Nutritional Reasons For Childhood Obesity
Have you wondered to know the reasons for childhood obesity or the solutions for childhood obesity?
With a prevalence of 19 % of obesity among children around us, it is time to know more about childhood obesity.
Childhood obesity is the most common public health condition worldwide. It is affecting children from all income groups in society.
What Defines Childhood Obesity?
Excessive fat accumulation in the child’s body leads to obesity. It can impair health during their lifetime.
From the age of two years till death, a person can become overweight and obese.
BMI For Childhood Obesity
The criteria to tag a person or child as obese is by calculating the Body Mass Index.
It is a simple index and measures the weight for height. It calculates a person’s weight in kilograms divided by height in meter square (kg/m²).
Why Has Childhood Obesity Increased?
Urbanization has influenced people to eat high-calorie food with low nutritional value often.
Physical activity in kids has declined over the years due to the increased use of vehicles.
Genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors also play a role in the increased incidence of childhood obesity.
What Are The Main Nutritional Causes Of Childhood Obesity?
Childhood obesity is not about physical appearance. But about mental and health problems it brings in, affecting their childhood.
It probes a risk for
- Coronary heart disease
- Diabetes
- Precocious puberty
- PCOS
- Depression
We have compiled an elaborate list of nutritional causes for obesity in children.
1. How does poor diet contribute to Childhood Obesity?
The urban sprawl has influenced families to consume high-calorie foods like
- Baked food
- Junk food
- Snacks
- Fried Food
These foods have low nutrient value but high calories. In addition, older children associate eating junk food with a sense of freedom and independence.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Promote your child to have healthy balanced meal at home
- Include fiber in their diet
- Have family time while eating breakfast and dinner
- Provide healthy food for lunch
- Ask your child to maintain a food diary to note the kind of food, portion size, and intake timing.
- Conscious entries in the journal will make them realize where they are going wrong.
2. Why Salt Is Not Good For Kids?
The children eat more salty foods, and some tend to add extra salt after preparing and serving on the table. In addition, the excess salt in the food will hold back water in the body, which causes weight gain.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Stop children from adding excess eating salt to their food
- Prevent the children from eating salty fried food
3. How Does TV Affect Childhood Obesity?
Watching on TV or mobile device while eating food has a significant effect on childhood obesity.
The children will be busy with the TV and consume more food in a short period, so they end up eating excess.
Besides, the habit of watching TV all the time will also decrease their physical activity.
The digestion of the food we eat starts with the chewing of food in the mouth.
Saliva is a digestive juice secreted by salivary glands. It moistens the food while chewing. The enzyme amylase in the saliva breaks down the starch in the food.
The improper and swift chewing of food will skip the first step of digestion in the mouth.
The food rich in the starch contents are:
- Pretzels
- Salt Crackers
- Instant Noodles
- Bread
- Muffins
- Tortillas
- Cookies
- Pizza Crust
All the foods mentioned above are high calories foods with low nutrient value.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Educate your children to stop eating while watching TV
- Promote proper chewing of the food, which will aid better digestion of food
- Make a rule at home that kids cannot eat anywhere else apart from the dining area.
- For a movie night at home, arrange for a healthy snack instead of coke, fries, and butter popcorn.
4. Do Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Cause Obesity In Children?
These beverages are high in sugar content. It has artificial sugar.
The liquid form of sugar is worse than the solid form of sugar as they damage the body.
You might have often noticed children drinking soda and junk food together. As soda will increase the appetite, and the children will consume more food.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Promote kids to have fresh fruit juice over soda
- Avoid buying sugary soda from the grocery.
5. How Does Portion Size Affect Obesity In Children?
Oversized food portions have contributed to childhood obesity. The portion size served in the restaurants have increased over the decade.
Constant consumption of the increased portion made the body set satiety at a much higher level. So the have children started to consume a large amount of food irrespective of any meal. In turn, increased calorie intake leading to obesity.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Children need good energy as they are in the growth phase of their life.
- The main mantra for regulating weight is by controlling food portion size.
- A controlled intake of food portions will keep children active throughout the day.
6. Does Snacking Cause Obesity In Children?
Children learn to nibble snacks between meals with the increased availability of short eats and handy foods.
This habit can turn into behavior over time. For example, the child starts with snacking once a day during the initial phase. Later, it develops snacking behavior that may reach up to 4- 5 times per day between meals.
Instead of eating healthy snacks between meals over time, they will shift to eat more rewarding foods like junk food.
Intake of calories from meals and snacks will cause obesity in children.
Sometimes snacking can make the children miss the meal. As a result, the child will lose out on the essential nutrients required for their growth.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Adolescents should avoid eating junk food between meals
- Incorporate healthy snacks between the meals
- Fresh veggies and low-fat yogurt are great snack ideas.
