Childhood Obesity And The Factors Which Lead To Children Being Obese

With obesity rates continuing to climb in the West it is perhaps no surprise that we are seeing a rising number of overweight children. But exactly what is it that produces child obesity?

The answer is that there is no single cause of childhood obesity and there are a number of different things that lead to obesity in our children.

For instance, it is usually the case that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will be overweight or obese and this suggests that there could well be an inherited or genetic component to obesity. However, although this is currently being studied, no clear genetic link has so far been found and it is thought much more likely that it is the eating habits of the family which cause obesity rather than genetics.

In the past few years there has been a considerable change in eating habits with fast food restaurants springing up on every corner, junk food available everywhere and our supermarket shelves bulging with so-called 'convenience' foods that are usually extremely high in sugar. The days when we enjoyed home cooking are far behind us in the majority of homes and have been replaced by microwave meals or take-away food. Indeed, many parents are now choosing to take their children to fast food restaurants rather than to cook a meal at home not only because it is simpler than cooking but also because they do not have to wash up!

We have also experienced a very marked fall in activity levels for many groups of children, spurred on in no small degree by the advent of video games consoles, home computers and now the ubiquitous mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, as activity levels have fallen so our children have lost their normal ability to burn up the calories gained from eating an increasing amount of fast food.

Magazine, television, the Internet and other forms of media also play an important role as they all but dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and candy manufacturers are quick to jump onto this bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity which the media provides. A lot of people would argue that commercials have done more to encourage the increase in childhood obesity that almost anything else in the past few years.

There are also several social factors at play in today's world and many children nowadays simply eat out of boredom. Also, they will turn to food if they find themselves angry, stressed, depressed or anxious.

Today a great deal of medical research is being directed towards the causes of childhood obesity and its treatment and most of this research is aimed at solving the problem through diet and exercise once confronted with an obese child. However, with childhood obesity continuing to rise at such a frightening rate, perhaps it is now time to tackle the roots of childhood obesity and to stop our children from getting obese in the first place.

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