Child Obesity: a simple overview

In countries all over the world, but especially in developed countries such as the United States and Canada, more and more kids and teens are becoming overweight. When a child’s Body Mass Index (BMI) exceeds the cut-off point for his or her age, this child is considered to be obese.

Articles and research papers have been popping up over the last decade addressing this issue. The public media has also done its part in raising people’s awareness recently.

Some logical explanations of the recent raise in child obesity include:

• Advances in technology (TV, video and computer games, etc) leading to kids spending more time indoors rather than participating in after-school sports or extra-curricular physical activities.

• Excessive snacking. Americans are estimated to spend over $1 billion US on snacks PER DAY! One billion dollars!

• Schools offering popular junk foods in vending machines and cafeterias.

• Eating habits and lifestyles of families: popularity of fast food and lack of exercise due to rushed lifestyles of families nowadays.

Heredity always comes up as a possible explanation in the cause of obesity. There have been some studies that support this explanation. However, the sudden increase of overweight kids and teens in recent years (one in five children age 5-17 are overweight compared to 30 years ago when one in ten children are overweight) have me believe that “nurture” rather than “nature” holds the key in explaining and solving this issue.