- Increase the duration between meals
- Schools should provide healthy snacks in their cafeteria and vending machines.
- Emphasize more on their fitness and eating habit as part of teaching
7. What Is The Relationship Between Fast Food And Obesity In Childhood?
Families with both working parents have a busy household. As a result, they prefer to dine more often at restaurants and take-outs.
The modern family associates the reward and punishments for their children with food. For example, when a kid performs well in a test, they get an Mc Cheesy burger as a reward.
Millennial households have a habit of eating outside food at least once a week. I know families who have tagged Fridays as pizza days, and they do not miss it.
The celebrations in the families like birthday or anniversary in a restaurant are the new normal.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Avoid as much as possible eating from restaurants and fast food.
- Fridays can be a family cooking time wherein you can ask your child to help you cook a healthy meal for your family.
8. How Does Stress Affect Obesity In Children?
Approximately there is a 40% increase in the intake of food when children are under stress. This is because they are in the naive stage to handle the tension as they are yet to know the actual world out there.
Stress influences children to overeat. It more often results in overweight or obesity as the children find comfort in their food during a stressful period.
There is an increase in the secretion of cortisol during stress. The cortisol induces appetite. Furthermore, it produces cravings to eat sugary or high-fat foods. They do not reach satiety with salads or low-calorie food.
Emotional eating in children influences them to make poor food choices and causes overweight or obesity.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Teach the older children to manage the stress without eating
- Teach them deep breathing exercises to regulate their eating urge
- Most of the time, excess eating is due to boredom in children of all age group
- Eating can be a way to distract them from the current stressful situation.
- Ask the kids to drink a cup of water every time they feel like munching something between the meals.
- Help them to control the temptation of eating. It just a transient urge and teach them to let go of this urge.
- Motivate them to share their reason for stress and tension with you
9. Does Eating Food Late At Night Cause Weight Gain In Children?
Having dinner late in the night or eating before going to bed causes weight gain.
The food impairs the sleep routine as it will be in the active digestion mode and causes disturbed sleep.
Some children have a habit of eating a snack right before bed along with the evening dinner.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Set an eating schedule for breakfast and lunch. It will improve digestion.
- The children should follow the meal timings schedule.
- It is ideal to have the last meal of the day three to four hours before sleep.
- Plan a light meal for the dinner
- Avoid caffeine and juice intake after five in the evening.
10. Is Skipping Breakfast A Risk Factor For Obesity?
Older children skip breakfast or lunch. Low sugar in their body due to fasting will make them more tired and stressed. The stress, in turn, induces their appetite.
During fasting, the body senses a shortage of food to generate energy. Thus, it slows the metabolism during the next meal and causes obesity.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Skipping meals during the daytime as a part of a weight loss plan will not work
- I have often seen children bouncing back with hunger by evening and end up binge eating.
- Follow portion controlling instead of complete fasting in older children
- As per the old saying, ” Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”
- As the day progresses, the portion and the calorie intake of food should decrease.
11. How Do Parents Affect Childhood Obesity?
Parents influence what their children eat. Therefore, there is a high risk of your children becoming obese in the future if you are obese.
Genetic and environmental factor influences the tendency of weight gain in your children.
The parents are willing to try new restaurants in the mall often. They also test a unique variety of food which their office colleague recommended.
How often have you seen your friend posting a photo of her dining in a fancy restaurant on their social media? And you have decided to try that restaurant as it is on-trend recently on Instagram or other social media.
The children will end up having these junk foods along with you every time you try out a new eatery.
Solutions For Childhood Obesity
- Plan a family weight loss plan with a walking and fitness routine together.
- Parents can take their children for the round of tennis or swimming.
- You can plan workouts at home as family time.
- There are many fitness videos and apps which will help track their weight and BMI. Tracking their weight will serve as a motivation for further weight loss. You can plan the same for you as well.
- Your family should consult a nutritionist for planned daily meals.
- Parental involvement in weight management for a child is essential. It has proved to have a better outcome than a child dealing with this independently.
- You can buy a fitness tracker watch for your children to monitor their activity levels.
The way you influence them to eat, you can also motivate them to manage their weight. Your children will reflect your habits and behaviors. Thus it is said that “Your children are your balance sheet.” You need to invest in them to see the profits in terms of their behavior and habits.
To Summarize,
Obesity has become a community problem. It has long-term effects on the health of the future generation.
Thus, the intervention is a must at all levels like home, school, and community levels.
Take the first step today with faith to manage your child’s weight and say that you can do it.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started “
By Mark Twain
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