Sedentary Lifestyle Causes Childhood Obesity
Sedentary lifestyle has drastically changed children’s lives. Most of them have become obese and overweight due to modern life. Children develop many problems and diseases because of obesity (Donnelly et al., 2012). According to research carried out by US center for disease prevention and control, statistics shows that there has been alarming epidemic increase in obesity especially in the United States. Depending on their report of the year 2009, it has been established that the only places that have managed to prevent obesity is District of Columbia and Colorado by less than 20%. But in most of the countries there has been an increase therefore resulting into several diseases. The main reason for the increase is sedentary lifestyle of present era.
In today’s life, modern child’s brain is more active than the other parts of the body. This makes him/her more sedentary. Civilization has taken up style of living with less physical activity. Children pass through several stages without involving themselves in physical activities or exercises. Technology has improved and due to invention of machines, the lifestyle of modern children has changed, making them more sedentary. Sedentary lifestyle is not healthy since children are not exposed to exercises and physical activities (Boreham, & Riddoch, 2001). Most of the countries are more developed and has invented modern form of entertainments. Children have been influenced by entertainment such as video games, television and computer programs. This makes children more relaxed since they spend the whole day sitting down and watching games. Due to the invention of advanced machines and equipments, working style has also changed and children do not work at home.
Effects on weight
Sedentary lifestyle has been confirmed to be one of the causes of obesity and overweight. Research is being carried out all over the world to find out flexible risk factors for current living style of weight control. Various reports have shown that the opposite cross-sectional connection between sedentary lifestyle and body mass Index is very strong. Body mass index is described as a figure that has been calculated from a person’s height and weight. Body mass index of a person also provides consistent information of fatness of the body that lead to health issues (Donnelly et al., 2012).
Obese problems
Modern lifestyle has affected children’s health through their sedentary entertainment. Children spend most of their time on sedentary entertainment than physical activities. Psychological and social problems of childhood obesity are common simply because sedentary lifestyle is seen more constant on children’s life than physical. There is serious development and self-esteem during childhood stage and therefore children need not to be disturbed psychologically by obesity and overweight issues (Donnelly et al., 2012). This can affect his/ her social life. According to the report produced by Dr Hu, television watching affects children by putting them at high risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the research carried all over the world, it states that America is more sedentary. Children are advised to spare at least thirty minutes for outside activities even out of school. Television watching, video games and computers consumes a lot of children’s time.
Depending on Dr Hu’s information, when children spend most of their time watching television, their life is at risk of obesity. Obesity occurs since watching television decreases energy out flow by not giving children enough time to do exercises. Spending more time watching television also makes them develop a habit of snacking. The impact of sedentary lifestyle on child’s body weight is great. Children ingest a lot of calories and they do not burn them therefore deposited in the body as excess fats which normally lead health issues (Boreham, & Riddoch, 2001).
References
Boreham, C., & Riddoch, C. (2001). The physical activity, fitness and health of children. Journal of sports sciences, 19(12), 915-929.
Donnelly, J. E., Jacobsen, D. J., Whatley, J. O., Swift, L. L., Cherrington, A.,… & Reed, G. (2012). Nutrition and physical activity program to attenuate obesity and promote physical and metabolic fitness in elementary school children. Obesity Research, 4(3), 229-243.
