Special January Hot Topic: Childhood and Adolescent Obesity
If there was ever a hot topic, childhood obesity in America is it. In the past 30 years, it has reached epidemic proportions. You can see it wherever you go…in schools, at the mall, in your place of worship. One out of three children and teens are overweight.
A new study from The New England Journal of Medicine talks about the fact that we will not see the true fallout from this problem for decades—when today’s obese kids are grown and suffering from heart disease, stroke, orthopedic problems, and more. Obese children tend to stay heavy as they grow up, partly because they have ingrained eating habits and also because too much weight early in life may trigger irreversible changes in fat cells, hormonal pathways, and metabolism.
And were this not bad enough, obese children tend to be socially isolated and have high rates of disordered eating, anxiety, and depression. When they reach adulthood, they are less likely than their thinner counterparts to complete college and are more likely to live in poverty.
Schools contribute to the problem, serving high-fat and high-carb meals, and having sugar snacks and sodas available for purchase in vending machines. In many cases, children take gym class only half the year, or can opt out of gym once they get to a certain grade.
In a kind of schizophrenic educational ploy, some states are now sending home information warning parents that their children are overweight. These mandated “BMI report cards” are given out in Delaware, South Carolina, and Tennessee, although the schools continue to serve food that is responsible for kids’ excess weight. Many parents are insulted and dismayed to find that they have a child whose weight is questionable—particularly if they don’t know what to do to start to fix the problem.
“If families had an accurate perception of the issue, we wouldn’t need BMI screening,” said Dr. David Ludwig of Children’s Hospital Boston. “There are so many overweight children that perceptions are getting distorted about what’s normal and healthy.”