Obesity is ‘crisis’ in children, says expert
(Credit: Gregg O'Connell. Some rights reserved.)
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, 16 percent of U.S. children (over 9 million) between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight or obese.
Christina Economos: I think we have an obesity crisis, particuarly with children. And people need to see this as a tragedy in this country.
Christina Economos, who studies childhood obsesity at Tufts University, says the problem is getting worse. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 9 million U.S. children aged 9 – 16 are overweight or obese. That’s more than triple the number of three decades ago.
Christina Economos: If we let obesity go unchecked, there are mathematical models showing that half of children will be overweight in the next 30-40 years. Two-thirds of adults are actually overweight or obese. That will rise. We’ll have more health care costs. We’ll have a society that’s not well, not productive, and most importantly, not happy.
Economos and her colleagues have been studying how the external factors of environment and culture contribute to childhood obesity. They found that support from schools and communities can keep children from unnecessary weight gain.
Christina Economos: And we need to look way beyond how individuals behave, and we need to stop blaming genetics. But really look at our environment, and our policies, and our society, and what we value. Because cultural norms take a long time to become established, and they’re going to take a long time to actually shift as well.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 percent of U.S. children (over 9 million) between the ages of 6 and 19 are overweight or obese. Meanwhile, over the past three decades, the childhood obesity ratete has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. This information can be found in a study called Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, 1999-2002
Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults, according to this study. If one or more parent is overweight or obese, the chance increases to 80 percent, according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Christina Economos on preventing childhood obesity
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I have read that the caloric intake of kids is substantially the same as it was in 1950. I imagine there is a lot more sugar and simple carbohydrates now. That will cause insulin spikes and could definitely have the effect of causing lipid deposition.
That said, the problem is lack of activity. And that, my friends, is the fault of parents. Our culture is lazy. Parents put kids in front of a TV or a video game and let the machine babysit them instead of taking them outside. Lazy parents are creating lazy, fat kids. In many schools, phys ed is gone or so severely reduced as to no longer be beneficial.
I want you folks to look at the calories in a candy bar. Then get on a treadmill and walk briskly till you burn the worthless calories in that bar. You will be there a while. If you consume more than you burn, you store it. The human body is very efficient that way.
There are no government programs that can fix this “problem”. If you are concerned about your kids obesity, YOU must fix their diet and force physical activity on the little darlings. There will be another benefit to the kids: laziness is learned as is indutriousness. Teach the wee ones that there are chores that must be done, by them, before they eat, play or do their homework. This will not only help to get the lard out, but will teach them proper and necessary priorities.
Bottom line is, it is up to you, the individual, to decide how your kids will live. It ain’t the government’s responsibility. It ain’t the school’s responsibility. They are your kids. They are your responsibility.
Mr. Napier,
You are right on the money! As a former elementary school teacher of first and second graders for over thirty years, I have observed many of these changes taken place. My colleagues and I would teach the importance of good nutrition and healthy snacks in order to try to eliminate cookies, potato chips and cheese puffs for a 10:00 healthy snack. Many parents would just send something fast and convenient without taking good nutrition into account. Lots of time was spent educating the student so they would then ask their parents for the ‘healthy snacks”. This was very effective. But as teachers we would always ask “What is the parent thinking?”
Before snack each morning, I would take the students on a quick run. As the years went on, young students would actually ask“Do I have to?”. But after doing it on a regular basis, the same students would ask,“When are we going for our run?” At sharing time, students would want to share stories of the many hours spent on a weekend playing video games…some would actually ask to go to the nurse on Mondays because their fingers hurt so much after using the game controllers for so many hours. In my own neighborhood which has many children and a beautiful playground, it is rare to see children playing outside on a nice sunny day or building a snowman on their front lawn on a gorgeous snowy day. ( There use to be lots!) Children do enjoy nutritious food, running and playing outside. They also love to help out with chores at home. As parents, we are their models. They need our guidance. That is where the real change needs to begin.
Both of the above comments bring up important points. Obesity is seen as an individual problem, but in the case of children, they have very little control over their environment. The community support that Economos’ study created (that ‘Pat’ enforced in her own classroom) shows that obesity really goes beyond the individual. Often, the parents have grown up with the same negative environmental factors (fast food availability, little incentive for exercise) and don’t know how or why to change what has become a way of life.
At first I was skeptical when I heard that obesity was being treated as a disease, or an epidemic. But it truly is. It’s like how bacteria spreads through poor sanitation – we’re living in an environment that complicates the simple suggestion of good diet and exercise. A good diet costs money and exercise takes free time. Many people don’t have these luxuries.
That’s why it takes programs to spread the news of cheap, healthy eating, and engineering physical activity back into our daily lives. And as unattractive as a the idea of a program to stop obesity from spreading might be, it’s far more appealing than staggering insurance costs from treating millions of diabetics.
The onus must be put back on the individual. “Programs” just provide a crutch to lean on. People are lazy by nature. If someone sets up a safety net, it will be used as a hammock. The answer is to end all programs and tell folks to “root hog or die”. It will take a generation or two, but the message will get through. If kids had to work rather than laying around and eating, the dynamics would change. Again, the onus must be on those responsible, the parents. No government program is going to do anything but cost money and breed more bureaucrats.
What you eat has a small affect on your weight. In Ukraine people eat bacon and patatoes their whole life it doesnt have 16% off its kids overweight. It is all in the things you do. You may say some people have faster metabolisms but who dod you think gave you your metabolisms. Your parents ofcourse. Ive never seen healthy parents with fat children. So do more push ups. You cant lose weight easily. The only thing that helps is excercise.
“Programs” (televised that is) are whats causing obesity. Humans are spending entirely too much time sitting and staring at television. The ease with which we obtain our needs has left us with too much time to conduct “leisurely” activity. Like drones, we plant ourselves in front tv’s and snack on unhealthy food. Feeding your children crap food and utilizing televisions hypnotic qualities to baby sit them is child abuse. Childhood obesity is nobodies fault but the parents.Do we need programs? For the childrens sake, we need something. But first you have to convince the parents who caused their child’s obesity to change their ways – Unlikely.
hey i was just wanting to ask you what causes obesity? i think people are spending to much time watching talevision they need to stop because that is there biggest problem
hey i was just wanting to ask you what causes obesity? i think people are spending to much time watching talevision they need to stop because that is there biggest problem
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In my opinion,to avoid becoming obesity,we should form a good habit,eating low calory and low fat food,doing exercise regularly as well.
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Yes, lack of physical activity is a paramount concern. With TV beaming kid’s shows 24/7 and the keeping of school students inside over lunchtime there is not nearly the opportunities for physical activities like I had when I was young. The bicycle has been relegated to the toybox as well. It was my primary means of transport until I got my drivers license and I put many hundreds of miles on it. Add to this the fact that healthy food costs more than a hamburger and fries and the lethal combination begins to destroy the fitness factor.
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