Current figures (2010/2011) have estimated that 30% of children in the UK are now either overweight (31%) or obese (29%). As you can hopefully appreciate, there isn’t one simple factor (although the common perception is to try to find one) that contributes to obesity, regardless of whether that person is an adult or a child. There are, however, a few overarching factors that are certainly strongly correlated, and in a lot of cases causative, to this outcome.
One significant feature found in current
life is television.
One recent study set out to determine
whether reducing television viewing time would have any effect of the rate of
weight gain in the subjects. The researchers observed a clear association
between reduced hours spent watching television and decreased weight gain over
one year. The findings suggest that television viewing time is a risk factor
for excessive weight gain among adolescents.
As suggested above overweight and obesity
is multi-factorial, so there are other key influences that need to be addressed
in order to assist our children in maintaining a healthier weight. However it
seems that the simple action of moderating time spent viewing television
actually creates an impetus for these other factors to fall into place.
So a logical first step would be to moderate
television exposure time. This doesn’t mean that you have to confine your
children to a monk-like life, as I’ll show you in a following Bitesize piece,
it may be as simple as a very brief activity exchange.
Reference:
Simone A. French, Nathan R. Mitchell, Peter
J. Hannan. Decrease in Television Viewing Predicts Lower Body Mass Index at
1-Year Follow-Up in Adolescents, but Not Adults. Journal of Nutrition Education
and Behavior, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.jneb.2011.12.008
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