Yes, children are obese. According to the latest data released by WHO, by 2020, there will be more than 39 million overweight or obese children under the age of 5, and the data of children aged 5- 19 is even more terrible, with 340 million people. I believe this word will be known and familiar to more and more parents in contemporary China. Think about whether there is any special arrangement in the weekly menu issued by the school when the children go to kindergarten, which is called' Obese Children's Meal'. Since all schools have this measure, it is enough to show that our public education system has paid attention to the harm of childhood obesity and started to prevent it (for the harm of childhood obesity, you can search for it yourself, such as susceptibility to respiratory diseases, low cardiopulmonary function, increased prevalence of hypertension and hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, and even mental health effects). However, the effectiveness of these preventive measures in the public education system is limited, and the most effective preventive measures for childhood obesity should give more consideration to the place where childhood obesity begins to develop, that is, the family. The two most important factors leading to children's obesity are unhealthy diet and exercise habits, and the first environment of these habits is family, which is influenced by parents.
I read an article recently and expressed this view. The original text is "the role of parents in prevention".
Childhood Obesity was published by Ana C. Lindsay (Associate Professor of Sports and Health Sciences, Massachusetts University), Katarina M. Sussner (Dr. icahn school of medicine at mount sinai), Steven Gortmaker (Professor Chen Zengxi School of Public Health, Harvard University) and others in the professional magazine Children's Future in 2006. The main body of the original text is long. Today, I will share with you the most important part, "The influence (function) of parents at different ages of children".
Parents will influence the formation and development of overweight and obesity in different ways at different growth stages. The following discussion mainly focuses on the three stages of children's growth: pregnancy and early breastfeeding; Pre-school stage; School age.
Pregnancy and early breastfeeding
Even before the child is born, the mother's pregnancy may put him/her at risk of being overweight and obese in childhood and beyond. For example, an inappropriate uterine environment will increase the probability that the fetus will suffer from metabolic abnormalities in the future, including obesity, hypertension and non-insulin-dependent diabetes. If a child's mother suffers from diabetes (or gestational diabetes), malnutrition or overnutrition during pregnancy, then the child will have a certain risk of obesity in the future, and the biggest risk factor is gestational diabetes. Therefore, the prevention strategy of obesity in pregnant children is to focus on screening gestational diabetes.
Preschool stage
It is a critical period for children to form habits related to diet and sports activities from just learning to walk to entering primary school. At this time parents can create a healthier environment for them.
You know, some children are born with a biological taste tendency: they just like sweet or salty food and high-calorie food, but they don't like bitter and sour taste. But they will gradually establish their own food preferences by groping, trying and eating repeatedly. Studies show that children will show individual differences in physiological regulation of calorie intake as early as kindergarten, and parents have great influence on the formation of these differences. So far, the relevant data can show that the way parents feed their children causes individual differences in children's self-regulation of food intake, and may also be the root cause of children's calorie intake imbalance. In the preschool stage, when children especially don't like to try new foods, it is particularly important for parents to set an example of healthy eating habits and provide children with a variety of foods. When parents provide their children with more nutritious food earlier, such as fruits and vegetables, children can like to eat these foods more. Therefore, parents should clearly realize the importance of their role in cultivating healthy eating habits of preschool children, and parents have the responsibility to ensure the health and diversity of food supply; Children are responsible for deciding what and how much to eat.
Although children will first respond to the calories of food in their bodies when eating food, they will also respond to the control from their parents, one is "internal reaction" and the other is "external reaction". Some parents may think that strict control of what children should eat is good for their health, but some recent studies are challenging this view, arguing that too strict control (too much emphasis on "external reaction") will make children prefer foods with high fat and calories, and may also lead to imbalance in their self-regulation of hunger and satisfaction. Parents should also be aware of the importance of children's eating scenes. Studies have found that children will prefer food provided in positive situations, on the contrary, they will hate food provided in negative situations.
Another important factor affecting children's food type is family food choice. Young children usually like to eat what their parents often eat, especially their mothers. Parents eat too much, and children may eat too much. Therefore, some parents' own bad eating habits will also lead to the formation of overweight and obesity. What food is kept at home and whether children can get it easily are closely related to their weight. Here, I also want to mention an old-fashioned soft drink (all drinks with sucrose, such as juice drinks, etc. Many studies have confirmed that increasing the intake of soft drinks for preschool children will increase their risk of being overweight. One of the studies found that children aged 2 to 5 who drink more than 350 ml of juice drinks every day are more likely to be overweight.
As we all know, physical activity plays a key role in the heat balance of human body, so ensuring a certain amount of activity for children is also an indispensable method to prevent children from being overweight. Related studies have found that physical activity is inversely proportional to the weight gain and obesity risk of preschool children. An eight-year study found that among children aged 3-5, the body fat content of the most active children is far lower than that of the least active children. At the same time, some researchers pay attention to the relationship between parents' activities and children's activities. Researchers use calorimeters to monitor the activities of children aged 4 to 7 and their parents. The results show that children with active mothers are twice as likely to be active as children with inactive mothers, and children with active parents are 5.8 times more likely to be active than children with inactive parents. 10
Then in addition to taking the lead in exercise, parents should also take their children out to exercise more. Relevant research shows that the longer children spend outdoors, the greater their physical activity, 1 1, so parents should encourage preschool children to play outdoors more. Of course, the convenience and safety of children playing outdoors also need to be considered. Mom and dad can consider whether there are some convenient and safe sports facilities near the neighborhood where you buy a house or are about to buy a house, such as fitness trails, sports parks, or children's amusement facilities.
