What Is Causing The Present Dramatic Rise In Child Obesity?

With rates for obesity continuing to rise in many Western countries it is perhaps no surprise that we are seeing a growing number of obese children. Naturally the effects of child obesity are all too obvious, but just what is it that results in obesity in children?

The simple answer is that there is no single cause of child obesity and there are a number of different factors that lead to obesity in children.

It is normally the case for example that a child with overweight or obese parents will also be overweight or obese which suggests that there could be an inherited or genetic factor to obesity. However, despite the fact that this is an area which is presently being looked at, no genetic link has been found so far and it is thought much more likely that it is the eating habits in the family which produce obesity and not genetics.

In the past few years we have seen a marked shift in eating habits with fast food restaurants appearing on every corner, junk food available everywhere and the shelves of our supermarkets packed with 'convenience' foods that are frequently very high in sugar. The days when we sat down to home cooked meals are long gone in many households and have been superceded by microwave meals or take-away food. Indeed, an increasing number of parents are now electing to take their children to fast food restaurants instead of cooking a meal at home not simply because it is easier than cooking a meal but also because they do not have to wash up!

Additionally, we have seen a dramatic drop in levels of activity amongst many groups of children, aided in no small degree by the introduction of computers, video games and now the ever present mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, as activity levels have dropped so children have also lost their god given ability to burn up the calories gained from eating more and more junk food.

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

There are also several psychological factors at play in the world today and a lot of children today will simply eat as a result of boredom. They will also turn to food when they find themselves stressed, angry, depressed or anxious.

Today a lot of medical research is being directed towards the causes of child obesity and its treatment and the majority of this research is focused on finding a solution to the problem using a combination of diet and exercise once presented with an obese child. But, with child obesity continuing to rise at a disturbing rate, and with the obvious dangers of childhood obesity, perhaps the time has come to attack the roots of the problem and to stop our children from suffering from obesity in the first place.