Medical X-Press – Staff Writer 
“New research presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO) in Porto, Portugal (17-20) May shows that achieving the guideline amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity is associated with significantly lower BMI and body fat in children. The study was conducted by Dr Peter Katzmarzyk and Dr Amanda Staiano at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA, USA. Excess weight and body fat are known to be risk factors for a range of serious health problems including diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and even dementia. There is also increasing evidence that the harmful effects of high levels of adiposity begin to manifest themselves in childhood.(more)