SubscribeChild Obesity Rates Leveled Off - A Sign of Hope?
Arguably one of the most concerning aspects of the obesity crisis is how it is impacting our children. After 25 years of the climbing obesity rates in children, there may be cause for hope as these levels have stalled - according to the CDC. The findings, based on survey data gathered from 1999 to 2006 are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Courtesy of NY Times)
Now the big question: Is this a temporary blip in the continued upward spiral, or is this cause to celebrate (with carrot sticks and a game of soccer, of course).
Guarded enthusiasm may be the best way to handle this news at the moment. With that, let's take a look at these findings from both perspectives.
The Glass Half Empty Viewpoint
- It is possible that this is just a natural lull - a saturation point in terms of the proportion of the population who are genetically susceptible to obesity in this environment. (Quote from Cynthia Ogden, the lead author of the journal report and an epidemiologist for the National Center for Health Statistics.)
- This still leaves the child obesity rate at an alarmingly high 32% - a number that will cause an entire generation of health concerns down the road.
- The data between 2 surveys (2003, 2006) had to be pooled as the net result of neither of the 2 surveys was statistically significant.
The Glass Half Full Viewpoint
- This means that government interventions centered on nutrition and activity are potentially working and that educational messages are reaching parents and children.
- If you can stop the damage, you can reverse it. There is no reason not to believe that this generation can be the one that reverses the course. If these interventions continue, this generation will be well-educated and continue to have the tools to live a healthy lifestyle. This is something they will be able to pass on to future generations.
What Now?
We have to keep fighting. Parents need to step up and provide the best possible situation for their children - one that involves a lifestyle centered around physical activity and healthy eating. We have to continue to put forth educational messages that will combat the powerful impact of marketing and convenience.
It's still an uphill battle, but these kinds of statistics give reason to believe it is possible.
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I personally like to believe this is not a one time change, and the childhood obesity rates will gradually improve. I think that many people are better understanding the long-term repercussions of childhood obesity and are taking action to help children. I think a lot of parents are improving their eating and exercise habits which in turn help influence their children to do the same. I truly hope the childhood obesity rates start to decline.
ReplyIf you think about it, 32% is awfully high for a level of childhood obesity. Think about it: kids have just about everything on their side to have a naturally normal weight...they're still actively growing, most of them have a lot of energy, and they have a pretty high metabolism for the most part. I'm guessing that the obesity rate in kids is probably pretty saturated at this point...maybe it's got nowhere to go but down.
I really hope the trend continues, but I think more research needs to go into WHY the rates are dropping off: Is it the emergence of the Wii? DDR? The marketing of 100 calorie packs and sugar free drinks toward kids? I mean, I just remember that back when I was a kid, you had like 1-2 fat kids per class and we played outside or rode our bikes or jumped rope or played kickball for fun. Nowadays, you see 10-12 fat kids in a class of maybe 30 and they all play Xbox for fun. It's pretty shocking that the rate of obese kids could go up THAT fast in that short time period. So yeah, I blame video games for the INCREASE in childhood obesity; maybe now that they're getting more physical, they'll be responsible for the decrease as well.
ReplyBlame Video games?
Why not the parents?
Parents need to take control, instead they find it easier to let their child sit on the couch and play video games all day instead of shooing them outside to play.
I think it's a shame that we go blaming companies for all of our mistakes.
The video game company does not whether you have your child go out and play or sit on the couch all day THE PARENTS DO.
Replyoops missed a word-
The video game company does not decide whether you have your child go out and play or sit on the couch all day THE PARENTS DO.
ReplyI totally agree-parents to to set limits to the play time
ReplyAbsolutely, parents-- but we do need to set a more active culture.
My parents did not emphasize physical activity. Now, at age 13 I started exercising anyways and have been since-- but I wish I had an earlier start!
So because we have a society where most parents don't exercise, it is certainly important for the well being of children to have a culture (in school, etc) where exercise is a given. I don't think you can really just expect a child to make the right choice, or know what the right choice is.
ReplyAnd if you are starting late, already obese, that makes it more difficult -- especially in terms of weight management-- it's a lot easier to have never gained the weight than to lose significant weight later.
