Is That Snack Threatening Your Health?

Doctors have found another reason we should work out and eat healthier food: More and more overweight kids are getting liver disease, and they may need liver transplants to stay alive.

The liver helps our bodies to digest food. It also removes poisons from the body, and it breaks down fat. It can't handle too much body fat, though. Many obese people with fatty diets of pizza and cheeseburgers are damaging their livers without knowing it. Even some obese children are needing liver transplants. "It really has been only in the last two or three years that this has become more commonplace," Dr. Ann Scheimann of Johns Hopkins Children's Center told The Associated Press. "It is scary." The American Academy of Pediatrics now suggests blood tests every two years to check for signs of liver damage in obese children.

Read the story of one boy who nearly died from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and find the warning signs at these links.

*Do you think kids pay enough attention to their health? Are kids in general getting better or worse at staying healthy? Click on "Comments" to tell us.

Comments

[ketty]

Snacks have made a lot of children addicted to junk food, including me. I always think, I am young, I have a strong, healthy system, so I don’t have to worry about myself. But recently, I noticed that I've gotten tired easily, and when I get hurt, it heals very slowly. It really bothers me. Now, for my health, I have improved a lot of things, such as drinking water instead of juice and eating food that is low-calorie. I think most kids don’t like to eat some kinds of vegetables. This is a big problem. They choose what they want to eat, not what they need to eat. Those foods absorb lots of oil that may damage their liver seriously. As you know, the liver is an important organ to humans' bodies.
In our school, when the bell rings, many boys will run to the food store and pick up lots of ice cream, cookies, and drinks. I was shocked when I saw those foods and wondered if they could finish it all. After I saw their astonishing appetite, I won’t doubt again! Though we know those edibles are terrible to our body, we just can’t stop eating them. Parents play an important role. If they warn their child, it will improve a lot! Many of the researchers point it out.

[Bobby Lian]

Wow! What an amazing thing that snacks affect health. But fruits are OK. Fruits can provide Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin B … so it is good to eat them as snacks. You can't eat too many fruits!

[Bruce]

Snack is the food everyone likes, including me. When I was little, I always thought that I was strong and young. So I ate snacks without thinking that they would damage me. When I grew up, it was too late. I am chubby, so I try not to eat the things wthat are bad for me. I drink water instead of coca cola. I eat vegetables instead of meat. I read many newspapers which remind people not to eat too many snacks or too much meat. But snack is very tasty! Most of us can not stop ourselves from eating it even though we know it is bad for our bodies. It is important to us to control ourselves and not eat too many snacks.

[KEVIN]

More and more people have liver disease. I think that WHO should ask all nations to pay more attention to the diets of their residents. People must limit their diets, and parents should teach their children the proper way to eat.

[Ben-Tseng]

Snacks are the best thing you can eat when you are killing time. The doctor points out that snacks might kill you. And make you fatter and fatter. The most terrible thing is that the fat might attack your liver cells. In the end, you might die of liver cancer. That is really a bad ending to life. In order to save your life, you should drink water instead of juice. Moreover, you should eat food that is low-calorie. And work out three times in a week. By doing that, you can get rid of liver cancer and live happily forever and ever.

[Tina Lin]

I think kids don’t pay enough attention to their health, and neither do I. One reason is that there is a lot of temptation in our lives, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and even our school store. Another reason is that when we are hungry, we eat uncontrollably because we think we are young and strong. It is a serious issue for us to pay attention to, not just kids but adults too. We should all be careful about our diets.

[Lisa Chen]

Snacks! What a popular thing for kids! Kids, even adults, couldn’t live without a snack a day--candy, chocolate, soda, cookies, and so on. I think maybe now all kids and adults have sweet teeth. We see sweets every place. As a result, some kids and adults have become a little chubby or fat; some have health problems. Therefore, we should start to eat what we don’t like to eat rather than sweets. Sometimes, our enemy is the one who will help us.