CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Effect of childhood Obesity on the Cardiovascular Health



Effect of childhood Obesity on the Cardiovascular Health

Introduction

Children consuming high-calorie foods is a major factor to children being obese. Instead of choosing to eat an apple between physical activities, children sit on the couch to watch television while eating handfuls of potato chips. The era of home cooking has almost disappeared from our society and often it is the parent who stops to buy pizza or who suggest that the family eat hamburgers at a fast food restaurant for dinner. Gidding points out that children learn unhealthy eating habits from examples set by parents. In contrary to nutrition education classes, the school's vending machines promote unhealthy eating habits. Instead of selling fruit bars, crackers, pretzels, and milk, they sell candy bars, chips, and soda. (Caballero et al 2008 )

Along with eating habits, lack of physical activity is another major contributor to the rise of obese children. A "physically inactive, overweight child" usually grows up to be a physically inactive, obese adult. According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, seventy-six percent of parents think more physical education at school can prevent children from becoming obese. However, "In many school districts physical education is being cut back to provide more time to prepare for standardized testing. (Urbina et al 2009 )

Besides changes in diet and lack of physical activity, children of lower socioeconomic status tend to have more problems with childhood obesity. With the rise of divorce reaching "an all time high" and single parents taking over, Low family incomes, non-working parents, or both working parents also add to the increase of obese children. These parents are either too poor to buy nutritional food, or can not enroll their child in some kind of physical activity. Families like these put their children at high risks of becoming obese adults because of the "psychological and physiological problems" they experience

Finally, genetics plays an important role that contributes to children being obese. If both parents are obese and there is a family history of obesity, that child is more likely to become an obese adult than if they were to have thin parents. If both parents are overweight, a child's chances of becoming an obese adult is eighty percent compared to fifty percent if only one parent is overweight(Iannuzzi et al 2004 ). Genetics can also decrease metabolic rate, or the rate a person burns calories. One child may have a high metabolism that causes him or her to be more lean, while another child will have a slow metabolism making him or her overweight and obese. Studies find that genetics have an impact on the amount of fat cells in a person's body. The more fat cells present, the heavier the body becomes and the harder it is to lose the weight.

Effects of childhood obesity on type 2 diabetes

Normally, food that we eat is turned into glucose or sugar that our bodies use for ...