Obesity is a grave and quite a dangerous health condition faced by several children worldwide. Apart from consuming a lot of junk food, certain times the family too may play a major role in childhood obesity. Betsy Keller, professor of exercise and sport sciences at Ithaca College explained that one of the biggest threats of childhood obesity could be an overweight parent.
Usually, children having obese parents appear to learn and follow family eating and lifestyle behaviors that may add to the growth of obesity, thereby instilling such behaviors early in life.
Betsy Keller commented, “We are at a crossroads, where the unfortunate reality is that the current generation of children is more likely to pre-decease their parents because of the development of early onset obesity and inactivity-related diseases, such as type II diabetes. Children of obese parents are themselves 13 times more likely to be obese; it is critical to effectively change the tide of what has become the norm in too many U. S. families. The solution is not simple, but efforts to regain healthful levels of body fat in children are more successful and long lasting than in adults. For that reason, First Lady Michelle Obama’s call to focus on children’s health is important and urgent.”
Studies apparently exhibit that the proportion of plump children, pre-teens and teenagers has supposedly augmented between 5 and 19 percent from the mid-1970s to now.
Keller remarked, “More than 70 percent of parents incorrectly think their kids get enough physical activity. So it’s likely that your kid may not be getting enough physical activity either.”
The study mentions that a good way to begin dealing with this issue in young children is a three point approach. The first is to curb ‘screen’ time to 2 hours each day. The second one is that as a family, the evening meal ought to the eaten majority days of the week. The third thing is to assure that a child receives at least 10.5 hours/night of sleep.
Keller apparently investigates the association between physical inactivity and the growth of obesity in children and consequently chronic fatigue syndrome on physical function.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
