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From: MayoClinic.com
Blame it on genetics. Blame it on the lack of physical education at school. Blame it on the Internet.
In the last 20 years, the number of obese children in the United States has doubled to one in five children. This is the most dramatic increase of obesity in history.
But the issue isn't about blame. It's about a preventable disease that's at an all-time high in this country for children and adults. The issue of childhood obesity starts with prevention — empowering children to be in control of their bodies and helping parents and grandparents like you make the right decisions with regard to nutrition and exercise.
How do kids become obese?
Regardless of age, you gain excess weight when the amount of calories coming in equals more than the amount of calories burned. But obesity is not that simple. Obesity is a complex disease. Weight gain is affected by a variety of factors in addition to caloric intake.
Such factors may include:
Genetics. Children with overweight parents are more likely to be overweight.
Metabolism. A fast metabolism burns calories quicker than a slow metabolism. Exercise is the main factor that affects metabolism. Although rare, medical conditions you have and medications that you take also may cause changes. To some extent, how much you eat, when you eat and when you skip meals also may affect your metabolism.
Environment. Genetics and metabolism often set the groundwork for a person to become obese, and then environment is the determining factor. Some examples include:
* The "clean your plate" mentality, which can encourage kids to eat more than necessary.
* Only 25 percent of school-aged children take physical education courses, meaning that fewer and fewer kids exercise during the school day.
* Physically inactive families also contribute to developing an inactive lifestyle. Kids don't have a lot of good fitness-minded role models — less than 50 percent of Americans exercise 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. It's hard to be motivated without inspiration.
Physical and emotional risks
Obesity in children can lead to medical complications including:
Adding to the issue, treatments for many of these issues may contribute to weight gain or restrict activity such that obesity worsens. Therefore, early intervention is critical to prevent these complications. To successfully help obese children lose weight and stay healthy, fully assess the child's lifestyle relative to eating, activity, inactivity, and caretaker or parent interaction. A child's emotions also are key in successfully treating obesity.
Depression is the most common emotional effect of obesity in kids. Several studies indicate that prejudice against obese people starts as early as 3 to 5 years old. This means before obese kids reach kindergarten, they're often called names, have difficulty making friends, are excluded from activities and are picked last for teams. Such an environment of rejection typically adds to weight gain because it discourages active involvement in athletics and encourages alone-time activities, such as watching television, playing video games or using the Internet.
To help reverse this cycle, it's key to help kids make changes that will be both beneficial and sustainable. Sometimes those changes involve changing what they eat, how much they eat or who they eat with. Other times those changes have nothing to do with food. Kids are strongly affected by their environment, so it may be important to concentrate on how they spend their time — encourage more activity time and less passive time in front of the TV or computer.
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