Childhood Obesity

Few school-age youth consume the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and increasing fruit and vegetable intake in children and adolescents is an important public health goal to maintain long-term good health and to decrease risk of chronic disease and obesity. School salad bars are an important tool to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among schoolchildren. Studies show that introduction of school salad bars increases the amount and variety of fruits and vegetables consumed by children in schools. However, many schools cannot afford the capital investment in the salad bar equipment. In 2010, the National Fruit & Vegetable Alliance (NFVA), United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, the Food Family Farming Foundation, and Whole Foods Market launched Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools (LMSB2S) in support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative. The goal of LMSB2S is to place 6000 salad bars in schools over 3 years. As of June, 2012, over 1400 new salad bar...

Recent reports have suggested that the problem of childhood and adolescent obesity has been exaggerated in Australia, and that community-wide obesity prevention initiatives are not warranted; we argue that this is not an accurate reflection of the situation. Available data indicate that obesity affects 6%-8% of Australian schoolchildren, and that the proportion has continued to increase in recent years. Childhood and adolescent obesity is associated with a wide range of immediate health concerns, as well as increasing the risk of disease in adulthood. Some weight-related health problems are also found in overweight children. A range of strategies, including whole-of-community obesity prevention programs, will be required to tackle this problem. Concerns about disordered eating in children and adolescents should not preclude appropriate action on childhood obesity.

There is an established link between food promotions and children's food purchase and consumption. Children in developing countries may be more vulnerable to food promotions given the relative novelty of advertising in these markets. This study aimed to determine the scope of television food advertising to children across the Asia-Pacific to inform policies to restrict this marketing. Six sites were sampled, including from China, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. At each site, 192 h of television were recorded (4 days, 16 h/day, three channels) from May to October 2012. Advertised foods were categorized as core/healthy, non-core/unhealthy or miscellaneous, and by product type. Twenty-seven percent of advertisements were for food/beverages, and the most frequently advertised product was sugar-sweetened drinks. Rates of non-core food advertising were highest during viewing times most popular with children, when between 3 (South Korea) and 15 (Indonesia) non-core food advertisem...

Parikh S, Pollock NK,* Bhagatwala J, Guo D, Gutin B, Zhu H, Dong Y. Adolescent fiber consumption is associated with visceral fat and inflammation. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2012;97(8):E1451-1457. (*Co-First and Senior Author)

The main purpose of this study is to find out the obesity prevalence among university students. In addition to the main purpose, another aims of this study is to determine the individual features of participants related to obesity such as gender, age, being an obese in family and doing physical activity. This study was performed on university students from five different faculties of Çukurova University in 2015-2016 educational season. In this study, 894 volunteer students accepted for attending to the research. The mean age of female participants was 21.39±2.53 years. However, mean of males was 22.28±2.73 years. Descriptive study design and causal comparative methods were used. The individual information form created by the researcher was used to determine the demographic characteristics of the participants. BMI was analyzed both quantitative and categorical ways in this study. WHO's classification method was used for categorizing of BMI. All findings in the study were summarized by descriptive statistical methods such as mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage, etc. The independent sample T test, the ANOVA test, Pearson correlation test and chi-square test were used. In all analyzes, significance level was accepted as p <0.05. The mean of the BMI was calculated as 22.40±3.49 kg/m 2. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean BMI of males (23.80±3.40 kg/m 2) and female participants (21,01±2,99 kg/m 2 , t(-13,043)=892, p<0.05). Also, it was found statically significant difference among BMI classification groups for gender (obesity rate of male: 4.9% ; female:1.1%) , x 2 (df=3, n=894)=101.21, p<0.05. These results have indicated that the rate of obesity among university students is lower than normal population in Turkey. At the same time the findings of this study have shown similar characteristics with the university students' of other countries reported by previous studies. In conclusion, it should be taken some measures for reducing overweightness and obesity such as increasing physical activity possibilities for people in all condition by local and central Governments, increasing the number of hours of physical education and sports lessons in schools as much as possible and the processing of these courses must be inspected strongly, more strict measures taken by the government to reduce obesity rates in society, informing and awareness of community on obesity, informing adequate and balanced nutrition by using the all media devices and facilities.

