BANE OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY
When people think of the health problems of children, they typically think of measles and influenza, and not cardiovascular disease or diabetes. Research has indicated that the seeds of these degenerative diseases are sown in infancy, childhood through adolescent years. And the root cause of this is obesity.
The incidence of childhood obesity is rising so rapidly that it has taken the shape of an epidemic, especially evident in nations where people live sedentary lifestyles and eat more convenience foods loaded with empty calories. Trends indicate that obesity rates in children are rising across gender lines, across the country and age, race, and educational levels.
Why are kids getting fatter?
It’s neither the genes that have suddenly changed in a single generation nor has the nutritional needs changed drastically in the past 20 years. What has changed, is the environment in which children are living today. Factors associated with obesity in kids are: Fast food and its super-sizing: It has become easier than ever to overeat at any time. Regular consumption of high-calorie foods, such as fast foods, cola beverages and happy meals that have contributed to weight gain. Snacks are packaged in bigger sizes and carry more calories per serving. ‘Super-sizing’ of fast-food meals poses the biggest threat to children’s health. Unhealthy beverages - Children have more than doubled their consumption of soft drinks and fruit beverages. Even pure fruit juice has come under scrutiny. If for 1-6-year-olds, fruit juice is a weighted trap then for slightly older kids, it's soft drinks. Fruit drinks are as bad as soda beverages in terms of calories or added sugar content.
Unhealthy fats - The fast food era has also ushered in the entry of unhealthy fats (saturated fats/trans fats) into our diets. Excessive consumption of these slowly creates an abnormal lipid profile in children.
The inactive child - Living in big cities means living in a paradise of energy conservation at the level of the individual. The percentage of children involved in physical education programmes is dropping and is replaced by sedentary activities, like, TV viewing, playing video games. The more the number of hours spent in screen time, the more likely, the kid is going to be obese. This promotes sedentary behaviour, requires no energy, plus reduces the metabolic rate. It is correlated with meal snacking and that too calorie-dense foods, which are heavily advertised on children’s programmes. Parents, due to their increasingly busy lives, get tempted to use video games or TV viewing as an alternative to babysitting.
Genetics and family environment - Genetics, only puts a child at risk but it is the environment in the house that poses a greater risk. Households, where eating out is a regular feature, kitchen shelves are stocked up with high-calorie foods, irregular sleeping hours are followed and physical activity is not encouraged, become the breeding ground for obesity. Can this epidemic be controlled? Who can reverse the trend? The next episode on childhood obesity deals with strategies to handle it.