It's bad enough that two-thirds of American adults are considered to be overweight or obese, but there's something particularly alarming about the fact that one-third of American children are, too. Obesity puts children at risk for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and, well, a shorter life.

Part of the solution, of course, is getting sufficient exercise, but the challenge is often in the doing and in figuring out how much is enough. (Guidelines suggest at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity per day.) A new National Institutes of Health study suggests that brief intervals of exercise during otherwise sedentary periods (e.g., a school day) could offer sustained health benefits.

The researchers found that children who participated in three minutes of moderate-intensity walking every half-hour had lowered levels of blood glucose and insulin compared with children who remained seated for three hours.

The benefit was particularly acute after meals because physical activity helps muscles clear sugar from the bloodstream, reducing the body's need to produce insulin. More research is needed, but the scientists said little exercise breaks throughout the school day may be part of an effective strategy to keep kids slimmer and healthier.

Get Me That, Stat!

Using a cellphone — even if it's hands-free — while driving increases the risk of being involved in a car crash fourfold, according to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The risk rises dramatically for drivers who simultaneously text; it's eight to 16 times worse.

Number Cruncher

A grilled cheese sandwich from Outback Steakhouse's kids menu contains 394 calories, 227 from fat. It has 25.2 grams of total fat, or 39 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.

It also contains 66 milligrams of cholesterol (22 percent), 1,133 milligrams of sodium (47 percent), 29.3 grams of total carbohydrates (10 percent), 1.5 grams of dietary fiber (6 percent) and 12.9 grams of protein.

Doc Talk

Gastric lavage: irrigation of the stomach to remove ingested toxins before they enter the bloodstream. It's more commonly known as stomach pumping.

Never Say Diet

The Major League Eating record for huevos rancheros is 7.75 pounds in 10 minutes, held by Patrick Bertoletti. Vaya con indigestion, Senor Bertoletti.

Observation

"The operation was a complete success, but the patient died of something else." — English humorist John Chiene

Medical History

This week in 1884, cocaine was first used as a local anesthetic to immobilize a patient's eye for surgery by Karl Koller. His success initiated the modern era of local anesthesia, with cocaine quickly adopted for nose and throat surgeries and in dentistry. Subsequently, it was found that high doses or repeated use of cocaine in eye surgeries caused erosion of the cornea, and the drug was replaced by less toxic local anesthetics, such as tetracaine and proparacaine.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.