Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States, and is spreading around the globe. It seems that the overweight dilemma doesn't just haunt adults, but young individuals as well. The truth is that one in five children are now obese in the United States. This is an alarming fact because at a young age children now have greater risks of having serious illnesses such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma and so on.

Apart from dangerous conditions, overweight children have trouble in interacting with their society because their excessive weight often takes a toll on their self-concept. With peers constantly pestering them, they tend to view themselves in an ugly manner.

Parents certainly play a significant role in the welfare of obese kids . Very often , parents think that their children will soon outgrow their weight and so they let them binge in whatever they want. It is also a common mistake that the more obese a child is the more healthier he is. This happens to those parents who deny the weight issues of their children. Unfortunately, they only came to a point of admission when their children is already facing serious health issues.

There are a lot of causes of childhood obesity. Although some children are obese because of their biological make-up, mostly it is because of having an inactive lifestyle and unhealthful dietary routines. However, despite the presence of these causes, it should be realized that childhood obesity can be prevented in many ways. Children now have irregular eating times, i.e. they eat whenever and wherever they want. What's even worse is that they select sweets, greasy fast foods and frozen foods. This low-nutrient and high-calorie diet is the primary stepping stone to becoming obese.

The next factor is the dormant lives that children live. More and more children are tempted to play computer games or watch TV as a substitution for physical activities. Physical exercise is essential to children because it is their only way to burn the calories that they have taken in.

Emotional turmoil is also believed to be a reason for childhood obesity. Those children who suffer from complicated situations such as a poor home environments, divorce of parents or problems in school resort to eating foods which seem to take their anxiety away. These foods are more known as "comfort foods". This is bad because children have the inclination to eat more because it their only way to care for their emotions.

what is more, studies have proven that genetics can also significantly affect a child's health. When obesity runs in the child's family, he is also more likely to be obese. But this doesn't mean that it cannot be avoided.

There are preventative measures to childhood obesity. First is to educate parents and children on how a child should eat. One thing is to reduce the sugar intake of children in their diets. Many of the foods that children are eating are filled with unnecessary sugars. It's also important to drinking plenty of water. There are also great education tools available such as Build-A-Plate for kidsâ„¢ to teach kids and parents the "how, what, and why" of healthy eating. When these things are followed, childhood obesity won't have such long-lived effect on society at all.