What Are The Causes Of Childhood Obesity Essay

Childhood Obesity Working together to decrease obesity by taking control and promoting a healthy lifestyle for every child living in the United States is an increasing phenomenon. During the childhood years of ages 6 to 11 years old, common health problems include prolonged nutrition; which can permanently impair physical and mental development. Obesity and child overweight is another common health problem amongst middle age children and has increased dramatically due to heredity, parental feeding practices, maladaptive eating habits, reduced sleep, lack of exercise, diets high in meats, and energy dense refined foods. Obesity occurs when a person eats more calories than the body burns up. Physical health problems, adjustment problems, and children with hard time making new friends are just some of the impacts on why children become obese which leads to low self-esteem. Causes of obesity are complex and generally include genetic, biological, behavioral and cultural factors. Research has shown that effective interventions consist of family based; controlling eating habits, changing life style, and ensuring schools are giving the proper physical activities and healthier meals. Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors (National Institutes of Health, 2010). Obesity is defined as having excess body fat, and the BMI (body mass index) of 30 and above. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the …show more content…
The physical side effects include increase chance in diabetes, fertility and menstrual problems, asthma, stroke, heart attack. Psychological consequences include low self-esteem in children, bullying, and depression. Economic costs of childhood obesity consist of the costs of medical visits, diagnostic studies, and therapeutic