Diet, Obesity and Physical Activity in Children - Essay Example

Diet, Obesity and Physical Activity in Children The obesity rate in children is increasing at a rapid rate worldwide, giving rise to healthconcerns. The literature review suggests that genetic defects that cause abnormalities in fat metabolism in the body are the trigger for obesity. However, for this trigger to act, conditions must be conducive to it. Studies on the food habits and physical, activities of children provide clues for this trigger. There is a greater consumption of foods that increase the total energy intake on one side, while on the other side there is a reduction in physical activity in children through their indulgence in spending more time watching television. These two factors of increased total energy intake and reduced physical provide the conditions that are conducive for the genetic defects trigger to act, leading to the rapid increase in obesity rates in children. Introduction The rising rate of obesity in children is a cause for health concerns around the world, with particular emphasis on the developed. It is no different in the case of Australia, where more and more children are becoming obese at a rapid rate. Estimates in recent times of the prevalence of obesity in Australia, show that the prevalence of obesity has virtually doubled in virtually a short period of time. This sudden increase in the prevalence has been put down to unhealthy dietary practices and the lack of physical exercise. The health concern with obesity in children is the tendency for obesity to continue into adulthood with all the attendant health risks due to obesity. (1). Literature Review Obesity in children is reaching epidemic proportions. In about four decades between 1963 and 2004 obesity estimate rates in children show an alarming trend. In the adolescent age group it has more than tripled moving from five percent to seventeen percent, while in the age group of 6 – 11 years it has increased by nearly four times, moving from four percent to nineteen percent and in the age group of 2 – 5 years has almost trebled from five percent to fourteen percent. Current estimates from statistical data suggest that more than 22 million children below the age of five are either overweight or obese worldwide. The more pronounced statistical evidence of the growing epidemic of obesity is its rising rate even among infants in the age group 6 – 23 months, where the rate now is almost twelve percent. (2). Obesity in children was considered to be an aspect of the influence of affluence in the developed world, but such concepts are being proved wrong with the spectre of obesity looming large in the continent of Africa, where many of the least developed countries are located. It is obesity now that is the major nutritional problem in Africa and mot not malnutrition with the prevalence of obesity being nearly four times greater than malnutrition in Africa. This alarming rise in the rates of obesity in children make it a cause of growing concern worldwide, with more emphasis being paid on understanding obesity in children, so that the means to ameliorate it can be put in place. (2). Parsons et al, 1999, based on their study to identify the risk factors for obesity in children suggest the role of genetics or the inclination of parents for obesity, social factors, birth weight, timing or rate of maturation, physical activity, dietary factors and other behavioural and psychological factors. They also found that there was no significant relationship between low economic status and obesity in children. Such findings suggest that children irrespective of their caste, colour and creed and culture are equally at risk in the development of obesity, based on the other risk factors. (3). Rosenbaum and Leibel 1998, however lay the blame for obesity on children to a mix of nature and nurture in the form of genetics, sedentary life styles and the consumption of excess of calories. Evidence emerging from studies on the physiology and molecular genetics of obesity show that fat in the body is regulated. Defects in the genetic encoding of the molecular system in this regulatory system are the reason for the accumulation of fat in the body. However, the rapid increase in the rate of obesity in children cannot be explained with just this reasoning and there has to be environmental factors that play an increasing role in this rapid increase in obesity in children. Sedentary life styles and the excess consumption of calories are the environmental factors involved and the rapid increase in obesity in children can be put down to the interaction of the genetic factor with an environment that promotes a sedentary life style and the excess consumption of calories. (4). Papoutsakis and Dedoussis 2007, support this postulation of the association between genetic underpinnings and environmental factors of nutrient exposure, dietary behaviour and sedentary life style. According to these authors genes play a significant role in the development of obesity in children, when the permissive obesogenic environment in the form of increased energy intake and decreased physically is present. Development of obesity in children needs to be viewed with concern taking into consideration that of the increased in morbidity and mortality in the adulthood of these children through the attendant co-morbidities of obesity in the form of insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, certain kinds of cancer, orthopaedic issues and sleep apnoea. (5). Children consume as much as half-million calories annually. In spite of this huge energy intake children have tended to maintain a fine balance between the energy intakes, energy expenditure and energy storage for growth through the means of precise homeostatic regulation. This fine balance however can be easily upset, when the energy intakes and energy expenditures are altered. Even a fine alteration in this finely tuned system can lead to detrimental consequences. A mere excess intake of energy of 105kJ per day spread over time can result in the development of obesity in children (6). Tracing the changes in dietary habits of children of children that have led to the upsetting the fine balance of energy intake has led to the growing inclination for fast foods among children. Fast foods are becoming