Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is a very serious concern amongst our children. The percentage of obese children is on the rise, which puts the population at risk. As obese children are more likely to become obese adults, this will cause profound medical and social consequences such as: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, death, and ridicule from other people, depression, and social standing in society. Childhood obesity is a complex disorder involving both genetic and environmental factors. Numerous things affect a child's weight gain; not exercising, fast food, eating too big of a portion at meal time, genetics, low nutrition and the environment at home. There has been a debate for decades on the cause for childhood obesity on who is to blame, whether it is due to genetics or parental responsibility. After reading this paper, you will see that no matter the consequence the parents are ultimately to blame for their children being obese.

Most obesity is caused by excessive daily caloric intake relative to daily caloric expenditure. Excessive intake of calories is most commonly associated with poor food-quality choices (for example, fast food high in fat calories) but may also result from over-ingestion of "healthy foods." The simple biological fact is that all excessive calories (regardless whether double cheeseburger and fries vs. fat free yogurt with berries) will be stored by the body and only as fat. Attempts at only reducing caloric intake without increasing daily vigorous exercise will only help temporarily. If calorie restriction is the sole approach toward losing weight, the body's metabolism adopts a conservation mode and learns how to get by on fewer calories. Adding physical activity to the calorie-burning equation encourages breakdown of excessive carbohydrate and fat stores, allowing for more functional and long-term health. Measurement of height and weight are the most commonly used tools to quickly evaluate the proportionality of children. These measurements allow calculation of the body mass index (BMI).

First, genetics is something that someone cannot control or blame. One cause of genetics for childhood obesity is having copy number variations (CNVs), which are deletions or duplications in DNA sequences. CNV's are rare within the general population, but people with such variants are at a very high risk of becoming obese. This research highlights the importance of doing all we can to encourage children to eat healthily. If genetic influence is strong we must try to counter these inherited tendencies by providing the healthiest possible environment, and educating parents on the importance of a well- balanced diet and an active lifestyle. Most of the genetics of obesity involves on-off switches that regulate metabolism, inflammation, energy. Low quality foods, nutritional deficiencies, artificial additives and preservatives can flip the gain-weight or the do-not-lose or even the burn-calories-slower switch. If you are obese and dieting, it may not be your imagination that you are not eating much and still not losing weight. Genetics (and probably epigenetics) plays an important role in the energetic imbalance leading to fat accumulation, but being obese does not necessarily mean being ill and, indeed, it is likely that very good health is required to establish and to maintain extreme obesity.

Secondly, childhood obesity can be traced to the decisions parents of overweight children are making. Parents have a crucial and sometimes an inconvenient role in their children's lives when it comes to choices regarding their eating habits. Some