Childhood obesity rates are soaring. What's causing it and how can it be prevented?

America is experiencing an epidemic of obesity in our children. That’s bad news, but worse, our kids are getting fatter at an accelerating rate. In the last 30 years, childhood obesity rates have tripled, and one out of three children is at least overweight, and one in six is obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This trend has been ongoing for a while, and if we don't do something about it now, it's just going to get worse. Studies have shown that being obese as early as two years of age greatly increases the odds of adult obesity. This, of course, trashes the notion that chubby toddlers will probably grow out of it.

Childhood obesity is the root of many health problems and topping the list is the onset and progression of atherosclerosis, clogging of the arteries and the main underlying cause of heart disease. The reason is atherosclerosis begins very early in life, and autopsy studies of soldiers killed in the Korean and Vietnam wars showed advanced clogging in arteries at an alarming rate in young men with an average age of 21 years. If that doesn’t grab your attention, please consider that back then there were very few obese children compared with today, and the lifestyle, in general, was healthier.

Setting aside genetic influences, the rate of progression of atherosclerosis is largely determined by how much your lifestyle contributes to risk factors that are now common in obese children, including high serum cholesterol, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes. This means the odds are high that too many of today’s children are sprinting toward heart disease and this could result in an increased incidence of heart attacks occurring at earlier ages, possibly in the thirties or lower.

What causes childhood obesity?

Lots of reasons. When I was young, going out for a hamburger or getting a bottle of “pop" was a big deal, and only happened on a Saturday night. Today, lousy eating habits are more likely than not to be the daily norm, and topping the list of problems is too much sugar.

Nutrition experts are alarmed at the high consumption of sugar in this country, especially among kids. Let me be quick to point out that this does not include naturally occurring sugar in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. A huge problem is the consumption of so-called “added” sugar, the sugar added to foods and drinks when they are processed to make them more appealing to taste buds.

The American Heart Association guidelines indicate that men should consume no more than nine teaspoons of added sugar per day, and women no more than six teaspoons. The dose for children is less. Now compare this daily recommended dose with just one 12-ounce soft drink containing eight teaspoons of sugar, with lots more in a 16 or 20-ounce serving, suggesting that the diet of most children is likely to far surpass these recommended limits. A good visual learning experience is to load these teaspoons of sugar into a glass to highlight how much sugar you are consuming when you gulp down a soft drink.

This excessive added sugar consumption is especially troublesome because it provides empty calories with no nutritional value. This means while kids may be consuming more calories than they need, making them fat, they can be undernourished and lacking in valuable nutrients required to be healthy.

Does high sugar consumption lead to obesity?

All things considered, we have perfected the formula for promoting childhood obesity. High sugar consumption opens the door for fat storage in the body, and fast foods and other forms of dietary sludge with ever-increasing portion sizes seal the deal. This scenario is especially troublesome when it comes to children because the fast-food and snack industries know that if they win over kids, they have lifelong customers. That’s why spending on advertising slanted toward kids keeps going up, successfully seducing them, and we adults go along too easily because it’s convenient.

Add in time spent watching TV and indulging in social media and the situation gets much worse. Members of a typical household are held hostage for hours daily by TV and social media which means gross inactivity during most, if not all, of the free time available in our busy lifestyles. Compounding the problem are countless TV commercials for fat-promoting foods that bolster our desire to eat, even if we are not hungry.

As if the situation was not bleak enough, there is also a wild card that is rarely mentioned. When mothers are obese before conception, a 2019 National Institutes of Health study reported a 264% increase in the odds of childhood obesity.

All in all, it’s something to think about if you are raising children.

Reach Bryant Stamford, a professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology at Hanover College, at stamford@hanover.edu.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Childhood obesity: Causes, preventions parents need to know