Well, yeah, it's sort of a cause and effect thing...if parents don't buy the video game systems, the kids won't play them. So yeah, parents definitely need to be more attentive to how their kids are spending their free time. I think too many parents just plop their kid in front of an Xbox so they'll stay out of trouble, but it ends up causing more harm than good. Parents need to be encouraging their kids to play outside, ride their bikes, go on a family hike or something. Same with food: parents need to be PARENTS at the store and tell their kids NO every once in a while. Sure, kids want sugary candy/junk food/chips/etc., but kids don't know what's best for them. Just because a kid wants mac and cheese doesn't mean you buy that for them. Make them eat what you're eating: healthy, balanced meals. A small struggle to eat their veggies when they're small will pay off big time when they're the only kids on your block that'll eat their brussels sprouts.
ReplyAgreed! I grew up in the heyday of Nintendo, so plenty of the kids I knew (including me) were playing video games. Yet there were only a handful of fat kids in my entire elementary school!
Most of us, however, had parents who'd cut us off after a certain number of hours. I was unceremoniously tossed out of the house every Saturday so I could "play outside."
ReplyYeah, we got a Nintendo 8 bit system when I was probably about 7 or 8, but when we played it, we actually played it as a family and we only played for MAYBE 30 minutes a day. Then my dad turned it off and we did other things. To this day, I don't see how kids can sit there and play video games for hours and hours at a time.
ReplyA sign of hope? Or have we just reached terminal obesity.
The kids can't get any fatter without being shredded up by the atmosphere.
Reply32% of kids are obese?!
So how many are "overweight"?
ReplyToday I saw a bunch of kids outside playing with water guns. It occurred to me that I never really see kids playing outside. No wonder there's such a problem with fat children.
32% are at or above the 85th percentile for BMI....meaning 32% are classed as overweight and obese, the two categories combined together.
16.3% are at or above the 95th percentile for BMI, so that would translate to 'obese' by BMI measure.
ReplyOne out of six children are obese?
Granted, the kids I see are in their late teens - early twenties, but I don't think that one out of six are obese...
ReplyQuito--just walk around a super Walmart if you don't believe it: I see SO MANY either overweight or obese kids that it's really sad, actually. It's getting rarer and rarer to see normal-weight teens these days (well, where I live, anyway). Just last week, I saw two 10-11 year old girls in the supermarket asking their moms to let them go on Slim Fast because they wanted to lose weight. I mean, the girls WERE kind of chubby, but still...kids shouldn't be worrying about starting a diet or trying to lose weight when they're only 10 years old. At that age, they should be being active and eating good healthy food so they can grow.
ReplyHa Ha!! I think there are less than 10 super walmarts in the whole state of California! I know when I travel, the whole obesity demographics changes since I'm not in my college town environment anymore. The statistics, like you say, Spectra, are probably pretty accurate.
ReplyOne in 6 are classed obese by BMI...are they all "obese" - probably not...but by weight (which can be influenced by muscles) and height, they hit at or above the 95th percentile. Are they "obese" to the point of morbid obesity - most are not yet that heavy, although about 1 in 15 (I think that's the number) of those at or above the 95th percentile for BMI are.
Where I live in the midwest, there are definitely more children who are much heavier than you'd expect to see in a group....but they're not the majority by any means....just more kids than should be on average....most, the majority, are within normal weight, and just as some are way too heavy, some are way to thin.
When I travel, I definitely see a different distribution in the population, depending upon where I am....Colorado, more a normal weight....DC, more are normal weight.....IL more are heavier....MO (where I live)...more are heavier.
ReplyWhat concerns me is how many of these obese kids are going to be turning into obese adults. When I was a kid, MAYBE 10-15% of kids were obese (and that could even be an overestimation) and now a lot of those kids are adults that are obese. So if the trend doesn't reverse itself soon, it's sort of frightening to think of how many obese adults there will be in the near future.
ReplyYeah, the closest Walmart Supercenter is over an hour's drive away from here. I live a sheltered life here in Surfin' USA. ^_^
Here's the scariest statistic I've heard on this, from the July-August 2004 issue of FDA Consumer magazine:
Reply
I think that 32% is still alarmingly high. I hope the trend spirals further downwards. I also believe that schools should have strong nutrition programs and give mainly healthy choice options at the cafeteria.
