Obesity Epidemic in the Young and the Children: What the Research says?

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Obesity is an epidemic that’s affecting mostly the children and the young these days. According to studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 7 American kids suffer from obesity before they join the kindergarten.

What’s more alarming is that children of very young age are falling prey to this disease, especially those under the age of 5. The obesity figures were at 9.3 percent in 2013-2014 and 18.5 percent in 2015-2016 which was a straight jump of 14% of the children in the age group of 2 to 5-year-old.

What do the Experts Say?

Experts blame it on the society that believes in constantly pushing junk food irrespective of the staggering testimonies about its risks, and the less exposure to exercise.

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Duke’s Ashely Cockrell Skinner wrote in the journal Pediatrics that irrespective of the earlier reports that obesity has stayed constant or reduced off-late in the children and adolescents, there is no evidence found of a drop in the existence of obesity in any age group.

He added saying that irrespective of a deep focus on decreasing the childhood obesity levels in the U.S. since the past two decades, their advancement remains uncertain.

For example, there were campaigns like “Let’s Move” by Michelle Obama encouraging regular exercise and healthy eating, and other movements by different states and cities emphasizing the importance of exercise and reducing the focus on junk food and sweetened soft drinks less available and tempting, but they were just not enough.

Obesity in Young Children

Obesity seems to be a raging concern among children of the youngest age group, especially between 2 to 19. According to Skinner, the sooner you start noticing obesity among the children, the tougher it gets to handle it for these kids.

Moreover, a majority of the children who develop obesity at a very young age, tend to be heavier all throughout their childhood and this even stays constant during their adulthood.

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This fact is also supported by studies conducted by the Waterloo University. According to Rachel Laxer who belonged to the research team during her Ph.D., this trend of remaining heavier throughout the young age and then continuing with the same during adulthood increases the chances of getting affected with hypertension, heart diseases, and diabetes.

She adds that it should be the responsibility of the public health practitioners to target a batch of risky/delicate behaviors using an exhaustive method. It should be able to identify the exact reason why there has been no reduction in the calorie intake and if it’s due to any of the reason such as lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, or drugs. It’s important to analyze the root cause very early to make sure that it does not become a habit.

The Bottom Line

Although there are a few movements initiated by government figures, local authorities, and television shows on crash diets, the biggest concern is that there are only a few continuing studies on obesity formation, treatments, or results. The focus is majorly on short-term solutions for quick weight loss that’s only been perceived as an inaccurate approach by the adult community.

While it’s important for the researchers to focus more on the long-term solutions, it’s also equally important for the parents to understand the seriousness and start warning their children about obesity.