According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the

past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 6-11 years in the United States who are obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. The consequences of this devastating illness could lead to an early grave for many of its victims; our children are literally eating themselves to death. In addition, overweight children are at risk of developing chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke later in life. These circumstances arise from the physical, environmental and parental factors that all contribute to childhood obesity. In order to understand the causes and consequences of this epidemic, an examination of the reasons for the drastic increase in childhood obesity is necessary. One study suggests that breastfeeding offers a small but consistent protective effect against obesity in children. When an infant is introduced to formula food before 4 months, increases the risk for obesity (Arenz, Ruckerl, Koletzko, & Von, 2004). Furthermore, one of the causes of obesity deals with kids not excising more often as they should when it comes to physical activity. Watching television, using the computers, and playing video games has been a key factor that causes children for being obese. For example, the amount of hours spends on the television screen, and the computer prevents childrens leisure time, and it influences their physical activity levels. It is estimated that children in the United States are spending 25 percent of their waking hours watching television and statistically, children who watch the most hours of television have the highest incidence of obesity. Another factor to be concerned about obesity is sleep. If kids dont get enough sleep, it increases the likely hood of them becoming obese. A Texas research study stated that obese kids slept less than those of normal weight did. For each hour of sleep loss, the risk of obesity rose 80

percent (Brynie, 2010). For every hour spent awake during the night, physical activity during the day declined by 3 percent, which could contribute to gaining weight. Nevertheless, the health consequences of being obese are high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, breathing problems, trouble sleeping, and depression. The health effects of obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population based sample of 5 to 17 year olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease (Ogden, Carroll, Curtin, Lamb, & Flegal, 20072008). They are also more likely to have prediabetes: a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes. In the long term effect, children who are obese as adult are more at risk for adult health problems such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and several types of cancer: liver, myeloma and leukemia. One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults. Other causes of childhood obesity are specific to the environment. Experts have increasingly looked at environment as a driver in the rapid increase of childhood obesity in the United States. Environment plays a huge role when it comes to children being obese. First thing for sure is that when a family lives in an environment that has no outdoor space for recreation sports, it prevents kids from having a place to play. Another thing to consider in the environment is neighborhood crime, unattended dogs, or lack of street light, all of these prevents kids from going outside to play. Junk food has its own role to child obesity. Every day 75 million Americans supersized themselves and damaged their health by eating unhealthy food such as McDonalds or other fast food restaurants. Todays parents are busy with their work, when their schedules get hectic, busy families turn to fast food, and it enables the childs body to crave fast food meals only. One study

suggests that the chemical addictive like MSG in processed food and restaurant fare to hormone and obesity. No wonder 60% percent of Americans are either overweight or obese (Cummins, 2012). Parental factors that contributed to childhood obesity are family behavior and gene. As an illustration, kids are imitators; they do what they see their parents do. If the parents daily meal consists of unhealthy food, then children tend to follow. Another thing to look into is the family gene. When you go to the hospital and you have some kind of cancer, the first thing your doctor will say to you is whether your parents or grandparents have some kind of family history concerning cancer. In the same fashion, your parents will have a disorder that results in weight gain. Body type is hereditary in many instances. If your mother is pear shaped and your father is apple shaped the chances that you will develop those same issues.