What Causes Childhood Obesity?
Identifying the childhood obesity causes is a very important step in trying to prevent more and more children becoming obese. Children obesity is one of the greatest public health concerns since the condition affects the child’s health and wellbeing. It is even more important to determine the causes of obesity since it is difficult to diagnose. Obesity diagnosis is usually established based on the BMI.
The most common causes of childhood obesity in America are the calorie rich diets, the sedentary lifestyles, the home environment or sometimes genetics and other diseases. In most of the cases, obesity is cause not by only one factor but by more factors combined and this is what makes it more difficult to treat.
Some blame the parents for not being able to instilling a proper eating habit for their children and some claim that the school systems do not provide enough healthy food choices in their cafeterias. Even if it still is a great subject of debate, the specialists do not agree yet on what causes childhood obesity.
Most of the specialists tend to believe that the rich calorie foods and drinks have a great role to play in this issue. Several studies have proven that especially the calorie-dense soft drinks contribute in a major way to excess weight in children. One of these studies followed 30 children who were attending a summer camp and concluded that children tend to choose whatever has a better taste (sugar drinks in the specific case) over what is healthier (milk).
On the other hand, a sedentary lifestyle can be one of the other children obesity causes. In the United States most of the children are tempted to sit and watch TV, play computer games or surf the Internet in the detriment of practicing a sport or just do some physical activity. What is even worse is that most of these children are also consuming unhealthy snacks while watching TV and surfing the Internet. The parents could somehow interfere in their children’s activity but sometimes it is almost impossible due to their busy jobs.
Preventing children obesity is not easy but it is easier than treating it. It may seem that losing few pounds is not so difficult when it comes to children but in reality they get used to their unhealthy dietary habits and they will tend to gain and gain more pounds instead of losing them. Any parent should be aware of his child eating habits and try to correct them if needed. Controlling the amount of time that a child watches TV, surfs the Internet or plays computer games as well as encouraging physical activity may be a first step in removing childhood obesity causes.
It is brought to our attention that children obesity is a worrying fact in today’s society. The statistics show that worldwide 10% of children are obese, whilst in the United States the rate of overweight and obese children has reached 32%. Also, in the United States the rate of obesity in children has almost tripled between 1980 and 2000. However, in many states there have been certain measures taken to remove childhood obesity causes which have lead to stopping the rates climbing.