EON

New York - According to recent federal statistics, 19 percent of children ages 6-19 are overweight or obese. It’s reaching epidemic proportions in the United States, and is causing significant health problems, and will continue to unless something can be done to teach and inspire these children to lose weight.

To that end a series of books has been written with story lines showing the positive effects of weight loss and ideas for methods to lose weight. These books use a subtle approach, using story and plot elements, as well as the actions of the main character, an overweight girl, and what weight loss does for her.

Are these books really effective though? Can reading really help children loose weight? A study done by Duke Children’s Hospital showed that a group of 31 girls who read the books reduced their body mass index (BMI), a measure of body fat that compares weight to height, by .71 percent. While this may not sound like much, another group in the study who read another book with a non-obese main character had less than half the loss in their BMI at .31 percent. A control group who read no books on weight loss averaged a slight gain in BMI of .05 percent.

While these numbers are small, they are important. The current arsenal of tools available for combating obesity are a series of drugs or, in more drastic cases, gastric bypass surgery. However, the use of the drugs is only approved for children aged 15 and older, and surgery is deemed too risky on pre-adults. So anything that can help children loose weight and promote healthy lifestyle changes is important, and so far the findings on these books look promising.