The new plans are a part of the Health and Social Care Bill which was introduced to Parliament on November 15th and is expected to be approved by September next year.
Children starting school at 4-5 years of age and year 6 pupils aged 10-11 will be weighed and have their height measured in order to monitor their health.
The results of the checks known as the National Child Measurement Programme, will then be sent to each child's parents as well as advice on what is best for their child's health.
Parents however will be allowed choose to opt out of the scheme, run by primary care trusts, which along with the National Health Service (NHS) provides services to primary schools.
The government Health Minister Ben Bradshaw says the legislation is not about telling parents what do, or lecturing them on how to raise their children, it is a way of supporting families in being healthy.
Bradshaw says giving parents clear information about their child's weight is an important way of engaging with families, and prompting a conversation about healthy lifestyles and weight issues within the home.
According to the government's Department of Health, 18 per cent of boys and 18 per cent of girls aged between 2 and 15 in England were classified obese in 2005 and tackling obesity is a top priority for the government.
Obesity seriously raises the risk of diabetes and heart disease and the government says the change is part of their commitment to make the NHS a service that prevents ill health, as well as treating it - a 'well being service, rather than a sickness service'.
The government has stopped short of making the National Child Measurement Programme introduced last year for five and 11-year-olds, compulsory.
Figures from last year showed that 538,400 children in both years were measured - about 48% of those eligible.
The Association of Public Health Observatories said the results had to be treated with "considerable caution" as there was evidence to suggest higher rates of opting out among heavier children.
The National Obesity Forum says the idea is good but parents may need a chart so they can plot the measurements in the future and keep track of how their child is progressing.
The findings further tie together the 24-hour cycle of the body with metabolic function. Circadian rhythms are our sleep-wake cycle and metabolism is how we process food, so it makes sense that there would be biological cross-talk between the body's 24-hour rhythm and metabolic function, says Lazar. Indeed, scientists already recognize that getting too much or too little sleep increases the risk of diabetes. The newly discovered circadian/metabolic link could be the focus of a new generation of diabetes treatments.
The Penn group worked with scientists at GlaxoSmithKline, who demonstrated that the Rev-erb protein can physically bind to heme in the test tube. The Penn scientists then found that heme, by regulating the activity of Rev-erb, reduces the amount of glucose produced by liver cells.
What's exciting about this is that it puts heme in a central role in the metabolic regulation of the cell, says Lazar. Not only is it a key component in making energy, but also in the pathway for turning off glucose production. Excessive glucose production by the liver is a major cause of high blood sugar in diabetes.
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