Obesity – the foundation is often laid in childhood
In the last three decades, childhood obesity has become one of the fastest growing health risks. Meanwhile, already almost one in five children in US have overweight. In particular, the number of children who have much weight clearly growing.
Who takes the long term more calories than it consumes, will get fat because the body stores excess energy as a reserve for bad times in fat cells. This relic from the hunter-gatherer-time is unfortunately also true for children. While babies may be quiet chubby in her first year of life, the baby fat should have disappeared at the age of five to six years at the latest, because it is precisely with the start of school is changing for many children the daily rhythm. Instead of movement is now increasingly sitting on the program. Especially television and computer games are here to fattening foods. Although they have no calories, but they reduce energy consumption. The result is weight gain, which can become a vicious circle, because who moves less, increases and who has increased, moving less. In addition, many children and young people may prefer candy or greasy fries as a low-calorie fruit salads and vegetable strips. Together with little movement is the unhealthy diet a major cause of the unwanted kilos.
Genetic predisposition or unhealthy living habits?
Despite well-known reasons are the reasons why some children get fat and stay lean with other similar habits, not yet known. Studies of twins have shown, however, that here the genetic predisposition seems to play an important role. So far, no gene has yet to be discovered, which is responsible for excess weight. Although children tend to overweight parents significantly more likely to be overweight than children slimmer parents, but the investment is not the only cause. Only the interaction with other environmental factors such as lack of exercise and calorie-rich food leads to obesity.
Obese children suffer twice.
Obesity is not just a question of beauty, because especially in children, it can have serious physical and psychological consequences. In addition to teasing, undermine the soul, it is mainly the physical stress that can cause serious diseases. So can being overweight not only increase blood pressure, but also leads to lipid metabolism disorders and elevated blood glucose levels. Children with too many kilos are there are often joint problems. Since them due to the lack of exercise the necessary muscles are absent in order to take the pounds joints, postural and joint wear are inevitable. Overall, increases the risk of overweight for many conditions such as osteoarthritis, adult-onset diabetes, gout, and atherosclerosis, which are actually typical for the elderly. In order to avoid irreversible damage, should therefore be countered as early as possible with appropriate measures, because of the extra kilos but disappear not even in children.