By 2010, almost half of North and South America’s children will be over weight. In the rest of the world the numbers aren’t much better. In Europe the rate of overweight children will reach 38% and even in China levels are expected to reach one in five, a totally unacceptable figure in and of itself. In the last thirty years the childhood obesity rates have more than doubled for very young children and teens, while it has more than tripled for elementary aged children. Clearly this is a problem. It goes with out saying that weight issues in childhood can lead to a number of health problems such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. Some of the factors contributing to this epidemic are overtly apparent to anyone paying attention, nevertheless in this article I’d like to talk a bit about the basic causes and then look deeper for some more elusive causes.
The basic causes of the childhood obesity problem are pretty simple and well known. The American diet has degraded slowly over the last half-century to a pretty sad state. The number one source of calories for the average American is high fructose corn syrup. Classic after school snacks like apple slices or ants-on-a-log have been replaced by doritos, and pop tarts. Young people today are provided with too much high fat, high sugar foods and not enough foods that fill basic nutritional needs.
In addition, the American lifestyle has changed. Just under half of adolescents watch more than 2 hours of television each day. That doesn’t even include other types of screen time such as computer and video gaming and internet use. With this amount of media intake, time spent on other types of healthy recreation has suffered. The ease of media recreation causes some children to dislike or avoid more strenuous activities. The longer these kids steer clear of exercise the harder it will be for them to gain healthy lifestyles as adults. One study showed that overweight teens have a 70-80% chance of becoming overweight adults.
How did it get to this point? Parents can see problems developing in their children, why aren’t they more involved? A little less than half of American families live in dual income house holds. It is easy to say in this day and age with two parents working that parents just don’t have time to monitor their kids or to cook good meals for their kids any more. Eating out, skipping breakfast, and not having family meals were all associated with obesity in children. However this “I’m too busy” theory relies on the idea that parents are not willing to sacrifice and work hard for their kids, and I think there are better answers.
Many working parents these days feel guilty. Working long hours, feeling tired after work, and spending weekends running errands can cause parents to feel bad that they don’t have more time for their kids. One recent report even showed that a growing number of parents feel guilt about the genes they have passed on. All this guilt leads parents to give in to their children. If you only get a few hours with your kids a day wouldn’t you want your kids to always be happy when you see them? Parents begin a cycle of always saying “Yes” to kids and obesity is just one of the negative results.
Recently, though, there is a growing push from parents, teachers, and health professionals to draw a line. Dr. David Walsh founder of The National Institute on Media and the Family and recent author of No: Why Kids -of All Ages- Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It has started the Say Yes to No campaign in Minnesota. He feels that the real problem for kids in America today is parent’s lack of discipline and without it kids don’t stand a chance.
October 21, 2008 at 6:29 pm |
when you keep children immersed in video games with their tummies full, you keep them out of the real world and ultimately out of the way. the new world order.