Is Childhood Obesity Contagious?

In a ridiculously unfounded statement, researchers have stated that obesity among children may be caused by a virus. I couldn’t believe it when I read this. You realize where this is headed, right? Soon, they will have a new drug to fight this alleged “obesity virus” that will make the pharmaceutical companies even more money…then our children will be obese AND dying of cancer or some other disease.

Adenovirus 36 (AKA AD-36) was researched to establish its link to obesity in children; however, if you look at the actual study, it looks more like obese children are more susceptible to the virus, not that the virus causes the obesity. AD-36 causes respiratory and eye infections in humans. Now scientists want us to believe that it’s the culprit behind our child obesity problem.

US News had this to say about the study:

…found that children who had been exposed to the adenovirus 36 were more likely to be obese than children who were never infected, with 22 percent of obese children having antibodies to the virus, compared to 7 percent of normal-weight children. The antibodies indicate that the body’s immune system has tried to defend itself against the virus, a sign of prior exposure or infection. The study tested 67 obese and 57 normal-weight children, and was led by researchers at the University of California-San Diego and Rady Children’s Hospital. Other studies in adults have found that obese folks are also more likely to have antibodies to the virus than are slimmer people.

If you Google “Adenovirus 36”, you will see a lot of news articles about this “fat virus”. But is it just a scam? Why aren’t people looking at what our children are eating? Or how children simply aren’t as active today as they were 20 years ago?

It has nothing to do with all of the high fructose corn syrup in our children’s diets, I’m sure. And nothing to do with the fact that parents are feeding their children fast food and unhealthy snacks all the time. I’m sure it’s all just some new, mysterious virus that’s popped out of the woodwork.

Here’s the part that’s really scary…The published study in Pediatrics concluded its study summary with the following:

These data support an association of obesity and higher body weight with the presence of neutralizing antibodies to AD36 in children. If a cause-and-effect relationship is established, it would have considerable implications for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.

Did you read that last part?

…it would have considerable implications for the prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.

To me, that implies that they will be able to create some new “miracle drug” that won’t be tested for safety, yet will be pushed onto every overweight child in our country. Haven’t I already covered this? Look at the tv! Just watch the commercials! Look how many drugs, NEW drugs that only came on the market in the last 5 years, now have class action lawsuits against the companies because of causing some dreadful disease (or in some cases DEATH)!

It’s absolutely LUDICROUS to try to create some excuse for having overweight children; especially when our children are no longer being fed a healthy diet.