Childhood Obesity – Is It Really Out Of Hand?

Obesity is a common problem among a lot of the world's adults. However, the past several years since the turn of the millennium have seen the rise of a new problem that is rapidly growing into proportions that can be compared to an epidemic. That problem is child obesity.

While people have always picked on fat kids as the "odd man out", these days the number of children who are suffering from obesity are increasing worldwide. There are many reasons for this, chief among them the large number of junk food and fast food globally available which are high in calories but low in actual nutritional value. Kids who gorge on cheese burgers and fries constantly at school often wind up with weight problems, for example. Added to this factor is the busy lifestyle of most modern day adults, so they are unable to supervise their children and make sure that they are eating properly.


Is Children Obesity Only Happening In The Richer Countries?

Most people who HAVE heard about this problem usually think that it is restricted to richer countries, and that third world countries have little or no problem with obesity. Again, they are wrong. Granted, the tendency of children to be obese is higher in fully industrialized nations, but even in third world countries the number of children suffering obesity has been shown to be over double the number of ones suffering from malnutrition.

As a basic benchmark, studies conducted in the United States by world health officials showed that 15 to 25 percent of the children in various stats were suffering from obesity. This makes it an average of 20% or one in every 5 kids. Of that 20% average, one third were already starting to exhibit early symptoms of obesity related diseases normally found only in middle aged adults, like diabetes, excess fat in the blood stream, and heart problems. Studies in some European countries likewise yielded similar results.

A good percentage of Asian children also suffer from obesity, though at a smaller 10 to 15 percent average. This is believed to be because of the general lifestyle in those countries, as well as the increased heat and humidity of the tropical climates. Questioning these obese children regarding their dietary intake showed that they mostly subsisted on western-based fast food, as well as being fond of snacks like ice cream and potato chips. The children who were not suffering from obesity usually followed whatever local diets were available, which varied widely from country to country in Asia.

Even impoverished parts of the globe like South America and Africa have their share of obese children. However, what surprised a special World Health Organization taskforce set to monitor children's obesity was that the number of children in third world countries who suffered obesity was actually double that of children suffering malnutrition; 6% were obese as compared to only 3% malnourished.

The blame for this seems to be a predilection of those same countries to feed kids - something which is a worthwhile goal. However, most parents and social workers in those areas placed more emphasis on volume of food and neglected the quality of nutrition given by what they were feeding the kids. Granted, it's better than starving, but the end result was that a number of children wound up getting fed diets which were high in calories but low in actual nutritional value.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the studies was from Chile, Mexico, and some Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Israel. The figures of child obesity in these countries showed that anything from an average of 25 to 33% of children was suffering from obesity. Note, however, that obesity is defined not simply as being FAT, but having unhealthily high percentages of fat compared to muscle tissue.

Some of the children diagnosed looked to be the right weight for their age! The reasons for this were again due to diets in those countries. Food in those countries is heavily buried in spices, as well as using fatty, high cholesterol meat. In the US, Europe, and Asia, health awareness among adults leads them to avoid these foods, yet in these countries the children were actually weaned on them, giving their children the highest percentage of child obesity on the globe.

The irony of this last part is not lost on the World Health Organization, who now acknowledges that children globally should start learning to watch what they eat. Various drives are being planned to emphasize not simply the feeding and care of children, but ensuring their health through proper diets and nutrition.

By: Barry J McDonald

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