Childhood Obesity : A life-long problem?

Obesity is recognised as the number 1 health problem in US. This is part of lifestyle diseases which come with the improvement of income combined with an unhealthy lifestyle. Primary reasons are not using up all the calories that one consumes, eating junk food and having less exercise.

Few people have been able to reduce weight and stay fit once they are diagnosed with morbid obesity. 10 out of 100 obese people have been able reduce weight and 1 out of those 10 stayed away from obesity for more than 5 years.

Obesity is going to be a bigger cause of death than smoking. However addiction to smoking was easy to control, how can you monitor and control addiction to eating? It was found out that smoking if started before the age of 18 was almost impossible to get rid of, so selling cigarettes to minors was prohibited. Can you tell ice cream vendors to stop selling ice cream to fat children? Brain behaves same way whether its sugar or cocaine addiction.

Just like smoking if a child is obese most probably he will be obese when he becomes an adult. So urban families need to get awareness about obesity and ensure that children don’t fall into its trap at a young age.

Should developing countries like India and China worry? Yes. Chinese have a 1 child policy. The growing GDP is ensuring that mothers nurture their children too well. In the process they become fat. About 10% of children under 12 are obese in China. It would be difficult for such children to lead a healthy adult life.

We need to take care of children’s weight. India is passing through a phase where number of children per family is falling and moving nearer to China. The family’s disposable income is rising and so is fast food options available to them. All the elements of leading to an obesity epidemic are present. A little carelessness may lead to large scale obese children.

Till now India’s textbooks deal with malnutrition and balanced diet. By any criteria the number of malnourished children outnumber the potential obese children. So government cannot make the same kind of textbook applicable for entire board. The differentiation of instruction has to be done at teacher level where they have to make students aware the thin line of difference between malnourishment and obesity.

A parent can help by feeding their children home cooked food and incorporating physical activities in their everyday life. I am sure that if there is enough awareness among parents and children we can keep childhood obesity out of the country so that our future is fit!