What Are The Causes Of Child Obesity?
As recently as a generation ago there were only a few random children that were overweight, usually because of faulty genes and other issues. But, the number of children who are classified as overweight and obese has more than tripled in the recent years and the problem is not subsiding despite the rising evidence of chronic health conditions once reserved for older adults.
Children as young as ten have the heart and lungs of a fifty year old and they are facing early deaths because of it. For the firs time, the life expectancy might have to be adjusted lower after years of going higher and higher. But, what are the causes of childhood obesity and why the sudden explosion?
Of course, like any thing else in the world, there are a number of theories to be had, some more plausible than others. There are some people who think that it is our overhead power lines that are part of the major causes of childhood obesity, a theory that has never been satisfactorily proven by scientific research at all. There are the realists who do say that the power lines do play a role, but only because they are hooked to the television and the computer which keeps these kids from getting up and moving around.
Ironically, it is the parents of these children who turn a blind eye to the most obvious and blatant of the causes of childhood obesity. They pretend they don’t see them eating thirds or fourths at the table and they pretend it was not them that took them to the burger joint five of seven days last week.
A few years ago, several school districts across the country caught flak for sending letters home to these parents, informing them that their children were at risk for health conditions and social problems if they did nothing to help them get their weight in check.
Instead of reaching out for support and guidance, these parents got upset and cried foul- claiming that the school boards were discriminating against these children. It is stories like this that makes it obvious what one of the major causes of childhood obesity actually is: it might well lay at the feet of the parents.
As an adult, you know how hard it is to diet and to try to lose weight, now imagine that as a child. It is going to be the rare teen or younger child who will choose the salad over pizza and burgers, plain water over an icy cold soda. It is up to the parents to uncover the causes of childhood obesity and then to work on the remedy.