Child Obesity: A Ticking Time Bomb

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Child obesity is predominantly caused by eating more than the daily recommended number of calories and not moving around enough to burn them. If it is not tackled appropriately this will rob the many nations’ of intelligent talented and potential leaders according to the Youth Engagement Guide.
Obesity is the accumulation of abnormal or excessive fat that will later on present risks in the child’s adult life. Paediatric obesity is one of the major lifestyle issues in modern society. It has tripled since the 1980’s due to the increasing sedentary lifestyle of children. According to a research study carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2010 a third of the worlds’ children and adolescents are overweight.
The UK Government is encouraging more methods of reducing childhood obesity. As reported by the University of Cambridge in an article, there have been many actions taken towards the changes in the make-up of school dinners and the availability of food snacks. The Scottish government endeavours to continue the promotion of balanced healthy and nutritious schools meals by continuing to assist schools to make dinners more appealing to school and there have been collaborations with local businesses to promote lower energy and less dense foods.
A research study conducted by Veughlers (2000), on students from schools and programs was put together based on healthy eating plans show lower levels of overweight and obese pupils. The results gathered from the study reflected that contributing factors were to do with consistent healthy eating and regular physical activity. Hence the cooperation of physical activity in schools is encouraged as positive results are produced in the future and there is a mass reduction of chronic...

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...nd exercise habits.
Childhood obesity remains a huge challenge for the nation. I believe that parents do play an important role in a young child’s upbringing. What the parent agrees to or refuses to when the child is an infant will either have positive or negative impact in the later life of their children.

References http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/302783/0094795.pdf http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0039/00392688.pdf http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009618/Junk-food-marketed-children-social-media-using-online-games.html http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips/gene-mutation-makes-you-fat http://www.medicaldaily.com/obesity-linked-mrap2-gene-mutation-mice-1-humans-marking-first-genetic-explanation-illness-247792 http://www.med.nagoya-u.ac.jp/english01/dbps_data/_material_/nu_medical_en/_res/ResearchTopics/MRAP2_20130719en.pdf

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