more and more popular with children than the former better balanced diets consumed by them earlier. Based on their study of 6,212 children in the United States of America between the ages of four and nineteen, Bowman et al, 2004 found that more than thirty percent of these children consumed fast foods irrespective of gender and ethnicity. Children consuming fast foods consumed more total energy, more total carbohydrates, more sugar-sweetened beverages, less fibre, less milk and less fruits and less fruits and non-starchy vegetables in comparison to children, who did not consume fast foods on a regular basis. The net result of this diet of fast foods is the consumption of more total energy and diminished quality of diet. This diminished quality of diet in the children consuming fast foods on a regular basis put them at increased risk for obesity. (7). There is an increased consumption of sweetened beverages among children. This finding comes from a study of the beverage intake among pre-school children, who were participants of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002, conducted in the United States of America. Data from this study shows that pre-school children consumed less milk than was recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and instead consumed more sweetened beverages, thereby increasing their total energy consumption. (8). Extra consumption of total energy can be offset by children through the many physical activities that they indulge in. However, the increased consumption of total energy by children is coupled with the reduction in the physical activity of children as shown by the study conducted by Hernandez, et al, 1999 among children in Mexico City. Children in Mexico City spend on an average nearly four hours a day watching television and less than two hours a day indulging in any physical activity. The study found association between this increased time spent on watching television and the diminished time spent on physical activities to the development of obesity in children. (9). The findings of this study find support from Anderson et al, 1998, who conducted a similar study on children in ages between eight and fourteen in the United States of America. They found a similarity in the time children spent in front of the television amounting to an average of four hours a day and spend less time on vigorous physical activity. The study found that boys and girls spending four hours or more watching television led to a decrease in vigorous physical activity and had greater body fat, leading the study to conclude that the physical activity lost through the many hours spent watching television pit these children at risk for becoming obese. (10). Discussion Statistical data shows that there is a drastic rise in the development of obesity in children, which is a health concern, as this obesity is carried into adulthood and the mortality and morbidity consequences associated with adult obesity. There is limited clarity in the exact causes for this increase in the rate of obesity in children. However it is postulated from available evidence that the cause of this rapid rise in obesity rates in children is the interaction of the genetic defects in the regulation of fat accumulation in the body with an environment that promotes a sedentary life style and the excess consumption of calories. Studies of food habits in children have shown an increase in the consumption of fast foods and sweetened beverages and a reduction in the consumption of a healthy diet and milk. This has led to an increase in the total energy consumption. This increase in total energy consumption is accompanied by an increase in the number of hours spent in watching television and a reduction in the time spent on physical activities or a sedentary life style. These findings demonstrate the presence of the environmental conditions that are conducive for the genetics defects in fat regulation to give rise to obesity in children, thereby causing a spurt in the obesity rates in children. Conclusion Based on the literature review, the conclusion is that there is a rapid increase in the obesity rates in children, which are associated with diets that increase the total energy intake in children and the reduction in physical activity that cause children to have a sedentary lifestyle Works Sited 1. “Obesity in Children – Causes”. 2007. BetterHealthChannel. State of Victoria. 3 Nov. 2008. . 2. Miller, L. Jennifer & Silverstein, H. Janet. “Management Approaches for Paediatric Obesity”. Nature Clinical Practice Endocrinology & Metabolism 3.12 (207): 810-818. 3. Parsons, T. J., Power, C., Logan, S., & Summerbell, C. D. “Childhood predictors of adult obesity: a systematic review”. International Journal of Obesity Related Metabolic Disorders 8 (1999): 100-107. 4. Rosenbaum, Michael & Leibel, L. Rudolph. “The Physiology of Body Weight Regulation: Relevance to the Aetiology of Obesity in Children”. Paediatrics 101.3 (1998): 525-539. 5. Papoutsakis, Constantina & Dedoussis, V. George. “Gene-Diet Interactions in Childhood Obesity: Paucity of Evidence as the Epidemic of Childhood Obesity Continues to Rise”. Personalized Medicine 4.2 (2007): 133-146. 6. Goran, M. & Treuth, M. “Energy Expenditure, Physical Activity and Obesity in Children. Paediatric Clinics of North America 48.4 (2001): 931-952. 7. Bowman, A. Shanthy, Gortmaker, L. Steven, Ebbeling, B. Cara, Pereira A. Mark & Ludwig, S. David. “Effects of Fast-Food Consumption on Energy Intake and Diet Quality Among Children in a National Household Survey”. Paediatrics 113.1 (2004): 112-118. 8. O’Connor, R. M., Yang, S. J. & Nicklas, T. A. “Beverage intake among preschool children and its effect on weight status”. Paediatrics 118.4(2006): 1010-1018. 9. Hernandez, B., Gortmaker, S. L., Colditz, G. A., Peterson, K. E., Laird, N. M. & Parra-Cabrera, S. “Association of obesity with physical activity, television programs and other forms of video viewing among children in Mexico City”, International Journal of Obesity 23.8 (1999): 845=854. 10. Anderson, E. Ross, Crespo, J. Carlos, Bartlett, J. Susan, Cheskin, J. Lawrence & Pratt Michael. “Relationship of Physical Activity and Television Watching With Body Weight and Level of Fatness Among Children”, The Journal of the American medical Association 279(1998): 938-942. Read More