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Addressing a topic such as obesity is a complicated issue because there are many factors that could lead to weight gain, especially in children. Any combination could lead to an increase in body weight. The biggest factor of childhood obesity comes from the lack of physical activity in our youth today. With advancements in television and video gaming consoles it may be more common to find a child at home on the couch than outside chasing a girl around the playground and threatening her with cooties. It’s been projected that kids are in front of a television screen nearly 30 hours a week. That’s rough five hours a day. Not to mention their diets. Preservatives and high cholesterol are almost a staple in snack food these days. And exercise is not being met at school either. A child spends almost all of their day sitting down. Elementary school children don’t even have to walk to a different classroom. Except for recess, the only other physical activity is kick ball in gym class, and apparently only one third of academic settings even offer physical education. Children just aren’t burning enough calories in the day to combat their intake.
Another factor to acknowledge is that there are direct correlations between race and childhood obesity. Hispanic children suffer a much greater risk of childhood obesity than other races, and girls suffer a greater risk at 1 in 3 (compared to boys at about 1 in 4) Children with obese parents are more likely to follow suit as well. It is clearly a growing problem, but there a many websites and books that offer tips and strategies in nutrition and behavior modification to combat this growing health risk.
 Posted 5454 day ago
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