A study of kids in 14 counties reveals that American kids are the fattest of all.
In the study, headed by Inge Lissau, Ph.D. from Denmark, the researchers tabulated the BMIs of 29,242 children 13 and 15 years of age. The children were from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Flemish Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Ireland, Israel, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden, and the United States. The children’s BMIs were based on self-reported heights and weights collected from surveys the children answered in school.
Children from the United States were the most likely to be overweight. Among 13-year-old boys in the U.S., 12.6 percent were overweight. Among 13-year-old girls, 10.8 percent were overweight. For U.S. 15 year olds, 13.9 percent of boys were overweight, and 15.1 percent of girls were overweight.