ReplyI'd rather see a downturn.
ReplyNobody's really mentioned the shift between children having lots of unstructured play to the current trend of very structured activities. I think this is an even bigger culprit than tv and video games. When I was a kid, like Spectra we just went out and played. We rode our bikes all over, went to different parks, got ourselves to pools, in winter we built snow forts etc, had our parents drop up off all day at the local ski hill or pool or where we could go skating on a frozen lagoon. When we were outside we only came home when we got cold, hungry, it was dark, or we heard our names called in a tone that meant business.
It's SO different than what my kid's friends are doing. Organizers of activities seem to want kids to specialize in a sport from about age 6 on - if you are in hockey it's 4 times a week and all you can really do is hockey, same for swim clubs, etc. Much of the time the emphasis is on being competitive at such a young age that kids get turned off the activity. I think we have given children the idea that activity comes in half or one hour chunks - like physEd and lessons and competitive sports - and then you're done. Go do your homework,watch tv, play a video game. Don't go wandering around the neighborhood, you never know who is out there. Don't ride your bike around, you could get hit by a car.
It's a whole different approach to (over)parenting. I HATE it. But if you take a more blase attitude it doesn't help, because probably all your kid's friends' parents are not comfortable just letting their kids play. And you get strange looks if you suggest that just letting kids go play outside is a reasonable thing to do. "Are you sure - I'VE NEVER let them do that before" they say, laying on the guilt, and their kid is 10 years old. And anyway, if you haven't phoned ahead to schedule a "playdate" then my kids often can't get together with their friends anyhow. Everything is structured or scheduled. What a drag.
Did I mention I think our approach to parenting is getting really STUPID???? (30 years ago, had anyone ever even heard the word 'parenting?' Did we have to turn another noun into a verb??)
This is why I take my kids to our cottage in a small town every summer, all summer. They can play the "old fashioned" way there. I think that as parents we've restricted their play options so much that sometimes all they have left is video games and tv. End of Rant.
Replysoozee--you hit the nail on the head. My parents actually didn't push us to join 80 million sports/clubs/etc. Probably because my mom didn't want to be trucking us back and forth all the time, lol. But in the end, I think it helped us because we gravitated towards activities we actually liked, not just the stuff we were forced to participate in. Kids NEED unstructured activity...they have the rest of their lives to adhere to a schedule. So yeah, I guess I never played Little League or junior soccer or whatever, but I DID enjoy long afternoons of bike riding, playing in the park, having jumprope contests, writing plays for my dolls, playing basketball with my neighbors, etc. Just because you play basketball or soccer with your two best friends instead of on a league, it doesn't mean it doesn't count or something. Some of the best basketball players I knew in college never played on a junior team; they played whenever they could with their buddies and then tried out for the team in high school...by that time, they KNEW they loved playing and they were already really good at it.
ReplyYep, kids now are overscheduled and micromanaged. I've read more than a few posts here where parents were determined to monitor everything that went into their childs mouth. And it's the same for activity. Always structured, and always in a set block of time.
It's not just bad for their physical health, it doesn't do too much for their mental health either. Self esteem doesn't happen because doting parents say over and over to their kids - "You are wonderful, you can do anything". The first place it comes from in a child's life is unstructured play. They try things, they fail, they try again, and try a different way, things work, eventually they come to learn they are capable. The opportunities for this from structured play are limited. The next thing you know, they are trying to cross a frozen river in winter or exploring the storm sewer system - ok, that was my childhood, and maybe those were dumb things to do - but we did survive our adventures, and despite the he** we caught for doing it we DID feel capable and resiliant.... Now I see parents at the playground who can't even stand back and let their 3 year olds learn to use a slide and play with other 3 year olds. They want to teach them how to slide, THEY want to be their kids buddy. Sit on the damn bench and watch, already.
I'm not totally naive that there are dangers out there. I like my kids to travel in groups or at least a pair, I didn't let my kids ride their bikes around town until I was confident they knew how and when to get them across the railroad tracks safely, etc. (I insisted they take a walkie talkie with them, for a while, until it occurred me that they only called to say "he's hitting me, can you drive over to the park and take him home" - so I tossed the walkie-talkies.) I just really believe that if you don't let kids learn how to deal with the little challenges on their own, they will never learn to handle the big stuff. If we really want healthy kids, LET'S START A MOVEMENT AND BRING BACK PLAY!
