Every reputable medical source in our nation has shown drastic rises in childhood obesity in the past several decades as a result of a number of factors. It is important to know the number of obese children in our country so as to be able to track our progress toward a thinner country and to see if our tactics are working, but it is far more important to use these childhood obesity statistics to make a plan and motivate the nation to committing itself to a thinner future. Clearly childhood obesity is prevalent problem, and only by a head-on confrontation of this problem can we hope to conquer this problem.
1. How many children?
According to one section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overweight or obese children comprise 16% of children between 6 and 19 years old. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a subsidiary of the CDC, meanwhile estimated childhood obesity to be approximately 18.8% for children between the ages of 6 and 11 in 2004, while 17.4% of 12 to 19 year olds are considered obese children. The numbers of obese children have doubled in the past twenty years, tripled over the past thirty, and more than quadrupled over the past forty years. Furthermore, childhood obesity is not a phase. The NHANES estimates that more than 80% of overweight or obese children will become overweight or obese adults, while 25% of obese adults were overweight as children.
2. Causes
Levels of childhood obesity are far higher than they ever have been in our country. Reasons for why have varied greatly over subjects, but a number of factors point to technology in a number of areas. For one, computers and video games give the option of having hobbies that are sedentary, which has been shown to be a great factor in childhood obesity. Also, obese children are known to consume far more sugary and salty snacks than their thinner counterparts. Furthermore, the rising levels of adult obesity in this nation have set poor examples for children who will follow the lead that will eventually take them down the road to childhood obesity.
3. Consequences
It is well documented by NHANES that obese children are at a far higher risk for plenty of diseases than their thinner counterparts. Obese children generally have a higher risk for having cardiovascular disease including high blood pressure, abnormal glucose tolerance, or high cholesterol levels. Though it’s less common than these cardiovascular diseases, obese children also are more likely to have asthma, hepatic steatosis (which causes liver problems), sleep apnea, and type 2 diabetes. Of course, in addition, obese children are at a higher risk of being obese adults, which will lead to all sorts of other complications so that childhood obesity can be a gateway to plenty of adult obesity related problems.