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Can a genetic test identify newborns at risk of becoming severely obese by middle age? Researchers say they have come up with one, and that it might allow interventions in childhood to avoid that fate. The test examines more than 2 million spots in a person's genetic code, seeking variants that individually nudge a person's obesity risk up by a tiny amount. The researchers drew on previously published data about those variants to create a risk score. (Ritter, 4/18)

The study subjects had been thin all their lives, and not because they had unusual metabolisms. They just did not care much about food. They never ate enormous amounts, never obsessed on the next meal. Now, a group of researchers in Britain may have found the reason. The people carry a genetic alteration that mutes appetite. It also greatly reduces their chances of getting diabetes or heart disease. (Kolata, 4/18)

The report shows that inside a person’s genome, more than 2 million variations contribute to a “scorecard” that can quantify a person’s potential to become obese. Although the researchers don’t know what each variation does, or how each mutation interacts with another, the team was able to identify a nearly 30-pound difference between people with the highest scores and the lowest. (Stein, 4/18)

A polygenic risk score is a mathematical 51��Ƶ that sums up the cumulative effect of many different gene variants that are believed to play a role in the risk of a disease or condition. “Obesity risk from genes can now be distilled into a single number for each person,” said Sekar Kathiresan, senior author of the study and a geneticist and cardiologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It’s like measuring somebody’s cholesterol.” (McKay, 4/18)

The researchers started with a list of 2.1 million common genetic variants and used computer algorithms to derive several possible scores that each gauged obesity risk a little bit differently. They picked the best score by seeing how they fared with data from the U.K. Biobank, a government-backed effort in the United Kingdom to gather genetic information. And when they tested out the winner? The genetic variation was striking. “What this really means is 10% of the population has inherited a genetic factor that makes them 20-30 pounds heavier,” Kathiresan said. (Robbins, 4/18)

Does sugar make kids hyper? Maybe. "If you look at the peer-reviewed evidence, we cannot say sugar absolutely makes kids hyper; however, you can't discount that sugar may have a slight effect" on behavior, said Kristi L. King, senior pediatric dietitian at Texas Children's Hospital and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. (Drayer, 4/18)

Kaiser Health News: Liver Illness Strikes Latino Children Like A ‘Silent Tsunami’

Saira Diaz uses her fingers to count the establishments selling fast food and sweets near the South Los Angeles home she shares with her parents and 13-year-old son. “There’s one, two, three, four, five fast-food restaurants,” she says. “And a little mom and pop store that sells snacks and sodas and candy.” In that low-income, predominantly Latino neighborhood, it’s pretty hard for a kid to avoid sugar. Last year, doctors at St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, a nonprofit community clinic seven blocks away, became alarmed by the rising weight of Diaz’s son, Adrian Mejia. They persuaded him to join an intervention study run by the University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) that weans participants off sugar in an effort to reduce the rate of obesity and diabetes among children. (Waters, 4/19)