South Dakota State University research shows that a child with leaner body mass, or muscle, builds bigger bones than a child who weighs the same but has a greater percentage of fat.
"We were interested in the relative influence of lean mass, which is muscle, versus fat mass on how bone grows as kids grow," said Howard Wey, an associate professor in SDSU's College of Nursing. Wey and professor Bonny Specker, director and chair of the Ethel Austin Martin Program in Human Nutrition at SDSU, are continuing to study the issue.
They have analyzed data Specker and her team have assembled by taking bone and body composition measurements of rural Hutterite children in South Dakota.
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