Objective. We discuss the recently increased epidemic of type 2 diabetes among children and adolescents in preventive terms and argue that this epidemic represents a failure of primary and secondary interventions.Methods. We review the current literature regarding the characteristics of adolescents with type 2 diabetes.Results. The common denominator in patients who develop adolescent-onset type 2 diabetes was extreme obesity with body mass index of 35–38 kg/m2, accompanied by family obesity, a diet rich in fat and sedentary lifestyle.Conclusions. The current epidemic of type 2 diabetes among adolescents demonstrates that failure to prevent obesity at primary and secondary opportunities for intervention leads to the development of associated diseases with significant morbidity and potential mortality. Family education programs are needed to institute gradual, permanent changes in diet and activity.

The purposes or this study were to (a) describe the prevention practices of nurse practitioners (NPs) regarding childhood obesity, (b) compare the practices of NPs by specialty, practice setting, and awareness of childhood obesity prevention guidelines, (c) identify relationships between prevention practices and demographic variables of NPs, and (d) examine the resources for and barriers to implementing prevention practices. A convenience sample of 99 family NPs (FNPs) and pediatric NPs (PNPs) from the Intermountain area was used. Participants completed a questionnaire based on documented risk factors for childhood obesity as well as prevention guidelines developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). NPs working in family practice or general pediatric practice settings were not consistently using the BMI-for-age index to screen for childhood obesity, as recommended by the AAP. However, they were teaching parents to promote healthy food choices and physical activity in their families. PNPs and FNPs working in a pediatric practice setting and NPs who were aware of prevention guidelines were more likely to perform several prevention strategies than FNPs working in a family practice setting and those who were unaware of guidelines. Major barriers to implementing childhood obesity prevention strategies included parental attitudes, the American lifestyle, and lack of resources for both the NP and the family. The main resources NPs used in preventing childhood obesity were a dietician, journal articles, and Web sites. Although the majority of the NPs in this study reported being aware of childhood obesity prevention guidelines (73.7%), most were not consistently using BMI for age or monitoring children at increased risk for obesity. Because childhood obesity is escalating at such a rapid rate, it is critical that NPs working in family practice and pediatric practice settings take the necessary steps to help curtail obesity in childhood, including calculating BMI for age, targeting children at risk, and helping families develop healthy nutrition and physical activity habits. In addition to proper health supervision of children, NPs also need to be advocates in their communities to overcome barriers to childhood obesity prevention.

Many eating studies in psychology, consumer behavior, and marketing journals are dismissed because they focus on how much one serves and not how much is eaten. We develop a means of estimating the percentage of self-served food that is consumed under various conditions. An aggregate analysis was conducted of studies where participants served themselves food and where actual intake was measured. Analyses explored what percentage of food was consumed depending on population, food, and situational cues and generally showed that adults consistently consume the vast majority (91.7%) of what they serve themselves.  This was higher for meals (92.8%) than for snacks (76.1%) and higher when a person was not distracted (97.1%) than when he or she was distracted (88.8%).  The percentage eaten did not vary between lab (90.7%) and field settings (91.9%).  Because many eating behavior studies outside of nutrition measure food selection, but not intake, the aggregate estimates presented in this research can enable obesity, nutrition, and public health researchers to extrapolate how much may have been eaten in such studies.  Doing so will extend their relevance to better understanding eating behavior and better developing solutions to overeating.

This investigation evaluated the impact of parental influences on children&#39;s food selections and the impact of childhood obesity on these food choices. Subjects were 53 young children of various weight status. Foods ranging widely in nutritional values were offered to each child for lunch. The children were again offered foods but were told that their mothers would be monitoring their selections. Finally, mothers were allowed to modify their children&#39;s last food choices. Results indicated that parental influences have a marked effect on food selection; both the threat of parental monitoring and actual parental monitoring lowered the number of nonnutritious foods chosen and total caloric content of the meal. The obesity status of the mothers and children had no impact on these results. The implication of these results for future intervention efforts are discussed.

Introducción: La medición del gasto energético basal en niños y adolescentes con sobrepeso y obesidad es esencial para determinar el plan nutricional adecuado y mejorar su estado nutricio. Objetivo: Evaluar la exactitud de la predicción de diversas ecuaciones para estimar el gasto ener-gético basal comparándolas con el resultado de calorimetría indirecta en niños con sobrepeso y obesidad del estado de Morelos, México. Material y Métodos: Estudio transversal en niños y adolescentes mexicanos con sobrepeso y obe-sidad. Se evaluó peso, talla y composición corporal mediante pletismografía por desplazamiento de gases. Se midió el gasto energético basal con calorimetría indirecta y se estimó con las ecua-ciones de FAO/OMS, Harris-Benedict, Tverskaya, Schofield, Mifflin St. Jeor y Lazzer. Resultados: Se incluyeron 84 niños y adolescentes con una media de edad de 11,3±3,2. Acorde al IMC, 20% presentaban sobrepeso y 80% obesidad. No se observaron diferencias estadísticas en parámetros de composición corporal entre ambos sexos. Las ecuaciones de Harris-Bendict y Mifflin St. Jeor tienen la menor diferencia de estimación y la mayor exactitud de la predicción. Conclusiones: Las ecuaciones predictivas del gasto energético muestran una baja concordancia con el gasto energético medido a través de calorimetría. Se sugiere el uso de dicha técnica o bien la elaboración de modelos predictivos específicos para la población en estudio.

