Child Obesity has been receiving a lot of media attention. And rightly so. In a country where for every 3 adults 2 are over-weight we need to pay attention towards the health of the children too! After all, children learn what they see and they often imitate their parents, elders and friends.
Chances of them learning about living healthy from their family is very slim where an exception can be a family of professional athletes. But that’s it!
Recent studies indicate that around 16% of children between 6 and 19 years are obese. Growing at an extremely alarming rate 15% more are at the risk of becoming over-weight. If you’re in a snake-oil weight-loss industry then you need to celebrate but if you have kids between 6 and 19 in your household and you seriously believe that they’re NOT healthy then you need to pay attention.
Reasons of Child Obesity
Children need physical activity. They need to go out and play. Kids must move their body, get tired, sweaty and full of dirt. But unfortunately, the current American lifestyle rarely permits them to lose weight. All they’re left with is a lot of burden – of studies, family and relationships. Healthy food is disappering from their plates. They’re forgetting that eating breakfast can work wonders for them in losing weight.
National guidelines recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of physical activity – that’s just 2 hours and 30 minutes! Even if your child considers going to a health gym for 5 days in a week it’ll be just 30 minutes that he needs to invest for his healthy future.
Another major reason for the increasing child obesity trend is fast food. Fast foods have done more harm to America with regards to health than any other thing. It is estimated that fast foods result in an extra 6 pounds of weight gain in children.
Genetics can also play an important role in child obesity. Kids of obese parents inherit their obesity. Socioeconomics also plays a key role. While for some societies like Afro-American the obesity increased with increase in better socioeconomic conditions. The opposite is also true for White girl teens who showed a loss of weight as the socioeconomic conditions improved.
Sedentary lifestyles, using cars as the only mode of transportation, peer pressure are some reasons that add to the problem.
Effects of Child Obesity
We’ve already seen the causes of Childhood Obesity. While some causes are beyond our control we need to remember that every once in a while we see people completely changing their lives by reducing weight in adverse physical conditions. Kids making news by losing 100 lbs is not very unusual and can be done through a strong will!
If not checked, the effects of Child Obesity can be long-lasting, often lasting lifelong with the obese victim.
Several studies link low self-esteem to child obesity. Even when these kids grow up and live a successful life, they somewhere seem to have a low self-view about themselves. They often hate public speaking, taking part in social sports or even taking part in social parties.
Chances of getting a coronary heart disease increases several folds even with a found pounds of weight gain as a child.
“If you’re trying to prevent this problem, then you want to establish good food habits early. You want to keep children away from the food industry messages to eat unhealthy food. It could be that earlier years will be the best time to begin that education,” says Dr. Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.
Obese children make a world of their own. These kids often have too much of their own burden that they better stay away from getting some more of it by unkindly people who try to humiliate them rather then help them. Remember, obesity is in itself a punishment and if you make the child’s life any more miserable then you’re contributing in ruining that kid’s life.
Its high time that parents dismissed the obesity with baby-fat. Instead, they need to prove as role models making healthy choices everytime. Of course, they can treat themselves every once in a while but it is solely upto you!
If you know of any over-weight kid and want to share their problems, challenges then please do so in comments below!
