As many of my regular viewers to this web blog know, there are many factors contributing to childhood obesity. I post daily here about it, whether news print articles, opinions, feedback, or just personal opinion.
Recently, I wrote an article for Yahoo! (click here) about childhood obesity. I started searching for sources for this article, and received over 100 responses to the question, “What do you think caused the rise in childhood obesity?” Responses came from professional and Olympic athletes, fitness experts, health experts, nutritionist, and parents.
I was unable to use everyone’s feedback, but thought it would be great to post some of their responses on my blog in a new web series, “What Causes Childhood Obesity.” I hope that you enjoy the opinions here from various individuals. Please remember, my including their posts does not necessarily mean I agree or endorse their opinion, rather, a place to share other people’s thoughts.
Childhood obesity is on the rise for a number of reasons.
1. Increase in Media time and Video games, Ipads, Itouches, Computers. What kid doesn’t have or have access to their parents Ipad these days or home computer? Instead of when we were kids and our parents only gave us the option to go outside and run around with friends, many parents are letting their kids spend countless hours on the computer or other media device. Whether educational or not, this is a sedentary activity where kids are not burning calories, and this often also leads to over eating. When people eat while engaging in video games or watching TV they are more likely to consume more calories because it is completely mindless, and they don’t realize how much they are eating.
Parents can limit media time to 1 hour per day. When kids are not in school, they should be spending time running around outdoors, in the park, or engaging in after school sports.
2. Increase in packaged/convenience foods. Many households have both parents working so there is less time to prepare healthy meals and snacks. Many parents turn to “snack packs” which even if they are “100 calories” are loaded with sugar. These snack packs tend to be unsatisfying which leads a person to crave more sometimes consuming a second package if not more of something else.
Parents need to make time to go to the grocery store and stock up on fruits, vegetables, lean protein and whole grains. If you work full time, pick one day on the weekend to cook a few meals for the week. Cut up vegetables and fruit and leave them in containers in the fridge for easy access.
3. Knowledge: With so much conflicting information out there, some parents just don’t know what is good for their kids any more. Parents also tend to be more lenient these days, and let the child dictate their needs.
My advice, every child is different and has different requirements. Seek advice from a Registered Dietitian if your child is having weight problems.
Ilyse Schapiro MS, RD, CDN
Ilyse,
You almost hit the nail on the head. It isn’t just prepackaged calorie counted treats that is making our kids too fat. It is the perpetual perpetration of prepackaged meals, and snacks combined with the influx of technology that is making our kids fat combined with poor parental habits and parenting choices.
Each day More easy fixes keep popping up in the frozen aisles and prepared food aisles. I mean did GM have to come up with another chocolate and/or fruity FLAVORED cereal in the mist of a child obesity epidemic. And Now IHop offers some of their breakfast treats frozen in another aisle.
Too many parents have forgotten how to be a parents, cook all naturally from scratch, set rules and follow through and say NO. even if at work, parents can still control what their kids eat—simply by not giving in to the temptation of more expensive prepackaged crap and taking the time to prepare an after school snakc or have a bowl of freshness available to satisfy hungry kids while at work.
Are schools the answer–absolutely Not; in fact each school that has improved food choices has also had to lay off teachers to pay for such!
School and fitness after school programs are not the answer-and has not helped to decrease the amount of obese kids to date! However, such programs have succeeded in raising bodily obsessions, fears of getting fat, food adversions, and Eating Disorders among children are at an all time high.
Lastly, please accept that all the nutritional information and get fit programs does not help a family in need of weight loss overcome the addiction to poor habits. Until these poor habits are overcome all the nutritional info becomes obsolete to those most in need!
BTW: Only 5 years ago, research found that 43% of parents of obese kids—denied that their child has an overweight issue.
IF you have any questions, please do contact me!
Randi
MA Psych, MA ED
Culinary Author and Publisher
I direct toward my site, http://www.childobesitysupportivesolutions.com
It is written by a former teacher, therapist and internationally awarded Culinary Author who understand how obesity develops and the role that parents play when avoiding or overcoming obesity.
BTW: Although Len prefers to speak about the new $2m plate—he ignores that the copies of such made onto an 8 x10″ or 8 x 11″ sheet of parer is not an adequate size of a plate, has caused massive food obsessions in healthy kids and neglects the goodness of cooking with fruits and veggies for healthful flavors.
Thank you Randi, I enjoyed your post here. I would welcome you to write a guest post for my site if interested, just shoot me an email using the contact form above. It would always be nice to get another perspective.
Please clarify what you mean at the end of your post about the $2m plate, as I am not sure what that has to do with this post. Thanks.
I actually enjoyed this a lot. Randi, you make some good points, but it seems like a very condescending or angry tone, sorry.
Len, don’t understand the plate reference either 🙂