What San Diego Eats - Article

Childhood Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

By: Cassandra Olson

Childhood obesity and Type 2 Diabetes in recent years have been soaring in developed countries. The question is: Why? Why are children younger and younger getting larger and larger and why for the first time is this generation predicted to not outlive their parents?

Childhood obesity had more than tripled in the past 30 years and we can’t just necessarily blame McDonald’s as the sole creator of the problem. Combined social, behavioral and environmental factors have all contributed. The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%. 

Food

Healthy food is becoming both less scarce and more abundant at the same time.  Processed food is both cheaper and faster. Its convenient, whereas our natural organic fruits and veggies are harder to get and cost significantly more. There is a higher fat count, calorie count, sugar count, in just about everything. 

Caloric Intake

Obesity is the result of an imbalanced caloric intake with too many calories being taken in and not enough being burnt off. The average caloric intake for children are all different but all the processed foods are pushing children off the edge.

Age	Calories per day
	Boys	Girls
1–3	1,230	1,165
4–6	1,715	1,545
7–10	1,970	1,740
11–14	2,220	1,845
15–18	2,755	2,110
Adults	2,550	1,940

Brain Chemistry

Our brains are programmed to seek high fat, high sugar, high carb foods. Its leftover from an age where we were hunter gatherers so that we could survive. But, now when we don’t have the need to scavenge food the instinct, so to speak, still there. So when we go to the supermarket we seek out the high fats, the high sugars, the high carbs and when we eat those things on top of what we normally eat we exceed the daily amount of calories that we should be getting.

Exercise

Children are getting less and less exercise. Who burns more calories? A child in Africa who walks five miles to get water or a kid who walks a couple blocks to the liqueur store for an ice cream cone? Busier and busier lives also play a part. How do we find time to do 60 minutes of exercise everyday?

Overall, the fact that the country is developed is the answer. Undeveloped countries don’t have McD’s or Starbucks or whatever other restaurant you want to name. They don’t have wall to wall concrete. Our social, behavioral and environmental factors in our developed country have all contributed to the unleashing of this beast. But now we have to contain it and that’s not as easy as releasing it.