Childhood Obesity : A severe threat to children’s health today.
Obesity is a severe threat to children’s health today. Childhood obesity is increasing year of year. A survey by The American Heart Association shows that obesity in children has more than tripled from 1971 to 2011.
Every component of the environment in which children are conceived, born and raised can make contributions to their danger of turning into overweight or obese. During pregnancy, gestational diabetes (a form of diabetes occurring at some stage in pregnancy) may additionally result in increased birth weight and the chance of obesity later in life.
Feeding infants energy-dense, high-fat, high-sugar and high-salt foods is a key contributor to childhood obesity. And many times the parents tried to provide every junk food that their child wants to eat, That’s why choosing healthy foods for infants, and young children are critical because food preferences are established in early life.
Obesity Highly Effects mentally and physically in childhood. The first problems to occur in obese children are usually is being bullied. Nowadays, we all have one obese person in acquaintance. And we make a joke on him. Some are emotionally harassed or discriminated against by their own family. All those incidents may lead to low self-esteem, depression and in the end, suicide.
However, physically obesity can also lead to life-threatening conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep problems, cancer, and other disorders. The early physical effects of obesity in adolescence include almost all of the child’s organs being affected, gallstones, hepatitis, sleep apnoea and increased intracranial pressure.
Overweight and obesity are normally preventable and curable. Making the healthier choice of foods and regular physical activity is the easiest choice to prevent obesity. Overweight children need to increase consumption of fruit and vegetables, as well as legumes, whole grains and nuts. But there is always the best suggestion is to have a consultation with a pediatric doctor or pediatric nutritionist to have a maintained diet.
Our food industry can play a significant role to reduce childhood obesity. They are now ensuring that healthy and nutritious choices are available and affordable to all consumers.
At the World Health Assembly 2020, countries agreed to work towards halting any further increases in the proportion of overweight children. This is one of the six global nutrition targets aimed at improving maternal, infant and young child nutrition by 2025.
Other than that, exclusive breastfeeding from birth to 6 months of age is an important way to help prevent infants from becoming overweight or obese. That’s why doctors nowadays strongly advise breastfeeding.
Recognition is increasing that overweight and obesity are not only problems of individuals, but also society-wide problems of populations. To decrease the number of cases of childhood obesity, we need to aware of our health and mind.
