Primary Steps for Handling Childhood Obesity


As reported by Cole body mass index (BMI) which is defined as weight per square meter is widely used to define the obesity. For a person to be recognized as overweight this index need to be more than 30 kilogram per square meter.

In recent years childhood obesity became an epidemic health problem in both the developed and developing countries and number of overweight children increased to 42 million globally. One of the consequences of excess body fat in children is its impact on the child's health and well-being.

There are number of academic researches dedicated to this subject. As such, we can refer to a research by Matthews where he employed data of food promotion in 20 European Union countries and investigated its impact on the schoolchildren obesity. Their results showed that unhealthy foods such as snacks and confectionary products, which were the most, consumed products by children, had the most impact on childhood obesity. Moreover, he found advertisement in television to be the most effective media encouraging schoolchildren to purchase such products.

In another study, Weiss, et al, investigated the impact of childhood obesity on prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and the body resistant to insulin. Their findings depict a direct and positive relationship between severity of obesity and metabolic syndrome. Reviewing most of the literature in this field highlights the fact that the only realistic solution to this globalized problem in prevention. Prevention means bringing the problem under our control rather than solely looking for the cure. However achieving this target is only possible with the comprehensive multi-dimensional programs.

On the household level, parents may help the children to change their eating habits. For instance, they can balance the intake of calories by preparing foods which contain of whole grain products, vegetables and fruits. They can also remove the whole milk products from the household diet. They can encourage the children to drink lots of water or to consume fresh fruit juices instead of sugar-sweetened beverages and the last but not the least is to help the kids stay active. This is very important that children and teenagers must participate for an hour in aerobic activities at least five times a week. This can be achieved by adding physical activity to the daily routine of the parents, which will encourage the kids to join as well.

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