Obesity is a common issue nowadays. The numbers of obese people are increasing every year. There are evidences that childhood obesity persists into adulthood. Predicting obesity at an early age is both useful and important because preventive ...

Adolescence, by its very nature, is associated with weight gain, and many adolescents experience dissatisfaction with their changing bodies. This in turn leads to low self esteem and adoption of unhealthy and erroneous eating behaviors. Methodology: The study was conducted among 34 (17 each in intervention and control group) obese adolescents with age between 12 to 18 years, studying in two selected schools of Ernakulam district using a quazi experimental pre test post test control group design. Pretest was conducted among selected students by using Objectified body consciousness scale, Eating attitude test (EAT-26), ACRON Eating Disorders Inventory and Rosenberg's self esteem scale. After the pretest, the obese adolescents in the intervention group was given the structured school based intervention program. The post test was conducted immediately after the last session of the intervention and 4 weeks following the intervention using the same tools. Result: The study result showed that there is a significant statistical difference between eating attitude scores of intervention and control group (p = 0.02). Similarly there was significant statistical difference in the eating behaviour, body image and self esteem scores too. Conclusion: According to the findings of the present study, the school based intervention was effective in improving the eating attitude, eating behaviour and body image among adolescents with obesity. Hence the study concluded that school based interventions will serve as preventive interventions for eating disorder among adolescents with obesity.

More than ever we make food decisions in distracting, media-filled, food-rich environments. It is not surprising that some clients - even some registered dietitians - become fatalistic about the limited influence they believe they have over the nutrition of their family. They come to power when competing against incessant advertising and easily available, inexpensive, tempting foods.
As food and nutrition professionals, it is difficult to encourage or empower a fatalistic person to provide better nutrition for their family. It can even lead us to be pessimistic, "How can we possibly empower anybody when we are overworked, overstressed, and over budget?"

When trying to understand childhood obesity, policymakers and healthcare professionals most often make use of behavioural sciences and biomedical perspectives. This approach assumes that fatness is unhealthy and caused by people making 'bad choices' about their diet and physical activity. Increasingly not only parents, but also children, are considered to be individually responsible for their weight, their health, and through that, for the 'obesity epidemic'. Drawing on critical obesity/weight studies and practice theory, this paper challenges the individualistic and weight-based view of health, and the heuristic of 'individual food choice', and through that such a framing of childhood obesity. It does so by focusing on the experiences of young people medically identified as overweight, who are trying to lose weight. Looking at two domains of children's lives, their family and peers, the paper demonstrates how young people experience and negotiate the individualized health advice, and what sort of consequences this has for their daily lives, and their mental and physical wellbeing. The article is based on observations of interactions between families and healthcare professionals, conversations with children and parents, as well as participant observation at youth summer weight loss camps, which were part of a larger ethnographic research project conducted in 2018-2019 in Poland. The paper concludes by proposing to reframe how we think about childhood obesity, and consider young people's knowledge and lived experiences when redesigning policy interventions and wellbeing promotion programmes, that is, to work with, and not on, children.

For the cost of ‘The School Food Revolution’ (£45) a UK school produces 121 childrens lunches (37p per meal). Meanwhile, in the USA, the most obese nation on Earth, children view 55 junk food advertisements per day. In Melbourne, Australia, the McDonald’s fast food outlet at the entrance to the Royal Children’s Hospital is described by a paediatrician as a “running sore”, yet an alternative view is that it brings much joy to families. The authors of this new book raise the spectre of junk food being profoundly addictive. A UK mother reports of her school-age daughter:  “l only eat burgers”. The School Food Revolution is a timely book for a world of obesogenic food, a world of the fat poor in rich countries, and the hungry poor in poor countries. Worldwide, malnourishment is a marker of poverty. Readers impatient for the revolution are advised to go directly to Chapter 4 - School Food as Social Justice: The Quality Revolution in Rome.

