Introduction :Among health problems, obesity is now a highlyinsurmountable one that people have to confront. This disease is defined as”abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health”.( byWorld Health Organization ) . Overweight and obesity are among the easiestmedical conditions to recognize but most difficult to treat. At present, thereare many ways to find out whether a person has a healthy weight or not, but themost widely used method is BMI standing for body mass index. Based on yourweight and height as well as your age, this method helps you calculate and givea certain number then you will compare that to a table to identify what groupyou belong to : healthy weight, overweight, obese or severely obese. Thisdisease appears in different ages, especially in children and teenagers. Thepaper, based on secondary data, discusses the situation, causes, effects andsuggests some solutions to treat obesity.
The research with the purpose toraise people’s awareness on child and teen obesity and help readers can changeeating and working daily habits so as to have good health.Causes :Obesity is a serious medical condition which threats to childrenand adolescents. People in the obese category are above the normal weight fortheir age and height.
It also affects the psychology of the child, causingfeelings of fear, inferiority, afraid to interact with others. Even growing upif you continue to maintain such weight can cause mental disorders. Obviously,obesity is not just a matter of weight and appearance, it also has seriousconsequences that directly affect their life. Therefore, it is essential tofind the factors that contribute to development of child and teen obesity andthen give measures and strategies to have a healthy lifestyle. First and foremost, dietaryfactors play a role in the risk of obesity development.
It includes fast food consumption, sugarybeverages, snack foods, and portion sizes. Today’s kids and teens are not just learning at school, butthey are also busy with outgoing activities, playing sports or going to work toenhance some soft skills. Therefore, they do not have enough time to prepare afull meal, that is the reason for fast food with cheap prices is a toppriority. This food has avery attractive flavor, stimulates the taste makes them eat uncontrollably. However,it contains very high calories. Alarge fast food meal can contain about 2 200 calories, which at a burn rate of85–100 calories per mile would require something near a full marathon to expend(Anderson et al., 2003).
The body will store theextra energy as fat. That similarly happens when they regularly use sugarydrinks including soft drinks and fruit juice. Portion sizes tend to besubstantially larger, and this may confound the dietary methodologies that theyhave. Frequently eating these foods willincrease the amount of total calorie intake leading to being obese rapidly.
Additionally, lack of physical activity isanother important factor related to obesity. Many children and teenagers study atschool that involve sitting at a desk for most of the day ,so they become lazyto move from one place to another place by walking or cycling even shortdistance. Instead of going out, they always choose to stay at home and watch TV.This brings two disadvantages. Not only do they not work to burn excesscalories in the body but also want to eat more when watching the advertisementson television. Last but not least, genetic factors also promote child andteen obesity.
Manyresearchers believe that genetics plays a strong role in determining whether anindividual has weight problems. Studies have found a correlation between parentand child obesity, although such a correlation may be due either to genetic orcommon environmental factors. In spite of some rare genetic conditions that canprovoke obesity, but there’s noreason why most people can’t lose weight. Some people assert there’s no point trying to loseweight because “it runs in my family” or “it’s in mygenes”. It may be true that certain genetic traits inherited from yourparents which may make losing weight more difficult, but it certainly doesn’tmake it impossible1. Situation : Levels of childhood obesity areincreasing at alarming rates in a great number of countries and poses seriouschallenges to the whole society.
As reported by World Health Organization, thenumber of overweight or obese infants and young children (aged 0 to 5 years)rose from 32 million globally in 1990 to 41 million in 2016. The prevalence of overweight and obesity inchildren varies between regions and countries. Although rates may be plateauingin some areas, absolutely common in low- and middle-income countries than inhigh-income ones (30 %).
Specifically, from 1990 to 2014, the global proportionof overweight and obesity grew from 4.8% to 6.1%. Nonetheless, among them, inundeveloped and developing countries this situation have doubled from 7.5million to 15.5 million.
What is noticeable is that nearly half of the figureis in Asia (48%), 25% in Africa. It is estimated that if this trends continues,by 2025 the number of overweight and obese children as well as teenagers will reach 70 million. Without timely intervention, overweightchildren are more likely to become obese in adulthood than are lean children. About one half ofoverweight adolescents and over one-third of overweight children remain obeseas adults leading to risks ofpremature onset of illnesses.
