If your kids are fat, they’re dying too quickly.

I realize that’s a pretty scary headline but it’s really true and this is a very serious health matter, mainly because so many surveys reveal that many (perhaps even most) parents of overweight and especially of obese kids don’t realize how fat their kids are or how serious the situation is for their kids.

So to underline the seriousness, you should pay attention to a very depressing study presented at the recent Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010.

The average age of the kids in this study of 63 obese kids was 13, and the researchers concluded that although they all still seemed to have normal blood pressures and normal cholesterol levels (compared to a control group of 55 non-obese kids), their blood vessels nevertheless had the kind of stiffness (the more stiff your arteries, the greater the risk of heart disease and strokes) normally not seen until middle age, and then only in middle-aged people with heart disease.

In other words, unless something was done to alter their status, these kids were in serious danger of developing heart disease probably as early as their young adult years.