Why Are So Many Children Suffering From Obesity Today?
Monday, October 13th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed
As obesity rates continue to rise in many Western countries it is perhaps no surprise that we are seeing an increasing number of overweight and obese children. Of course the effects of childhood obesity are all too obvious, but just what is it that causes obesity in children?
As is frequently the case there is no single cause of childhood obesity and there are a variety of factors which result in obesity in our children.
It is usually the case for instance that a child with overweight or obese parents will be overweight or obese and this suggests that there may be a genetic or inherited element to obesity. But, although this is an area that is currently being investigated, no clear genetic link has so far been found and it is thought much more likely that it is the eating habits in the family which lead to obesity rather than genetics.
We have witnessed a considerable shift in eating habits over recent years with fast food restaurants springing up on every street corner, junk food available just about everywhere and the shelves of our supermarkets bulging with ‘convenience’ foods that are usually very high in sugar. The days when we sat down to home cooking are a thing of the past in the majority of households and have been replaced by take-away food or microwave meals. Indeed, an increasing number of parents are now electing to take their children out for a pizza instead of cooking meals at home not simply because it is simpler than cooking a meal but also because it saves on the washing up!
Additionally, we have experienced a very significant fall in levels of activity for many groups of children, spurred on in no small measure by the arrival of video games, home computers and now the ubiquitous mobile phone. Of course, as activity levels have dropped so our children have also lost their god given ability to burn off the calories gained from eating more and more junk food.
Magazines, the Internet, television and other forms of media also play a part as they dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and confectionary manufacturers are not slow in jumping onto this particular bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity provided by the media. A lot of people would argue that commercials have done more to fuel the rise in childhood obesity than just about anything else in the past few years.
There are also several psychological factors at play in today’s world and many children today will simply eat as a result of boredom. Additionally, they will turn to food if they find themselves under stress, angry, anxious or depressed.
At the moment a great deal of research is being directed towards the cause of childhood obesity and its treatment and most of this is aimed at solving the problem using diet and exercise once confronted with an obese child. But, with child obesity continuing to rise at a disturbing rate, and with the obvious dangers of childhood obesity, perhaps it is now time to tackle the roots of childhood obesity and to prevent our children from getting obese in the first place.
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