Not in the sense that childhood obesity is funny or
something, but in
that nobody seems to be taking note of the warning that these
statistics are giving.
Along with the fact that nobody seems to care,
over-all it has become
not "politically correct" to speak of obesity. Chances are you have
children who are overweight or know parents that have children who are
overweight. The last thing you want to do is hurt their feelings.
Unfortunately, as we continue in our silence our children are
becoming more obese than ever.
If we would only risk hurting the feelings of our loved ones in order
to save their lives...
According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey
(NHANES), arguably the largest and longest running national source of
objectively measured health and nutrition data, obesity in children is
dramatically increasing.
According to NHANES
obesity has increased from
5%
to 13.9% for children ages 2-5 years
6.5% to 18.8% for children ages 6-11 years
5% to 17.4% for children ages 12-19 years
between 1980 and 2004.
So what are the implications if your child is
obese?
Today’s children become tomorrow's adults and the
statistics only get
worse. According
to NHANES about one out of every three adults in the United States is
obese! That means that they are beyond just a little overweight...
The childhood obesity statistics show that there is
an excellent chance
that an overweight child will grow up to be the
one adult out of three who is obese. They will have a much increased
chance of developing disease and ultimately dieing prematurely.
A recent study published in The New England Journal
of Medicine found
that individuals who were clinically classified as obese had death
rates from cancer that were 52 percent higher for men and 62 percent
higher for women than rates for individuals who were not overweight.
According to obesity research by the National
Institutes of Health
individuals who are obese have a 10- to 50-percent increased risk of
death from all causes, compared to those who are not overweight.
It seems fair to say that as
an individual's obesity increases, so does the chance that they will
die prematurely.
If we are at all concerned about
the future health of our children,
then we had better pay attention to the warning of the childhood
obesity statistics and act now.
