Incidence of Child Obesity: Going, Going, Up

The incidence of child obesity is rising fiercely. There are approximately 30.3% of American children ages 6 to 11 years is overweight. While 15.3 % is already obese. It is also apparent that a child with at least one overweight or obese parent is likely to become the same.

Should you map the source of child obesity, it would originate from home and the immediate environment.  Children pick up habits and inherit traits from those around them. Some kids grow obese due to a genetic predisposition inherited from one or both parents. Some grow obese due to an entirely different cause: the couch potato lifestyle. Adding to the mayhem of the incidence of obesity is the reduction of physical activity. Because kids nowadays have technology as entertainment and hopefully a source of learning, they become subject to less physical exertion whether they intend to or not. Back then kids played out in the sun running climbing trees. Now they destroy armies of zombies or accomplish missions assigned by a CIA handler or hack other computers. Although parents do not intend for their kids to sit all day watching the television or playing a computer game until their eyes pop-out, parents sometimes have no control being unable to be with their child 24/7. The prevalence of this lifestyle has a generation factor wherein kids grow addicted to such hobbies while trying to keep up with their peers. The incidence of child obesity is also brought by the most obvious causes: the fast-food, high-calorie and high-fat diet that the west is so fond of. Perhaps if kids were born into a fad for vegetables and fruits, obesity would not have been a growing health threat to the world. At this point, the incidence of child obesity has raised so due to the change in lifestyle brought about by technology and food sources. Notice that the incidence of child obesity is worse in developed countries where food is abundant and technology is within a child’s grasp. However, the incidence of child obesity among developing countries is likely to follow suit if prevention of the same events is not undertaken.

Among the causes of obesity, there are the unfortunate underlying factors contributed by genetic disorders, illnesses, medications, specific diets due to certain illnesses. These cases vary among subjects whose obesity condition may or may not depend on the immediate environment but solely according to an existing medical condition.

Kids are also subject to unhealthy mental conditions and eating disorders. The two are packaged together that there is no definitive answer as to whether which caused the other.