There is also a well-known obesity assistant-TV, which is also true for preschool children! Of course, it is not enough to mention TV now, but also to expand the scope to all electronic products, such as parents' mobile phones and tablets, which can attract children's attention and make them stay still for a long time, thus seriously encroaching on children's exercise time. Many studies 12, 13 and 14 show that watching TV or using electronic products for a long time is directly related to the lack of activity and obesity of preschool children, so I won't explain them one by one here.
School age stage
In the United States, more than 16% of children aged 6- 19 are overweight or obese, while in China, the proportion has reached 7.3%. With the growth of children's age, attention will be dispersed from family to school, peers and other external environments, and the influence of parents will be weakened. When they are exposed to the environment outside the home for a long time, the inducing factors of obesity will also increase, and they will have more opportunities to decide their calorie intake and physical activity. Nevertheless, parents and other family members still have the opportunity to provide their children with an environment that pays attention to healthy eating and physical exercise.
When children grow up, they will have fewer opportunities to eat with their parents when they leave school or board late, so parents can guide their children to eat healthily by increasing the number of meals with their families. Try to make some healthy ingredients when eating, and don't store too many soft drinks at home. If you have the opportunity to eat with your children, don't choose fast food restaurants, hamburgers and the like. Increase children's intake of fruits, vegetables and grains, and minimize the intake of high-calorie foods and soft drinks, thus promoting healthy eating habits.
For school-age children, soft drinks are also the main cause of obesity. A long-term follow-up study based on 1 1- 12-year-old children found that drinking soft drinks every day would increase their probability of being overweight by 60% 15. On the contrary, a randomized clinical trial in Britain found that reducing the consumption of carbonated soft drinks would reduce the overweight rate of children aged 7- 1 1 6. There are countless studies in this field, and parents should also be aware of the importance of controlling their children's soft drink intake.
School-age children and teenagers spend much more time watching TV every day than other extracurricular activities. In the United States, more than half of school-age children watch TV for more than two hours every day. Many studies 17, 18, 19 have linked watching TV with overweight children. At the end of the article, I will list all these studies for interested parents to check for themselves. Watching TV leads to children's obesity not only because it seriously encroaches on other children's activities, but also because some commercial advertisements of fast food and junk food on TV will lead children to form unhealthy eating habits. Related studies have found that watching TV will greatly increase the chances of children receiving commercial advertisements about carbonated drinks, sugar and fast food.
A survey in the United States found that students from grade 3 to grade 12 spend about 8 hours a day on multimedia, including computers, listening to music, watching movies, playing computer games and watching TV. In China, things are different. Children in China spend their extracurricular time on homework, extracurricular training and interest classes. But the result is the same, and the time for sports activities is seriously occupied. Therefore, in order to increase the activity of school-age children and avoid childhood obesity, what parents can do is to turn off the TV (perhaps what parents in China should do is to report for two days less cultural training classes or increase sports interest classes) and have a sports activity with their children!
Quote:
1 Barker and Foer, The Origin of Fetuses and Babies (see Note 4); C. Power and T. Parsons, "Childhood nutrition and other influences as predictors of adult obesity", Journal of Nutrition Society 59, No.2 (2000): 267–72; C. Maffeis and L. Tatò, "Long-term Effects of Childhood Obesity on Morbidity and Mortality", Hormone Research 55, Supplement1(2001): 42–45.
2J。 Westenhoefer, "Establishing Childhood Eating Habits for Long-term Weight Control", Yearbook of Nutrition and Metabolism 46 (2002):18–23.
3M。 L. P. Hediger et al., "The Relationship between Infant Breastfeeding and Overweight in Children", Journal of American Medical Association 285,No. 19 (2001): 2453–60.
4W。 Dietz and L. Stern, Children's Nutrition Guide (new york: Villard, American Academy of Pediatrics, 1999).
5Birch and Fisher, "The Development of Dietary Behavior" (see note 12).
6 Ibid. ; Burch, "The Development of Food Acceptance" (see note 14).
7U。 K. Koivisto Hursti, "Factors Affecting Children's Food Choice", Medical Yearbook 3 1, Supplement1(1999): 26–32.
8 Denison, Rockwell and Baker, "Excessive juice" (see note 23).
9Moore et al., "Preschool sports activities" (see note 28).
10Hood et al., "Parents' Dietary Attitude" (see Note 22).
1 1T。 Baranowski et al., "Observation of Physical Activity in Physical Location: Age, Gender, Race and Month Effects", Exercise and Sports Research Quarterly 64, No.2 (1993):127–33;
12A。 J. Ariza et al., "Risk factors of overweight among Hispanic American children aged five to six: a preliminary study", Journal of Urban Health 8 1,No. 1 (2004):150–61.
13R。 H. Durant and others, "The relationship between children's watching TV, physical activities and body composition", Pediatrics 94, No.4, p.2. 1( 1994): 449–55.
14B。 A. Dennison, T. A. Erb and P. L. Jenkins, "Watching TV and watching TV in the bedroom of low-income preschool children are related to overweight risk", Pediatrics 109, No.6 (2002):1028–35.
15D。 S. Ludwig, K. E. Peterson and S. L. Gortmaker, "The relationship between the consumption of sugary drinks and childhood obesity: a prospective observational analysis", The Lancet 357, No.9255 (2001): 505–08.
16J。 James et al., "Preventing childhood obesity by reducing the consumption of carbonated drinks: a cluster randomized controlled trial", British Medical Journal 328, No.7450 (2004): 1237.
17C。 S. Berkey et al., "Changes of activity and inactivity of boys and girls aged 10- 15 in one year: the relationship with changes of body mass index", Pediatrics11,No.4 (2003): 836.
18T。 Robinson, N., "Reducing Children's TV Watching Time to Prevent Obesity: A Randomized Controlled Trial", Journal of American Medical Association 282,No. 16 (1999):1561–67.
19S。 L. Gortmaker et al., "Reducing Obesity" (see Note 3).