The overweight problem in Iraq has been a great issue that needs to be solved by government to ensure a better well-being. The purpose of this paper is to explore the need of the modern technology in physical education in order to overcome the issues of overweight in Iraq. The methodology used in this paper is through library research which focuses on issues of overweight and modern technology application in physical education programs. It can be concluded that the use of modern technology in physical education programs will help to promote the use of best practices in physical and health education in order to overcome overweight issues. Further suggestion relating to the prospects of modern technology in physical and health education were recommended in this paper.

Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) is a hypo-dopaminergic state that predis-poses to obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Obesity is part of RDS since the individual is pre-disposed to reward-driven eating behavior that leads to overeating. The allele A1 of the SNP C32806T in Dopamine D2 receptor gene (DRD2) is associated with reduction of DRD2 levels and higher BMI in adults. DRD2 are expressed in beta cells and modulate insulin secretion. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between this SNP and obesity and metabolic alterations in children. Methods: Fifty five obese children and 50 healthy controls were analyzed for DRD2 Taq1A polymorphism Genotyping was performed by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism. Glucose, insulin and lipid profile were measured. The Homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) was calculated. Results: We found three genotypes: A1A1(12,4%), A1A2(33,3%) and A2A2(54,3%). The A1 allele was more present in: obese than in euthrophic (34,5%*23%), in children with altered HOMA ß (38,2% * 24,6%), children with altered Total Cholesterol (35,2%*19,5%) and lower levels of triglycerides. Children were divided in 4 subgroups in accordance to the function of pancreatic beta cells and BMI-Z; subgroups with normal secreting pancreatic beta cell demonstrated significant difference for allelic and genotypic distribution, with lower presence of A1A1 and A1A2 genotypes and higher presence of A2 allele. Conclusions: Besides confirming the association with childhood obesity, our results show for the first time that: A1 allele is associated with TC≥170 mg/dl, lower TG levels and HOMA ß ≥175. A2 allele is associated with normal HOMA ß, being a protective factor for pancreatic secretion. The recognition of predisposed individuals through determinations of risks polymor-phisms can lead to new paths for treatment and prevention of metabolic abnormalities.

Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity in the United States are rapidly becoming a major pediatric health concern. Schools are a critical part of the social environment that shape children&amp;amp;amp;#39;s eating and physical activity patterns. While school-based programs may affect a student&amp;amp;amp;#39;s perception of physical activity and the influence of dietary practices on overall health, the current variability in the theoretical underpinnings and methodological approaches used to implement these programs makes them difficult to evaluate for quality and evidence of effectiveness of the outcomes achieved across programs. The purpose of this study is to conduct an integrative research review using Cooper&amp;amp;amp;#39;s framework to provide an overview of the degree of variability in the methodological approaches and theoretical frameworks of school-based obesity prevention programs that utilize one or more of the following interventions: dietary, physical activity, healthy lifestyle education, and/or parental involvement. This review will examine the variations in the duration of the interventions; whether the interventions were guided by the use of a theoretical framework; the strength of evidence supporting the studies; and whether the interventions demonstrated a reduction in body mass index or weight loss. A total of 16 articles were found based on the inclusion criteria for this study. Eight of the 16 studies (50%) applied theoretical frameworks. Significant variability was found in the duration of intervention between the studies analyzed. The range of duration was 5 weeks to 8 years, with an average of 16.8 months. Fourteen of 16 studies (88%) implemented dietary habit interventions. Fourteen of 16 studies (88%) implemented physical education programs. All 16 studies applied healthy lifestyle education. Nine of 16 studies integrated family involvement into the obesity intervention. Nine of 16 studies (56%) evaluated the effect of their intervention on body mass index.

Feeding children should be easy.  Hunger is a basic biological drive and eating should be a straight forward and fun part of family life.  But so often it is not.  Parents are busy, food is expensive and cooking takes time and even when you have managed to prepare the family meal, children announce random likes and dislikes that seem to come out of nowhere.  And on top of all that, we have the fears of obesity and eating disorders looming in the background.  How do we get our children to eat healthily when they don’t like healthy food?  How do we get them to eat more without making them fat?  How do we keep them a normal weight without giving them an eating disorder?  How do we get them to be more active when all they want to do is watch TV or play on their phone? And what do we do about a daughter who starts to obsess about her weight?

This book aims to describe what constitutes a healthy diet and how to achieve this without making food an issue for your child.  It addresses many of the problems parents face when feeding their children and offers tips on how to overcome these without making matters worse.  And it looks at the ways in which we talk about food, shop and prepare food and eat food with our children and the impact this has on them as they grow up.