Childhood Obesity
Children Are Getting Fatter, Faster Than We Can Say, 'Cheeseburger'
Who's to blame for the rising numbers of overweight children; genetics, technology, society, fast food? How about looking at ourselves and make the right changes instead?
Children are getting fatter much faster than we can say, “… triple quarter-pounder with cheese ...” By the year 2020, one in two Australian children will be overweight . It is estimated that 30% of our children are overweight or obese now.
What is Childhood Obesity?
Childhood obesity is a ‘serious chronic medical condition which is associated with a wide range of debilitating and life threatening conditions’ states the NSW Department of Health. Non-insulin dependent diabetes, heart disease, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension and orthopaedic complications are just some of the medical conditions linked to childhood obesity. There is a high chance of childhood obesity persisting into adulthood. Dr Wiliam Dietz of The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention in the US, expresses his concerns over peer relationships and social activities having a detrimental impact on an overweight child’s psyche due to the stigma attached to being fat.
What Causes Childhood Obesity?
The causes of childhood obesity centre around an ‘imbalance between energy obtained from food and energy expended during basal metabolic rate and physical activity’ (ERIC Digest, Ed 328556, US 1990). Although it is easy to point a finger at the numerous golden arches along the road, the cause of childhood obesity is not as straightforward. The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy maintains that since only 33% of obesity cases are genetically influenced, the main causal factors are environmental.
1.Genetics
“Genetics permits a person to become obese, but environment determines if a person becomes obese.” Dr Michael Goran, University of Alabama Some children are predisposed to weight gain because of their genetic composition. Children of overweight parents have a higher risk of becoming obese themselves. Aside from the hereditary factor, eating and exercise habits play an important part in these children’s lives. Often they eat whatever is served by their overweight parents and model their physical inertia after their parents’. Hypothyroidism is an example of a physiological deficit where an inactive thyroid gland promotes lethargy and slows down metabolism thus rendering the person susceptible to rapid weight gain.
2.Lifestyle
Lifestyle in suburban Australia has changed. Due to higher standards of living, both parents are compelled to work in order to sustain a comfortable family life. Technological advancements have made it possible to get things done simply by exercising our fingers.
Our kids have become a ‘generation of cocooned children’ due to our hyperbolic fear of ‘stranger danger’ in relation to child sexual abuse, observes Karen Quist in her article, ‘Where have all the children gone?’(May 2005 issue of Sydney’s Child).
40% of children between the ages of 5 and 12 allegedly spent an average of two hours or more on television or videos per day. 15% supposedly spent an average of an hour or more per day playing computer games . After a hard day’s work, it is unsurprising that we, weary parents and carers would grudgingly allow our children to watch television, play games on the Xbox and surf the internet. Aside from being too tired to go to the park and run around with the kids, it means they can safely play in the house under our supervision without a lurking fear of ‘stranger danger’.
Most household have cars so children are more likely to be driven to school and other activities instead of walking the extra mile. When I was a little girl, I used to run around in the streets or nearby parks with other kids in the neighbourhood. Today, children spend more time sitting around with their eyes glued to plasma screens. As each family unit shrinks and we become overly wary of strangers in the neighbourhood, our sense of community significantly depletes.
3.Fast food
Food-on-the-go is the way to go when time is of the essence. Fast food joints have proliferated to keep up with our fast-paced lives. Microwaveable ready-made meals are packing the supermarket freezers. Food companies are cunningly enticing our children with vibrant advertisements featuring the latest superhero or visually attractive low-fat fad food (which usually has high sugar content) and benevolently bribing them with toys for every purchase of food. Snacking, especially on energy-dense food (chocolates, soft drinks, chips, pizza) has also become a favourite accompaniment to television worship.
4.Societal pressures
Our society has somewhat adopted a double standard when it comes to weight issues. We tend to perceive chubby babies and toddlers as being cute and adorable more so than slimmer ones. Mothers of slimmer babies are subjected to interrogations by mothers-in-law and great-aunts who ‘tut-tutted’ in disapproval at a perfectly normal baby who is not stereotypically cute.
Then there are the fierce but covert competitions between mums in mothers’ groups about whose baby is growing faster, bigger, eating very well, eating a lot, getting chubby and so on. There is tremendous pressure on these mums to keep up with the competition and live up to expectations that some over compensate by over feeding their children.
However as children become teenagers, they are constantly assailed by the media’s view of the ideal body shape – skinny and toned. ‘Baby fat’ that is carried over into adolescence is no longer regarded as cute.
What Can We Do?
Substantial evidence suggests that children’s eating and exercise habits are easier to modulate than adults’ (Wolf, Cohen, Rosenfeld, 1985). As carers and parents we have a responsibility to lead our children by example. By equipping ourselves with adequate knowledge about good nutrition and exercise, we will be able to impart that knowledge to our kids. As a society, we are partly to blame for presenting a distorted body image of what is acceptable and what is not to our kids. Double standards create confusion. We know there is no ‘ideal’ body shape. There is however an ideal way of life that we can instil in our children - one that involves a mix of regular exercise, balanced nutrition and a passion for living that will yield a healthy body, mind and soul. We can’t change our genes but we can modify our attitudes and culture that are espousing a generation of fat children. Prevention is definitely easier than cure in this instance.
