims
to produce a wider range
of vegetables that might
one day be grown on Mars
or the Moon.
q