The Consequences of Childhood Obesity in America

There is much to be alarmed over with the increasing issue surrounding childhood obesity. It has been calculated that over 15 per cent of American children are considered overweight. That’s nearly double the figure from just 40 years ago. It has been called an epidemic by the Surgeon General. With all of these facts in front of us, the next thing to ask is ‘what are the long-term impacts and how will this affect the next generation’? In addition, what can we do to stop this from becoming out of control?

Many organizations such as Harvard Medical School and the Intentional Institute of Health have conducted extensive studies that have come to the conclusion that a poor diet coupled with a lack of exercise greatly increase obesity in children. Add to this the fact that children faced with obesity are more likely to experience difficulties with cognitive learning skills and development and you find that obesity definitely impairs their ability to learn and develop normally.

The Mayo Clinic performed a study in May of 2008 concluding that, more than any other factor, poor diet impacted the overweight child’s ability to do well in school. Compared to children that had a higher intake of predominantly fresh fruits and vegetables who then consistently scored much higher in cognitive skills, those who had diets high in refined sugars and saturated fats fell short of those necessary attributes in scholastics.

It is imperative that we understand how crucial an impact food intake can have on the child’s developing brain. Without a doubt, it is crucial all children have access to a healthy diet in order to have the optimum opportunity to develop normally. If children that are still in the developmental stage are deprived of necessary nutritional intake, the consequences of related obesity will be harder to undo later on. Their chances of changing this life-habit will be even more difficult to turn around the longer this nutritional imbalance is allowed to continue.

There is also the impact a high fat, high sugar diet will have on future generations’ health. Not only will this result in increased health care costs, but will impair a segment of our future society from functioning as ‘normal’ citizens. In addition, the unhealthy eating habits acquired during their formative years will not decrease as they age, placing a further burden on the rest of society.

The obesity epidemic we are experiencing today as it relates to forty years ago reveals an alarming trend that will test our willingness to do what it takes to turn this problem around in time. It is already a fact that children of a younger age are having heart and lung issues, with the occasional child as young as ten having chest pains and heart attacks.

Again, citing the Surgeon General, statistics reveals that over 300,000 Americans will die from obesity-related issues; not to mention any other health related costs associated with obesity. Accordingly, if today’s epidemic of childhood obesity in America isn’t abated through lifestyle changes, those numbers will only increase.

As recently as the year 2000, the impact related to excess weight in society resulted in a cost factor of nearly $117 billion in health care costs, as well as lost productivity due to loss time in the workplace. Looking at it this way, these costs not only affects the obesity issue but causes increased costs to all of society as well.

So, what is the solution? The correct answer is simple: since children are increasingly eating too much non-nutritional foods high in fat and sugars, and aren’t getting proper exercise to burn off those added calories, we need to curb those behaviors and offer more nutritional foods higher in fiber and lower in calories, in addition to reintroducing our young to the benefits of exercise.