Childrens obesity in the U.S.

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__ May 2008 Childhood Obesity in the United States

The Pervasive Problem of Childhood Obesity

The significant dietary problem of being overweight and obese has been growing at an alarming rate in the United States today . There have been a number of studies conducted upon this area of concern , a that has been widely talked and written about . But what is more alarming (and which requires even more serious consideration and immediate action ) is the fact that the number of cases affecting

the younger population children from ages 6 to 11 and teenagers of up to 19 years of age , has doubled and tripled respectively , in just over 20 years . One of every five children had been categorized as overweight (Kendal , Wilken Serrano . Despite the many attention and warnings it has gained , the percentage of overweight young Americans has been increasing steadily through the years . If for example , about 5 percent of children were overweight in the `70s , it has now risen to 15 percent . As such , the problem of obesity has already been categorized as an epidemic (Lin Guthrie Frazao

Children coming from different groups exhibited varying percentage of obesity problems . More Mexican American children were found to be overweight than the rest of their peers . This is followed by African American children and then , by non Hispanic Whites (National Center for Health Statistics

Although some measures had already been taken to address the issue , no major effect has yet been seen . Up until today physicians , other health workers and most especially government officials are at a quandary in finding the best solution to the problem . This could be partly due to the fact that although the problem has already been pointed out in earlier studies , pinning down the major contributing factor to the problem has not been resolved by researchers . It is not therefore surprising why policy makers are hard in discovering the right decision in curbing the growing number of child obesity

Ill-Effects of Overweight Problems in Children

Medical health experts had used a person 's body mass index or BMI and the waist 's circumference to calculate an average . Using the same procedure , this also helps determine a person 's level of being overweight (Enns , Mickle Goldman . However , for purpose of clarity being too fat and being overweight are not necessarily the same . But while the notion of an average ' weight may be perceived with some suspicion , the fact that many young and adult Americans are both gaining weight , pose serious health and economic problems of national scale

It has been established that people who are obese have a higher rate of developing other diseases and a shorter life expectancy than those of average weight . In the mid 1990 's alone , about 300 ,000 deaths a year had been traced or caused by obesity . Obese people are also poorer surgical risks than the non-obese , and it is often more difficult to diagnose and therefore to treat their illness...