ReplyAmen! My husband grew up on a 90 acre farm and he spent almost all his free time outside...exploring the woods, building sleds out of odds and ends, fixing the farm machinery with his dad, baling hay, restoring a dirt bike and then learning how to ride it, etc. He's one of the most capable individuals I've ever met...he can fix just about anything and he's confident because his parents let him do things and yeah, he didn't always succeed (like the time he tried to fix up his 1980 Pontiac Bonneville and didn't fix the brakes right), but that's how you LEARN. There's a big difference between parents telling a kid how to do something and the kid actually trying it and learning how to do it on their own.
ReplyI have to defend parents in this culture. When I was a kid, even though I went to school, my mother stayed home and many of my friends' mothers stayed home. We could play out on the street and roam the neighborhood on our bikes safely knowing that somebody's mother had their eye on us. Today, I'm the only mother home during the day in our neighborhood. Most families have two parents working. There's no way I'd let my children roam around the way I once could.
Many families have their children in all these structured after school activities or playing video games in their own homes because they are basically using these activities to keep their children busy while they are at work. And that's completely understandable in this economy.
Luckily my own kids get plenty of unstructured outdoor playtime -- but we homeschool, so we have more opportunity than most families do these days. We really struggle in this economy to get by on my husband's income and the few dollars here and there that I bring in. Most families can't afford to do this today, and I'm not sure how long we can keep it up.
If I go back to work, my children will be in afterschool activities and camp all summer long -- no neighborhood kickball games for them.
Please give parents a little flack.
ReplyDon't get me wrong. It's not like my kids have been running naked and free through the wilderness for the past 11 years! They have taken lots of lessons for different sports, and they have been to lots of daycamps. As did I. Even if you're a resourceful kid, you're still obligated to drive you mother nuts by telling her you're bored and you have nothing to do. It drove my mom nuts, drives me nuts, and hence ... camp! But I really strive to balance structured time with unstructured time, and much as I want to give them a chance to try every sport, music,drama, etc I am really careful not to overschedule them.
And I'm not trying to pick on working parents who aren't home to let their kids have unstructured play. For one thing, there are often options even in that case. My kids go a neighborhood dayhome a couple of times a week. The woman who runs it is "old school" and after school she keeps those kids in the playground as long as she can. In fact most people know pick up their kids at the park, not her house if it's before 5 pm. And probably because of her example several more neighborhood parents are letting their kids go nuts in the playground after school. Nothing's organized, they make up their own games, she intervenes if there's tears or imminent threat of bodily harm.
I'm not coming down on the parents who because of work can't let their kids have more unstructured time, I'm thinking about the many, many who just won't and don't. I'm talking about weekends and summer evenings when parents are home but kids...just shouldn't be. And yet they are, because their parents are either fearful of kids having unstructured play time or they just don't see the value in it. Working mom, not working mom, it really doesn't seem to matter. (in fact sometimes it seems the working moms are a bit better at letting their kids be independent, I know some really clingy stay at home mom/kid combos)
ReplyI agree. this is most likely a lull in the battle. But nonetheless that's good news. If we keep working at it, we shall make it for sure.
By the way I enjoyed that table you posted comparing diet costs. I used it on my Lazy Man's Diet page and another article called Boundaries of the Fat Dollar.
Cool stuff! Keep up the writing!
-Gregory Elf
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I think the trend may be beginning to shift. I think parents are becoming increaseingly aware of the dangers of obesity amoung children. That is defintely encouraging news. The battle is definitley not over yet though and I think the issue really hinges on educating parents on how they can better manage their childrens diets. It can be tough when parents don't have much time so a time efficient solution is key
ReplyI would optimistically like to think that over time things will continue to get better. Granted it will still be up and down, but as the education level regarding nutrition and its connection to longevity, child obesity should go down.
ReplyJust as with adults, childhood obesity all comes down to poor eating habits and a lack of physical activity. Good old Jamie Oliver did his best, but as he found out, children learn their eating habits at home. Unless the parents are re-educated about proper nutrition there's little hope for their children.
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