Among the litter of Modern American Society, all the candy wrappers, fast food bags, suburban sprawl, TV addictions, lies a harsh truth about childhood obesity.
This might be the first generation of American children to be less healthy than their parents.
In the course of a few decades, children have come to dwarf the size of their parents at the same age. The numbers are staggering.
The average 10 year old in the US weighs 10 pounds more than the average child in the 1960’s according to the Centers of Disease Control. And that translates into adult obesity. The average adult now weighs roughly 25 pounds more than his or her 1960’s counterpart.
Over the past 2 decades, the obesity rate for children has doubled, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. For adolescents, the picture is even worse: More than THREE times as many are obese.The causes are many: The suburban lifestyle, in which driving is king and walking is unpleasant. A boat load of subsidized calories that has made unhealthful foods ever-cheaper and portion sizes inflated. Activity levels have decreased due to TV and games that all you need are your thumbs to play.
Some people believe the country is producing a “lost generation” of children who will struggle with obesity their whole lives.
What we Eat
The diet of the average American child has been supersized in recent decades. A hamburger, fries and drink combo contains hundreds more calories than it did decades ago.
Temptation is everywhere. The marketing departments make the fast food restaurants look like the Gardens of Eden but all they offer is a bounty of empty calories.
How do we change?
Many say a solution must include national policy-level steps, such as taxing unhealthful food or ending farming subsides that create cheap calories.
Foods such as corn that goes into many high calorie products are heavily subsidized; fruits and many other vegetables are not.
It has to start in the home. Parents have to make the changes for the children to make the changes. After all they acquire their habits from their parents.
One Body, One Life, Choose Wisely, otherwise things will just continue to get worse.
24. September 2009 at 1:54 pm
I was just talking about this today with Pam Wilson, the Director of Recreational Therapy at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. By 2025 nearly half the population will suffer from at least one chronic disease, 60% of early deaths are a result of behavioral influences such as obesity, lack of exercise, smoking and living conditions, and 17% of people report not visiting a doctor due to high costs. Now our conversation mainly focused on the Health Care Reform but these statistics are terrifying! Check out http://www.healthierus.gov or http://www.healthreform.gov.
24. September 2009 at 11:02 pm
This is really scary stuff. I have a 3 year old and so far we ahve managed to keep her away from commercial TV advertising. In Australia there is a grass roots campaign to get junk food ads kicked off kids TV. The former health minister said that it was the parent’s responsibility to turn the ads off! Would you believe this.
Fact is the government isn’t going to stop all this anytime soon. I believe that caring parents need to embrace wellness for their kids to live a long, happy life.
25. September 2009 at 6:02 am
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28. September 2009 at 11:15 pm
Bev,
This is such an incredibly important piece of leading a happy life and sadly to say there are so many folks out there who are absolutely missing the boat on it. Because these parents are missing it their children are suffering.
It is incredibly important to be able to show your kids what a healthy lifestyle looks like and in doing so become their role model. There isn’t any reason that we as parents should give up our responsibility to be role models in multiple areas of our children’s lives and what’s more we should strive to be role models to other kids who aren’t as fortunate as ours as well.
Thank you for being there as a true leader.
Keep on rockin!
John
20. October 2009 at 3:32 pm
Hi Beverly,
Thank you for posting this information. Too many people, not just parents, do not want to hear this because it means change, which in turn means discipline (too very unpopular words). It is not easy for today’s parent to instill what it means to be “healthy” into their children because most of their friends are not being taught. Education is so important and the statistics you share in this post need to be shared.