Researchers collected data from over 2,000 children with ages between three and eighteen. The results are based on the diaries kept by parents or children themselves where they kept a record of bedtime, hours of sleep, or time of waking up.An extra hour of sleep may help young children by reducing the risk of becoming overweight from thirty-six to thirty percent. For older children, an extra hour of sleep reduces the risk from thirty-four to thirty percent, according to the study’s lead author, Emily Snell.The results were not influenced gender, ethnicity, income, or race. They showed that late bedtime for children with ages from three to eight are strongly connected to weight gain. Unlike the other children, those with ages between eight and thirteen are more predisposed to weight gain if they wake up too early.Specialists showed that American youngsters don`t get enough sleep. Children by the age of seven sleep almost ten hours per night, those by the age of fourteen sleep about eight hours and half while children with ages of thirteen to eighteen sleep less than seven hours per night. To read the rest of this article, go to an online weight loss community featuring calorie counter, carbs counter, BMI calculator, diet planner, workout planner and nutritional information. (c) ProjectWeightLoss.com 2007. All rights reserved.
As is often the case there is no single cause of child obesity and there are numerous things that cause obesity in children.
For instance, it is often the case that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will also be overweight or obese which suggests that there might be an inherited or genetic factor to obesity. But, although this is an area that is actively being studied, no clear genetic link has so far been discovered and it is thought far more likely that it is the eating habits of the family which cause obesity rather than genetics.
In recent years there has been a marked shift in eating habits with fast food restaurants appearing on every street corner, junk food widely available and our supermarket shelves packed with so-called 'convenience' foods that are often very high in sugar. The days when we sat down to home cooked meals are far behind us in the majority of homes and have been superceded by take-away food or microwave meals. Indeed, more and more parents are now opting to take their children out for a hamburger rather than to cook a meal at home not only because it is simpler than cooking a meal but also because they do not have to wash up!
In addition, we have experienced a dramatic drop in activity levels amongst many groups of children, fuelled in no small measure by the arrival of homecomputers, video games consoles and now the ever present mobile phone. Not surprisingly, as activity levels have dropped so children have also lost their natural ability to burn up the calories gained from eating an increasing amount of junk food.
Magazines, the Internet, television and other forms of media also play a role as they dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and confectionary manufacturers are quick to jump onto this particular bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity which the media provides. Many people would argue that commercials have done more to fuel the rise in child obesity that just about anything else in recent years.
There are also clearly a variety of psychological factors at play in our modern world and a significant number of children today will simply eat whenever they get bored. What is more, they will turn to food if they find themselves angry, stressed, depressed or anxious.
At the moment a great deal of medical research is being directed towards the cause of child obesity and its treatment and much of this is aimed at finding a solution to the problem through diet and exercise once presented with an obese child. But, with child obesity continuing to rise at such an alarming rate, perhaps it is now time to tackle the roots of the problem and to stop our children from getting obese in the first place.
Both Alan Rosca & Donald Saunders are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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