CAUSES OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Causes of childhood obesity, according to data from the third Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 82 percent of children aged six to eleven reported eating at least one snack a day and those snacks made up some 20 percent of their daily calories. In order of frequency, the snacks were:
1. Soft drinks
2. Salty snacks, such as potato chips, and popcorn
3. Cookies
4. Non chocolate candy
 5. Artificially flavored fruit beverages
 6. Whole milk and chocolate milk
7.  Two percent milk
 8.  White bread
 9.  Chocolate candy
10. Cake
 11. Ice cream
 12. Fruit
As you can see, the type of snacks most children eat explains in large part why so many of them struggle with their weight. With the exception of whole milk, the only non-processed food on the list is fruit, coming in distant twelfth. With these two exceptions, all the other foods on the list are just high in carbohydrate but low in nutritional value. Most are also made with unhealthy hydrogenated oils. The same survey also showed that more than half of all elementary-school- age children ate on fruit on any given day. The same survey conducted on American kids indicates that the top five sources of calories for the typical American youngster are, in order, whole and chocolate milk, pizza, soft drinks, low-fat milk, and cold breakfast cereal, a particularly high source of sugar.
Three out of ten kids eat less than one serving of vegetables a day. There appalling statistics go long way to explaining why so many children today are overweight. TV trap A lot of junk food is consumed in front of the television.

But snacks aside, TV viewing alone is associated with childhood obesity.

In a study of sixth and seventh graders in California  more TV meant higher weight. Of the teens who watched less than two hours of television each night, 26.2 percent had a BMI (body mass index) at or above the 85th percentile, while among those who watched three or more hours of TV each night, 47.1 percent had BMIs at above the 85th percentile. Of course, even 26.2 percent of a group of kids shouldn't be faced with childhood obesity  but we know from other studies that less TV viewing is associated with a lower weight.

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Posted in: Children, obesity