Looking Into
the Causes and Dangers
of Childhood Obesity

Keep your children away from the dangers of childhood obesity.

The leading cause of childhood obesity is poor eating. Many children eat far, far too much refined sugar and empty carbohydrates.

They eat far too much hydrogenated oil and cooked table salt.

Their diets are out of balance because public schools buy the lowest quality food and because their own parents typically also have poor diets.

Discourage your child from eating sugar, fast food and processed food.

The best thing you can do is to feed him/her with Mediterranean diet foods.

And if you want to try something new, try making your child a healthy meal from my Free Diet Meal Plans.

The dangers of childhood obesity are many, yet we don't seem to take our children's weight problems with enough seriousness. As a result, the causes of childhood obesity are obnoxiously ignored, including by health authorities and public school systems as well as too many parents.

The dangers of childhood obesity are played down because too many adults assume that when a child is overweight, they are just going through a lazy phase or a phase of bad eating habits and they will soon enough mature and grow out of it.

It's then assumed that when they grow out of this phase, they will automatically start doing different things that undo the childhood obesity causes.

In fact, there are some parents who falsely assume that if their child is overweight it's just a natural part of the growth process and they will naturally just shed the unwanted pounds at some point in early adulthood.

So, chief among the dangers of childhood obesity are the sheer ignorance that it seems to inspire in people who really should know better.

Fat children are not normal, and a society that sees them as such has got something wrong with it. The causes of childhood obesity do not include "baby fat" that just keeps hanging around.

The causes of childhood obesity can include genetics, environment, diet, and level of physical activity.

The dangers of childhood obesity loom large and include:

• increased likelihood of adult obesity
  
  
• increased risk of heart disease
  
  
• hypertension
  
  
• high blood pressure
  
  
• type 2 diabetes
  
  
• self-esteem problems
  
  
• increased likelihood of depression and sleep problems
  
  
• problems with having healthy relationships
  
  
• fatigue
  
  
• eating disorders and the health problems associated with them.

Lack of physical activity

This certainly can and often does play a role in fostering the dangers of childhood obesity.

Today, children are encouraged more than ever to lead sedentary lifestyles.

They see their parents doing this, as their parents spend most of the waking day sitting.

They sit in their cars to go to and from work, they sit at a desk all day at the office, then at night after dinner they sit in front of the television before going to lie down for bed. Then on weekends they sit in their cars even more, and after they eat they continue to sit instead of going for a nice walk.

Needless to say, there are modern parents who aren't like this, but this does describe the majority of them.

But even children who come from households with physically active parents are still encouraged into sedentary lives.

They sit at at desk in school, then they come home and sit down to do any homework. They then sit in front of the television or in front of the computer, or they sit and text message each other from their cell phones. They also do a lot of sitting around playing video games.

They are encouraged to watch sports, but not to play them.

If we look closely, we clearly see that not all children who are "geeks" and sit around in front of desks or computers all the time are fat. Likewise, not all children who participate in sports are of normal weight or slender.

Feed your children well and you will teach them well.

Return from Dangers of Childhood Obesity page to Research on Obesity

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