To Your Health: Childhood Obesity
By Cheryl Wade, MD, PC
Cheryl D. Wade, MD, PC
According to the Centers for Disease Control, childhood obesity is a crisis in our nation with rates that have tripled in the past 30 years. People of color and lower income families are the hardest hit. Obesity is not a problem just because of the social and media stigma attached to it. The issue is a crisis because obesity is a serious medical condition.
Being overweight is now starting in the womb. A study published in the medical journal, Lancet, and paid for by the US National Institutes of Health found that women who gain more than 25-35 pounds during pregnancy are having babies who are growing up to be obese children, adolescents, and adults.
How do you know if your child is overweight or obese? Your Pediatrician determines your child’s BMI using a growth chart. The doctor determines your child’s percentile, a number which compares with other children of the same sex and age.
For example, if your child is in the 90th percentile it means that she is heavier than 90% of children of her age. According to the CDC, these are the guide lines for BMI for age. Between 85th and 94th percentiles — overweight, 95th percentile or above — obesity. The lifestyle choices that lead to childhood obesity are typical and the same as for adults.
Diet: Eating a highly processed diet high in fat, and sugar, and nutrient poor, not only makes obese children but malnourished children as well who lack essential vitamins and minerals.
Snacks and sodas from vending machines, cheeseburgers and fried chicken can provide in one setting the calorie needs for three days. Bread, rice, and macaroni, cakes, cookies, and ice cream are just as bad. They are empty carbs that will turn to fat.
Lack of exercise: Schools save money by cutting back on Physical Education classes. Children who are kept in the house after school because of lack of day care or after school activities become addicted to TV, computers, and the internet and never get to burn excess calories. These are the couch potato kids.
Family factors: If everyone in the family is overweight, nobody exercises, and there are no healthy foods available the child does not have a chance to be different, especially if there also exists a familial genetic tendency to obesity.
Psychological factors: Children will learn to cope with depression, boredom, and anxiety like the adults in their family by over eating.
Socioeconomic factors: Adults who make less than $15,000 a year have a national obesity rate of 35 percent, while the rates for income more than $50,000, drops to 25 percent. It is becoming increasingly difficult for lower income individuals and families to obtain minimally processed, organic, whole foods.
Children are now experiencing diseases once restricted to adults such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. These are a group of diseases that cluster together because they all share cellular metabolic dysfunction. Later on in life your child will be at increased risk of atherosclerosis and heart disease, bone and joint disease, and a variety of different cancers.
Most of us do not realize that obesity can cause asthma and breathing problems. Obesity can also cause snoring which is a type of sleep apnea(lack of oxygen). A child who is not getting enough sleep will not be able to learn and will be inattentive and unfocused in school.
Being obese can create hormonal imbalances for your child. These imbalances may cause early puberty or menstruation, or on the other hand cause polycystic ovary syndrome which leads to irregular menstruation, facial hair, and acne, because of an imbalance with testosterone, the male hormone.
These are the physical and metabolic complications of obesity. Unfortunately it does not stop there, children also have to deal with emotional imbalances as well.
These emotional disturbances range from low self esteem with overweight children being subject to constant bullying, to behavioral and learning problems due to anxiety and poor social skills.
These emotional issues often lead inevitably to depression and feelings of hopelessness and then binge eating in an effort to feel better which leads to a viscous cycle that imprisons the child and robs them of a happy and productive life.
We parents are the ones who can prevent childhood obesity. Let us provide our children with a healthy diet and lifestyle. We do not want to create a generation of children that we may outlive. That would be a sad day indeed.
Those of us who can, let us grow fruits and vegetables, peas and seeds. Let us encourage our local farmers and let our politicians know the importance of agricultural development in our communities.
No matter how much it costs in the short term in dollars and cents, our quality of life and longevity and that of our children is well worth it.
(Editor’s Note: The information in this article represents the opinion of the author and is not intended to be construed as an endorsement or promotion by Crucians In Focus of any of the information herein.)
