MU researcher links childhood obesity, math skills

Seems like the press dumbed down this study. Either that, or this research seems pretty lame for a tenured professor.

Obese in kindergarten, you might not play as much and/or get socially outcast, leading to emotional stress and perhaps general disinterest in being around other kids, especially at school, around whom you feel excluded. You withdraw socially and perhaps academically. Math skills among others suffer.

But then, no offense, but you aren't a researcher at a university.

Because that's what the researcher decided to look at, and decided that obesity was the independent variable. And a primary variable. "Link" is such a weasel word.

It's like saying education and life expectancy are linked. Yeah, they're linked. Higher education usually means having better understanding of behaviors and health consequences and acting on that understanding. More education usually means higher income, which allows better quality of life and access to medical care. Higher income jobs are by and large less risky. More education usually has behind it a higher SES in childhood because of higher SES parents, with all the consequences of a healthier childhood.

Yeah, education and life expectancy are linked. But a direct linkage between "I have more information in my head" and "I will live longer" is lacking.

Poor math skills and obesity are linked. The trick is moving from correlation to some kind of primary factor that might indicate causation.

i knew i was right. thank you for the confirmation. i am gonna be all over their ass next school year.

Wouldn't it be more likely that poor early math skills (like the ability to compare quantities) are a contributing factor to obesity?