What Is Causing The Current Dramatic Rise In Child Obesity?

With rates for obesity continuing to soar in many Western countries it is perhaps not surprising that we are seeing a rising number of obese children. Naturally the effects of child obesity are all too obvious, but just what is it that results in obesity in our children?

As is often the case there is no single cause of child obesity and there are many different factors which account for obesity in our children.

It is normally the case for instance that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will also be overweight or obese which suggests that there might be an inherited or genetic component to obesity. However, despite the fact that this is an area that is actively being looked at, no genetic link has been found yet and it is felt much more likely that it is the diet in the family that result in obesity and not genetics.

In the last few years we have witnessed a marked shift in eating habits with fast food restaurants appearing on every street corner, junk food available everywhere and the shelves of our supermarkets growning under the weight of 'convenience' foods which are more often than not extremely high in sugar. The days when we enjoyed home cooked meals are far behind us in most homes and have been replaced by take-away food or microwave meals. Indeed, more and more parents are now choosing to take their children out to eat rather than to prepare a meal at home not simply because it is easier than cooking a meal but also because it saves on the washing up!

We have also seen a dramatic fall in levels of activity amongst many groups of children, helped in no small measure by the arrival of video gaming machines, computers and now the ever present mobile phone. Not surprisingly, as activity levels have dropped so children have lost their god given ability to burn off the calories gained from eating more and more junk food.

Magazines, the Internet, television and other types of media also play an important role as they all but dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and confectionary manufacturers are not slow in jumping onto this particular bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity that the media provides. Many people argue that commercials have done more to encourage the increase in childhood obesity than just about anything else in the past few years.

There are also a lot of social factors at play in the world today and many children today will simply eat whenever they get bored. They will also turn to the comfort of food whenever they find themselves angry, stressed, anxious or depressed.

Right now a great deal of medical research is being aimed at the cause of child obesity and its treatment and much of this is aimed at finding a solution to the problem using diet and exercise once confronted with an obese child. However, with child obesity continuing to rise at an alarming rate, and with the obvious dangers of child obesity, perhaps it is now time to attack the roots of childhood obesity and to prevent our children from getting obese in the first place.