Childhood Obesity & Diet

High calorie foods promote child obesity. What’s your child’s diet like?
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In U.S more than 60% of youth consume too many fatty foods which overtime promotes child obesity and obesity related health problems(see effects of childhood obesity) and less than 20% consume the suggested five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day. U.S. dietary patterns have changed radically over the past few decades. Over nutrition has changed to under nutrition as the largest nutrition-related problem facing both children and adults. Even though the percent of calories from total fat have turn down over the past 30 years, total calories have increased. Soft drink consumption has also increased, accumulating more calories and less nutrients to Americans' diets.

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Childhood Obesity & Food

Childhood Obesity & Nutrition

Childhood Obesity Fast Food

Eating habits have also changed hugely: family meals have often been replaced by munching continuously throughout the day. Cookies, chips and other high-calorie snack foods are readily available for children to fill up on. Parents (see childhood obesity & parents) busy schedule has also made many kids ignorant about the correct diet for them. Our environment also supports "oversize" through large portion sizes at restaurants. These tendencies play roles in the increasing rate of childhood obesity, along with lack of bodily activity (see childhood obesity & exercise). Due to popularity of television (see television childhood obesity) are everyday exposed to thousands of advertisements (see childhood obesity advertising) of fast food and junk food influencing early obesity in children. Many kids just like to eat fast food and not anything with nutrients and vitamins. To consume the essential nutrients that our body needs they have to eat vegetables and fruits.

Researches differ on whether obese devour more energy (calories) (see energy imbalance) than non-obese individuals. Some show they do consume more; others show they may consume fewer calories. The big dissimilarity may be in the type of nutrients that they consume, such as fat. For example, Gazzaniga, et al found that the percentage of body fat was positively connected with total dietary fat. However, other researchers suggest that the reasons are metabolic in origin and that obese individuals "process" foods differently resulting in an increase in body fat. Even though how these factors cause childhood obesity (see childhood obesity causes) is not fully understood, but one thing is clear: obesity in children is caused when calorie intake surpasses calorie expenditure and is stored as fat.

Tips for parents ► What can you do as a parent or guardian or caregiver in childhood obesity prevention? We have some dietry guidelines in our Childhood Obesity Diet section.

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