Childhood Obesity Statistics – Where Does it End?
Childhood obesity statistics is not a rosy picture. Type 2 diabetes is a predictable outcome for more than 9 million children who are obese. This trend is not only an America problem but now a world wide epidemic. Obese children have grown from 15% in 1971 to over 30% in 2000. A study in childhood obesity in 1999- 2000 found that 16% of young people 6 to 19 years were overweight.
Why the increase in obese children?
Doctors are now blaming lifestyle as the main cause for the alarming rise in overweight children. Kids are less active as the computer, play-stations and video games have replace hop scotch, hide and go seek and many other games that used to be popular generations ago.
In addition, pizza, soda and fast food meals have replaced the home cook meals that were fed to children back in the pre-technology days.
The results of obesity
Obese children more than likely will grow into obese adults and will develop a host of health problems that will plague them for the rest of their lives. These conditions are:
High blood pressure
Diabetes
Cancer
Cholesterol
Heart disease
Pulmonary problems
As you can see from the above medical conditions overweight children is nothing to sneeze at and doctors are predicting that for the first time in history children will have a lower life expectancy than their parents.
What can be done to prevent childhood obesity?
First a parent must provide a different diet than fast foods and soda. Home cooked meals that contain a mixture of fiber, proteins, glucose and fats are best. Snacks of potato chips, sugary drinks and peanuts must be replaced with fruits, yogurt and vegetables.
Exercise such as walking, bicycle riding, and out doors playing should replace sedentary activities such as television and video games to lose weight.
Once childhood obesity is understood and acknowledged the good news is that beating childhood obesity can be reversed by simply losing weight and keeping the weight off.
The best childhood obesity statistics prove that losing weight is the only cure for obesity and the myriad if health problems that are sure to follow.