Why We Must Address Childhood Obesity- NOW

There have been many recent reports about the obesity epidemic. Hardly a week goes by without a story about it in the news media. In most case, the focus is on adults even though the problem of childhood obesity is equally serious. In this post, I want to share with you 5 reasons why I think we must focus our attention on childhood obesity and act now.

Because it is real

There should no longer be any doubt that we have a serious problem with childhood obesity. Consider these recent statistics:

• F as in Fat – How Obesity Policies are Failing in America 2009, a recent report found that 30 states have 30% or higher childhood obesity rates. That is nearly 1 in 3 children 10-17 years old is either overweight or obese. These children have a BMI (body mass index) above the 85th percentile BMI level for their age group.
• Mississippi has the highest childhood obesity rate at 44%.
• 8 of the 10 states with the highest obesity rates are in the South.
• There is no state with less than 20% childhood obesity rate.
• 15% of 2-5 year olds from low income families are obese compared to 12% nationwide.
• A study of over 8500 children 4 years old found 20% of them as obese based on the height and weight data. American Indian/Native Alaskan children were nearly twice as likely to be obese as their non-Hispanic White or Asian counterparts.

These numbers should be a cause for concern to everyone. Don’t trust them? Just look around the next time you go to a public place such as a Mall, a school or a park. Childhood obesity is a reality.

Because it can reduce the lifespan of our children

According to the Yale Guide to Children’s Nutrition, children with moderate to severe obesity commonly show high blood pressure, triglycerides and low levels of good cholesterol. All of them are known risk factors for heart disease. Extremely heavy children also have respiratory problems, shortness of breath and sleep apnea.

Obesity causes the body to be less responsive to insulin which keeps the blood glucose levels under control. As a result, the pancreas has to work overtime to produce more insulin. Insulin levels go up, which promotes the deposition of fat and decreases the breakdown of fat from fat cells. So it is like a double whammy! Over time, the poor pancreas may just give in and cause Type 2 diabetes as these children reach adulthood. Even in children, cases of Type 2 diabetes are now being increasingly diagnosed.

Believe it or not, there is a serious possibility that today’s children will have a shorter lifespan than their parents. That is ironical given the tremendous advances in medicine and healthcare over the last 100 years. Heart disease, stroke and diabetes are leading causes of deaths other than cancer. There is now some evidence that obesity can lead to a higher risk of cancer – approximately 20% of cancer in women and 15% in men can be linked to obesity. No matter how you look at it, obesity is turning out to be the quiet villian affecting our children.

Because it will increase our healthcare costs

Check this out -

• Obesity costs $75 billion in direct costs each year and about $140 in total costs
• Obesity related costs of treating children have more than tripled between 1979 and 1999.
• Estimates of obesity related costs show that they will double every decade. By 2030, 1 in every  6 dollars spent on healthcare will be due to obesity

These days, eveyone is worried about the economic crisis and the budget deficit. The real crisis is waiting to happen in another 20 years if we don’t do anything about it.

Because it limits our children’s potential

There is now a growing awareness that overweight and obese children suffer from low self-esteem, anxiety and depression. Social and psychological adjustment is difficult for them which can result in either withdrawl or aggressive behaviroal problems. They may also be stereotyped as lazy and lacking self-discipline. This environment of negativity and their growing health problems can force them into a negative spiral of under-achievement. No child should face such an adverse set of conditions which limit his potential for contribution and achievement.

If is often said that today’s children are tomorrow’s future. Our nation depends on their creativity and productivity to maintain our competitiveness in the world. What kind of a future can we expect if a large number of our children today are growing up under the burden of obesity?

Because we can

This is the main reason to act! Because we can do something about it and achieve positive results with great certainty, we must.

Check this out -

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) found that a seven percent weight loss together with moderate levels of physical activity (walking 30 minutes a day, five days a week) decreased the number of new type 2 diabetes cases by 58 percent among people at-risk for diabetes

Why can’t we encourage our kids to develop healthy eating habits, offer them nutritional meals in school, and encourage physical activity? Now how difficult can that be? Obviously, more difficult than I imagine because we don’t see it happening today.

Type 1 diabetes has no cure even though we are working so hard to find one. Cancer has no cure even though billions are spent each year on diagnosis, drugs and treament. There is no reason to stop working on them.

But children and adults suffering from obesity related health conditions such as heart disease and diabetes do not strike in the rest of us the same emotional response as someone with Type 1 diabetes or cancer. There are no Races for Cure for them even though we all know that they are on a similar path to poor health and reduced lifespan. Just because their suffering is not as acute and not as public, is that reason enough not to act?

I don’t think so. And I invite you to think about it even if your own child is perfectly healthy.

Photo Source: Daquella Manera on Flickr
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