Relevant data show that there are currently about 70 million people in the world suffering from obesity, and the number of obesity doubles every five years. At the same time, the child obesity rate is increasing year by year. The World Health Organization believes that obesity has become a worldwide epidemic.
The situation in our country is also very severe. With the development of social economy and the improvement of people’s material life, more and more children have quietly joined the ranks of obese people. According to the 2017 China Child Obesity Report, the obesity rate of children aged 0 to 7 in major major cities is about 4.3%, and the obesity rate of school-age children over 7 is about 7.3%. It is estimated that there are 4.76 million obese children between 0 and 7 years old, and 34.96 million overweight and obese school-age children over 7 years old are estimated to be nearly 40 million. It has become an issue of great concern to medical care today.
Causes of childhood obesity
The cause of childhood obesity is not yet fully understood. But the current research findings are related to the following factors.
Genetic factors According to relevant studies, the obesity rate of offspring is 70% to 80% for parents who are obese; if one parent is obese, the offspring’s obesity rate is 40% to 50%; for parents who are not obese, the offspring’s obesity rate is about Is 10%.
Gynecological studies on intra-fetal factors have found that the average pregnant woman gains about 11 kilograms during the entire pregnancy. If it exceeds this standard, especially those who gain too much weight after 3 months of pregnancy, it can induce fetal obesity and dystocia, leading to infant obesity.
Central Nervous System Regulatory Factors The central nervous system has a precise calorie balance regulation function, which controls body weight relatively stable. If these central nervous systems are unbalanced, it will cause the body to consume more calories than normal and cause obesity.
Dietary factors include two aspects. (1) Due to overnutrition, there are more and more delicious delicacies in life, so that children eat too much calories. (2) Micronutrient deficiency. Micronutrients refer to those important nutrients that are not contained in the human body, but are indispensable, such as various vitamins and trace elements. Science has confirmed that the human body needs a variety of nutrients to participate in the process of energy metabolism and the conversion of fat into energy consumption. If the body’s intake of iron, calcium, zinc, etc. is insufficient, it will affect energy metabolism and fat conversion, leading to obesity.
Sports factors School-age children are intense in learning and have too many extracurricular homework, leading to too long sitting time, too little activity time, low energy consumption and obesity.
Some children with mental factors, due to mental stress such as relatives’ casualties, divorced parents, poor academic performance, etc., use food as a means to relieve tension, worry, frustration, boredom, and boredom, and obtain psychological comfort or compensation from “eating” . This can also lead to obesity.
What are the hazards of childhood obesity
High blood lipid data show that the blood lipids of obese children are significantly higher than normal children. Dyslipidemia is one of the high risk factors of atherosclerosis.
Hypertension in children susceptible to hypertension refers to preschool children with blood pressure higher than 110/70 mmHg, school-age children with blood pressure higher than 120/80 mmHg, and over 12 years old with blood pressure higher than 130/90 mmHg. A survey in Beijing found that the risk of hypertension in obese children is three times that of non-obese children. Because the body of obese children increases, the total metabolism and the body’s oxygen consumption increase, which increases the burden on the heart and increases blood pressure.
Hyperinsulinemia and diabetic obese children generally have hyperinsulinemia. In order to maintain glucose metabolism, they are forced to secrete large amounts of insulin for a long time, which leads to pancreatic islet secretion failure, and then diabetes.
Fatty liver is easy to induce fatty liver in severely obese children, the incidence of fatty liver is as high as 80%. Child obesity is an important risk factor for fatty liver. Hypertension and hyperlipidemia are dangerous signs of fatty liver in obese children.
Obese children who are susceptible to respiratory diseases accumulate fat on the chest wall, which compresses the thorax, which restricts expansion, reduces compliance, and restricts diaphragm movement, which affects lung ventilation and reduces the resistance of the respiratory tract, and is susceptible to respiratory diseases.
Clinical data on susceptibility to digestive system diseases show that the prevalence of digestive system diseases in obese children is 15%, which is significantly higher than that of normal children (4% prevalence).
Immune function Obesity children have low immune function and significantly lower cell activity, which makes them susceptible to infectious diseases.
Prone to precocious puberty, the blood testosterone content of male obese children and the serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate content of female obese children are significantly higher than those of normal children, which can be caused by increased body fat. The increase in the secretion of adrenal hormones reduces the sensitivity of the hypothalamus to the threshold of circulating sex hormones, and precocious puberty appears.
The total IQ and operator quotient of obese children with low IQ are lower than healthy children, their activities, learning, and communication skills are low, and depression and low self-esteem will occur over time, making children sensitive to interpersonal relationships, introverted, and low in social adaptability, which affects children’s mental health .
Prevention of childhood obesity
The dangers of obesity are obvious, so how to prevent the children in your family from becoming “little chubby”? Parents should pay attention to the following precautions.
Cultivate good eating habits from an early age to cultivate children’s good habits of regular and quantitative meals. Starting from elementary school, you should have three meals a day, no extra meals between classes, no snacks for your children, and encourage regular meals. Moms who love snacks or skip breakfast should pay special attention, and quickly get rid of their bad habits and don’t spoil their children. In order to help children develop healthy eating habits, parents should lead by example, maintain good eating habits, and have a subtle influence on their children.
Appropriately increasing physical activity should give children time and space to play. Even young children should not always be closed indoors. Take your children to outdoor activities when you have time. Parents can bring older children together for morning exercises, let the children participate in group games with children, cultivate children’s labor habits from an early age, encourage housework; limit children’s time to watch TV, cultivate interest in a variety of entertainment activities; help children develop Optimism, good living habits and regular schedules are very helpful in preventing high blood pressure.
Don’t abuse nourishing foods. Some parents think that nourishing health products can help their children grow and develop, so they often buy them for their children. However, in the opposite direction, not only obesity occurred, but also precocious puberty occurred. Someone conducted clinical and experimental research on 11 nourishing drugs such as ginseng and royal jelly, and found that the stimulating pituitary gonadotropin effect of ginseng is the cause of precocious puberty in healthy children; royal jelly also contains gonadotropin-like substances. Some so-called tonics contain hormones or hormone-like substances to varying degrees, and healthy children should not use them indiscriminately.
Adjusting the diet of obese children should pay attention to limiting the intake of high-calorie, high-fat, high-sugar, and high-cholesterol foods (such as fatty meat, animal offal, fried food, cream desserts, nuts, ice cream, chocolate, etc.). Eat raw food as much as possible, so that it has low calories and high nutrient content. Keep the body in a state of negative calorie balance to consume body fat.
In addition, it is necessary to limit the intake of fine staple food and salt for obese children, and eat more brown rice (brown rice flour), whole wheat (oatmeal), corn, etc. At the same time, ensure the intake of protein-containing foods (fish, lean meat, beans and soy products). Also eat more fruits and vegetables rich in vitamins and minerals, such as cucumber, wax gourd, white radish, lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon, celery, bamboo shoots, spinach, cabbage, carrots, etc., to ensure the growth and development of children.
