Childhood obesity is a serious public health problem in the United States. Not only does excess weight lead to medical and psychosocial disorders in children, there is a strong link between childhood obesity and adult obesity. Exacerbating the problem are trends in eating patterns favoring more and more convenience foods, of which fast foods are the most harmful. Fast foods are high in fat, sodium, and sugar while low in essential nutrients. The consumption of fast foods has had a direct impact on the increase in childhood obesity among American youth.
Some public health experts contend that childhood obesity has developed into a crisis in the United States. The prevalence of this problem has increased over the past two decades. Between 11 percent and 25 percent of U.S. children and adolescents are overweight. Although medical experts are unsure of how childhood obesity develops, contributing factors are a sedentary lifestyle and the consumption of foods that are high in fat and calories. These factors are fairly recent phenomena: (Although obesity has underlying genetic causes, which may explain about 50% of the variation in body weight, the dramatic recent increase must be due to behavioral factors rather than genetics.( In other words, the modern American lifestyle plays a major role in childhood obesity.
The trend in obesity in children is disturbing because excess weight contributes to medical and psychosocial disorders. Medical disorders include hyperlipidemia, hepatic steatosis, and abnormal carbohydrate metabolism. Increasingly, obese children are experiencing medical disorders that were once seen only in obese adults: (Pediatricians are seeing hypertension, dyslipidemia, and noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) in the most obese children and adolescents.( If this trend continues, the economic costs to the nation(s health care system would be overwhelming.
Obese children also suffer from pys...