Cholesterol Testing for Children

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the American Academy of Pediatrics have come out with the recommendations that the first cholesterol check should occur between ages 9 and 11 and the test should be repeated between ages 17 and 21.  Wow.  That is what it has come to?  We are unable to hold back the tide of obesity and now we are going to get kids on statins.  I see a massive controversy coming and I see a lot more money being spent on testing.  I am sure the labs around the country are salivating over this.  Instead of figuring out why our kids are so fat with high cholesterol and more diabetes we are instead doing more testing. 


The "guidelines seek to address lifestyle factors from birth with a recommendation that babies be breastfed, adding that after age 1, children can be given low-fat milk and after age 2 can be given fat-free milk".  Is that so?  I thought kids need fat for their brains. In fact, there is more and more evidence that the appropriate fat (even saturated fat) is not the issue causing obesity.  Read this article about skim milk versus whole milk. 


It seems to me that our whole grain and low fat recommendation has been an utter failure.  I have a 1% success rate in getting patients healthier on this diet.  Maybe, just maybe, carbs are the issue.   We may want to delve into that before we have every kid in this country on a statin.