by Katarzyna Radzka

Created on: September 25, 2010

A number of factors exist which contribute to childhood obesity. Some of them are obvious like diet and exercise, then there are the less obvious ones like parents, schools and stress factors. Regardless of the cause of obesity, it is a health issue that needs to be taken seriously as any other as it is the primer for further more serious medical conditions among children, teens and into adulthood.

Diet

The first factor that contributes to obesity is diet. Eating donuts, cakes, burgers, fries, chocolates, crisps, and high fat meals along with drinking soft drinks and other sugary concoctions impacts the body in a negative way. The excess calories from these foods result in weight gain and often lead to obesity. More children nowadays are being fed a lot of junk food due to a lack of time and energy or even interest to cook healthy meals.

Exercise

People are becoming less and less active when compared to their ancestors. Before television and computer games children actually spent the majority of their free time playing outdoors which meant they were automatically getting more physical activity. Currently there are more organized sporting activities but a lot less children participate in them. Many prefer to play video games or watch television which is assisting in their weight gain.

Parents

Parents are a contributing factor. Probably one of the biggest and most dangerous. Parents have the power and control to dictate what their children eat, how much physical activity they get and what type of lifestyle they lead. If parents set a bad example by spending most of their time in a sedentary state and also suffer from weight problems or obesity, their children will be more prone to suffer from the same problems and lead a similar lifestyle.

Schools

Physical activity at school was once a compulsory subject that took place every day. Now some kids are lucky to get some physical activity once a week. This is inexcusable as children spend the majority of their youth in school. Schools are places for children to learn and develop and a part of that needs to be learning and being physically active. Schools can be blamed where obesity is concerned.

Stress

Children stress as much as adults, sometimes even more. While adults are more aware of stress and can sometimes better control it, children haven’t necessarily developed these skills yet. Their stress levels can sometimes lead to overeating to get comfort and make them feel better. The more stress they feel from school, parent or peer pressure may mean that they end up eating more than they should and will start gaining weight. If this isn’t noticed early enough it can lead to obesity in the future.

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