(WKBW/ABC News) We already knew that exercise was one of the best weapons in the war on childhood obesity.
Now, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association
finds that just twenty minutes of exercise a day can help reduce a child's risk of type 2 diabetes -- one of the more feared results of obesity.
Researchers divided 222 overweight and obese children into three groups:
- a forty-minute exercise group
- a twenty-minute exercise group
- a control group of "usual physical activity"
They were bused to a gym for ten to fifteen weeks of exercise.
The study found that the 40-minute and 20-minute groups had reduced insulin resistance and improved fitness at about the same level.
Both groups reduced their overall fat, the 40-minute group by more than the 20-minute group, but the study shows that just 20 minutes of exercise a day leads to significant health improvements.
