The Causes Of Childhood Obesity In America

Childhood obesity has become an epidemic that is sweeping the nation. Some people may not realize it, but childhood obesity is a serious disease that can lead to health problems and premature death. Obesity has doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents over the past thirty years. In November of 2015, statistics showed that every one in six children and adolescents are obese. To understand the damage it can cause, we must first understand what obesity is. First off, obesity should not be confused with overweight. Overweight is simply carrying excess weight, whereas, obesity is carrying excess fat. When someone is overweight, it just means that the number on the scale is more than it should be for that specific person. That extra weight isn 't necessarily fat, it could be muscle or water weight. Obesity is when the body is storing an abnormally large amount of fat. Approximately twenty-two million children under five are overweight, and five percent of those twenty-two million are obese. Now that we understand what obesity is, we can look at the causes of this problem. There are three main things that contribute to childhood obesity; diet, inadequate physical activity, and physiological issues. When a child has a poor diet that consists of high fat and low nutrients, there is …show more content…
In America people have been working on solutions to this problem for five decades. So with all this work and research why is the problem only getting worse? More importantly, is there a way we can stop it from getting worse? The answer to that question is, yes. There is a single solution to conquering this epidemic. Educate the families. The solution is as simple as that. If parents were educated about the health risks involved with childhood obesity the percentage of obese children would drop drastically. Also, we must educate the parents and children on proper nutrition and the importance of physical