A new study has concluded that offering water to young students might help reduce their risk of childhood obesity. According to CBS New York, when self-serve water dispensers were placed in schools, students lost weight and lowered their body mass index.
This news comes as a result of a study published in the online issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics, which included contributions from researchers at NYU.
“We looked at over a million kids in just over 1,200 schools in grades K-8,” said Brian Ebel, a co-author of the study and an associate professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in an interview with CBS. “They ended up being about four or five pounds lighter after the introduction of this intervention as compared to kids in a school that didn’t get a water jet.”
While the results haven’t lead to anything major just yet, experts are hopeful that this research could lead to the next breakthrough in the ongoing battle against childhood obesity. “These aren’t overwhelmingly large numbers,” said Elbel, “but for childhood obesity right now, where we’re looking for anything that might have an impact, these are really important results we think.”
In another interview with CBS, Dr. Ron Feinstein, who specialized in pediatric weight management, said that helping children lose weight is tightrope act: cutting too many calories might impact their growth, but clearly taking in too many calories isn’t doing them any good either. Feinstein believes that getting a handle on childhood obesity is crucial for the development of this generation of kids.
“It is predicted that this generation coming up, if there are no changes made, it will be the first generation in history that will not live as long as their parents,” Feinstein said.