Childhood Obesity: The Need For a Healthy Lifestyle

Despite the growing intelligence and technology of the world around us, obesity rapidly sweeps through many nations without discriminating against any age or race (Schwarz, 1). Even young children, starting at preschool age, constantly acquire more body fat and slowly transition from healthy to obese percentiles. According to the article, Obesity Among Low-Income Preschool Children, “1 of 3 children are obese or overweight before their 5th birthday (2).” Often times, patterns such as obesity repeat themselves or continue into adulthood (Obesity in Children and Teens, 2). Without making an effort to solve the problem, people contribute to the issue and allow it to continue to grow out of hand. Due to the outbreak of obesity, people around the world should be aware of how this devastating problem arises so they can make an effort to prevent future issues and solve current ones.

Deckelbaum, R. J., & Williams, C. L. (2001), Childhood Obesity: The Health Issue. Obesity Research, 9: 239S–243S. doi: 10.1038/oby.2001.125

Elissa, Jelallian and Steele, Ric. “Handbook of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity”. New York, NY: SpringeScience+Business Media, c2008.Print.

High cholesterol, high blood pressure, development of diabetes, bone and joint problems and sleep apnea are no longer a concern for just adults, but immediate health effects of childhood obesity. During the past 30 years children have more than doubled in obesity and tripled among adolescents (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Since the 1980’s, obese children in the United States, ages 6-11 years old, have increased from 7% to 18% in 2010 (CDC, 2013). As the subject matter of childhood obesity continues to alarm health professionals from the escalating rates, the etiology of this health problem is what makes this issue difficult to resolve. The problem of childhood obesity is multifactorial and has been used as an accusation for the cause of childhood obesity. Many of these factors are environment related and some are due to the lack of parental supervision which stirs up a controversial issue to millions of Americans, whether childhood obesity is considered medical neglect.

Tseng, M., Haapala, I., Hodge, A., & Yngve, A. (2013). Childhood obesity. Public Health Nutrition, 16(2), 191. doi:10.1017/S1368980012005332

Dietz, W. H. (1998). Health consequences of obesity in youth: childhood predictors of adult disease. Pediatrics, 101(Supplement 2), 518-525.

Obesity In Children And Teens." Obesity In Children And Teens. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan.

Obesity is ordinary, serious and costly. More than 78 million of U.S. population are obese. Among obese adults, female obesity rates are higher than male obesity rates. This is also seen among adults that are critically and morbidly obese. Meanwhile, boys and girls ages 2 to 19 have similar obesity rates. However preschool boys have a higher obesity rate than preschool girls. The reverse is true among ages 6 to 11 where girls' obesity rates more than double to 17.9 percent and the rates among boys increase to 16.4 percent. Likewise, childhood obesity has serious psychosocial effect, such as low self-regard, lower quality of life, and discouragement.

According to Elbel, et al, “The percentage of children aged six to eleven years old in the United States who were obese increased from seven percent in 1980 to nearly eighteen percent in 2012” (2). Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children in the past thirty years. Not only is childhood obesity a widespread epidemic plaguing the United States, but in all areas around the world. Childhood obesity is the detrimental effect of the family lifestyle and the cultural environment children are embossed in today and the only to stop it is to attack it at the source.

Childhood obesity is one of the most severe health care disputes of this decade. Obese children are at a higher risk of being obese as an adult. With, increasing numbers of obesity in North America, these people can experience a bundle of health concerns. Some of these health risks include; stress, higher blood pressure and cholesterol levels, type two diabetes, heart disease, cancers (uterus, cervix, breast, colon, liver, kidney are examples), it can even cause osteoarthritis. The number of obese kids has increased to ten percent in the past forty years. In the nineteen seventy's, in North America, from the ages of three to nineteen obesity was at five a percent. Looking at these numbers today in two thousand and fifteen the number jumped