Diets high in fat and calories and low in calcium, may not only be putting African-American children at risk for obesity, but can make them prone to a common bone disease associated with adults at mid-life. If children and adolescents don't receive adequate amounts of calcium when their bones are still forming, the chances of them getting osteoporosis, a debilitating bone disease, not only increases but cannot be reversed, warns Dr. Yvonne Bronner, a nutritionist and director of the Public Health Program at Morgan State University in Baltimore. While calcium alone does not prevent or cure osteoporosis, it plays an important role in maintaining bone, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. By the time children reach mid-life and begin to experience calcium loss associated with growing older--past menopause for women and in the 50s for men--they will already be at a deficit, Bronner says. She served as a panelist and scholar on a new Consensus Report issued in December by the National Osteoporosis Foundation. This document examines Bronner's thoughts on osteoporosis and childhood obesity.