What Is Causing The Present Dramatic Increase In Child Obesity?

With rates for obesity continuing to climb in the West it is perhaps no surprise that we are seeing an increasing number of overweight and obese children. Of course the effects of childhood obesity are all too obvious, but precisely what is it that produces obesity in children?

As is frequently the case there is no single cause of child obesity and there are a number of different things which cause obesity in our children.

For example, it is often the case that a child with overweight or obese parents will be overweight or obese which suggests that there could well be an inherited or genetic factor to obesity. However, despite the fact that this is an area that is actively being looked at, no clear genetic link has yet been found and it is thought far more likely that it is the eating habits within the family that produce obesity rather than genetics.

In the past few years we have experienced a considerable change in eating habits with fast food restaurants springing up on every street corner, junk food available everywhere and the shelves of our supermarkets bulging with 'convenience' foods that are more often than not extremely high in sugar. The days when we sat down to home cooking are far behind us in the majority of households and have been superceded by microwave meals or take-away food. Indeed, many parents are now opting to take their children out for a pizza instead of preparing meals at home not just because it is easier than cooking a meal but also because it saves a lot of washing up!

We have also seen a dramatic drop in levels of activity for many groups of children, fuelled in no small degree by the arrival of computers, video gaming machines and now the ever present mobile phone. Of course, as activity levels have fallen so children have also lost their natural ability to burn off the calories gained from eating more and more junk food.

Television, the Internet, magazines and other forms of media also play a part as they dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and confectionary manufacturers are quick to jump onto this bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity provided by the media. A lot of people would argue that advertising has done more to fuel the rise in childhood obesity than just about anything else in recent years.

There are also a variety of social factors at play in our modern world and many children nowadays will simply eat out of boredom. Additionally, they will turn to food whenever they are angry, stressed, anxious or depressed.

Nowadays a great deal of research is being directed towards the causes of childhood obesity and its treatment and most of this research is aimed at finding a solution to the problem using a combination of diet and exercise once confronted with an obese child. However, with child obesity continuing to increase at an alarming rate, and with the obvious dangers of childhood obesity, perhaps it is now time to tackle the roots of childhood obesity and to stop our children from suffering from obesity in the first place.