Children Health | Children Care

Health professionals are united in their belief that obesity in children causes lifetime health problems. The question is, how to combat this rising tide of childhood obesity in the twenty-first century.

Genetics may play a role in childhood obesity but it’s more often a case of poor eating habits being inadvertently passed down from parent to child through a lack of dietary understanding, financial issues and general shared behavior patterns. It’s not uncommon to see several members of the same family all being overweight.

When a shared poor quality dietary regime results in producing an overweight family it often masks the childhood obesity issues due to the “mini-me” syndrome where the kids are simply seen as “a chip off the old block” or “big like his father”. When this situation exists and there is no parental guidance available it is almost inevitable that the problem will be perpetuated.

As well as the obvious issues of being overweight through excess calorie intake, there is an even more sinister underlying problem of the long-term health of the child as he or she continues to eat the fat forming food. A number of diet related chronic complaints are now manifesting themselves much earlier in life than was previously seen. Unless these poor diet issues are addressed it is inevitable that peoples’ quality of life and life expectancy itself will continue to diminish.

Lifestyle changes play a significant role in the growth of this obesity epidemic, with children preferring to play a virtual sport from the confines of their own home rather than venturing out into real world activities that just might burn some fat.

Physical activity is no longer required to carry out many tasks, as was once the case. In the home, school and workplace, technology has reduced physical activity to a minimum. This progressive reduction in muscle power required to carry out almost any daily task has, in effect, reduced our daily calorie intake requirements dramatically over the last few decades. If this trend continues it surely will only magnify the obesity problem.

At the same time as physical activities have diminished, calorie intake has increased, largely through the aggressive marketing of convenience foods and take-out meals, many of which are high in bad fats, sugar, salt and refined carbohydrate.

If parents care about their offspring it’s time to take stock and address these issues before those children develop the early onset of chronic illnesses such as: