Childhood obesity is a health issue that forms a matter of concern for parents as well as healthcare professionals. According to the recent studies, the rate of obesity among children in the United States has shown a heavy increase by 100 percent between 1980 and the mid-1990s. Being overweight is a serious health concern for children. It may cause diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and orthopedic problems, such as increased stress on joints. Overweight children may also show a decreased self-esteem.

Why are some children gain weight?

Definitely, there do genetic factors play a big role in a making a child overweight. The obesity rates have tripled in the past 3 decades, even though the genes remain unchanged. That points that the recent widespread obesity problem is primarily caused by environmental factors.

According to David Ludwig, MD, PhD, director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children’s Hospital, Boston, genes are not a big problem, while two-thirds of obesity would vanish if society could revert back to the way it did certain things around 40 years back. Environmental factors have changed a lot including the food that we consume family structure and life style.

The number of people consuming fast food has shown a big hike since 1950’s. Most of the kids in the US eat fast food in enormous portion sizes consisting of lot of calories. According to Dr Ludwig, fast food is hurting the health of kids very badly.

To help prevent becoming overweight, children should eat less fast food, and must depend on more low glycemic index foods, fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, unprocessed grains, adequate protein and healthful oils such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and omega 3 fats which leave a person feeling filled longer.

Soft drinks play another villain in making the kids obese. Similar to eating calorie-laden fast food, when a person drinks soda which is 100 percent sugar it may escape the body’s regulating methods making kids obese by 1.6 times. He suggest the new generation to stay away from junk food to be Healthy and fit.

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Obesity is a serious health issue that is a matter concern of most of the parents in the United States. Over weight paves way for serious health issues, both physical and mental. Over weight children also shows signs of depression. Obesity in teenagers is a risk factor causing diabetes, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and hypertension. Obesity also may trigger the risk of developing heart disease as adults.

But they may not have to wait to face these devastating results. A recent study conducted on 460 teenage American Indians has revealed that heart abnormalities were already common in obese adolescents.

The study says that left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH, a thickening of the wall of the heart’s left ventricle) was present in 12.4 percent of overweight teenagers and 33.5 percent of the obese teens. But only 3.5 percent of adolescents among them has a normal weight. In the health research, LVH was accompanied by some heart abnormalities similar to those seen in heart failure. A similar association between obesity and LVH has been identified in other adolescent populations in the United States of America.

LVH in adults is resulted by the high blood pressure and obesity. Obesity in childhood does of course result in LVH in adults. The study conducted on 460 teenage American Indians shows that the increased heart size among the adolescents cannot be accounted for high blood pressure. It appeared to be greater than expected, as due to the extra work the heart must perform in a body of excessive weight.

The authors’ research journal suggests that the enlarged hearts of these teens may be due partly to growth-promoting effects of elevated insulin levels, which are also common among the obese teenagers. This revelation of LVH in obese adolescents does serve as yet another reason for parents to make every effort possible to to ensure the cutting down of obesity among their children.

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