Low vitamin D linked to chubbier kids

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Children deficient in vitamin D gain weight more rapidly than children who get enough of the sunshine vitamin, U.S. researchers say.

"We found that the kids with the lowest vitamin D levels at the beginning tended to gain weight faster than the kids with higher levels," Eduardo Villamor of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who began the study while at Harvard, says in a statement.

Villamor and colleagues started measuring blood levels of vitamin D in a group of 479 school children ages 5-12 in Bogota, Colombia, in 2006.

The researchers also measured three body fat indicators: body mass index, waist circumference and subscapular-to-triceps skin fold ratio.

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggests low vitamin D status may put children across the globe at risk of obesity -- even in subtropical areas such as Colombia where sun and vitamin D may seem plentiful.

However, Villamor says there could be many reasons people in subtropical climates may not get enough sun exposure and notes previous studies show possible vitamin D deficiency in other subtropical areas, including Brazil and Costa Rica.