Plastic Surgery Articles

There has been a great deal of commentary and analysis in the news lately about the issue of childhood obesity in the United States.  The operative statistic according to the Office of the Surgeon General is that one in three children (through adolescence) is either overweight or obese.  There is a difference in the terms: obese is at the top end of the overweight graph.  Definitions of these terms are based on the Body Mass Index (BMI) which provides average figures for the amount of body fat based on height and weight, for children from an infant age to eighteen.

These calculations result in a child’s body fat level being rated on a percentile scale.  Underweight is below the fifth percentile.  Average weight is between the 5th and 85th percentile.  Overweight is between 85th and 95th percentile, and obese is above the 95th percentile.  The wide range for average weight takes into account differing rates of development for children and the fact that muscle tissue is heavier than fat.  This is particularly relevant for adolescents when they are developing an adult musculature.

Nevertheless, one third of our children are in the percentile range between 85 and 100.  That is triple the rate of childhood weight issues thirty years ago.  This is a particularly important statistic for teenagers because it is a heavy indicator of adult behavior and the health problems that come with being overweight for an extended period of time.  The reasons for the steady rise in overweight children is due to more sedentary lifestyles – playing video games instead of baseball – and poorer diets, often due to the consumption of high-calorie, high fat fast food items.

Dr. Dianne Neumark-Sztainer of the University of Minnesota published an article in June’s Pediatrics Magazine about a study of 170 families who had an overweight child or children in the family.  The study showed differing attitudes among parents, but perhaps the most telling statistic is the fact that for both boys and girls, being encouraged to diet roughly tripled their likelihood of still being overweight 5 years later.

Dr. Neumark-Sztainer notes that kids who diet tend to binge-eat more often, skip breakfast, and use other less healthy and less effective weight control strategies.  Children who are teased about their weight are more likely to develop bulimia as a “diet” solution.  Weight and adolescence can create great social stress, which contributes to low self esteem, which in turn leads to adult obesity.

Medline, a news service from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reports on a study conducted in Norway that demonstrates teenagers are more likely than their thinner peers to die of heart disease or certain other ills by the time they are middle-aged.  Researchers found that among more than 200,000 Norwegians followed from adolescence to middle-age, those who were obese or overweight as teens were three to four times as likely to have died of heart disease.

Solutions?

Like all childhood development issues, what is learned in the home is of paramount importance.  A study conducted by the Stanford University Medical School in 2004 showed that 48 percent of children with overweight parents became overweight, compared with 13 percent of those with normal-weight parents. Part of this may be genetic disposition, but the far more likely catalyst is a household full of poor eating choices. 

According to KidsHealth.org the federal government has gotten involved by pressuring food companies to temper their advertising directed at children.  The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services has put pressure on eleven large companies that together, produce two-thirds of the food commercials directed at kids. 

The corporations are shifting their promotional material towards healthier diets, to a degree.  By the end of 2008 fewer licensed characters and kid-friendly cartoons will appear on packages of often-unhealthy foods. Some friendly licensed faces will be used, however, on companies’ “better for you” offerings.

Even McDonalds has pledged to only promote kids’ meals with fruit and low-fat milk to kids.  But it’s hard to overestimate the impact that the Fast Food Nation has had on our kids.  A recent study found that preschoolers preferred the taste of regular foods (including carrots) when they were packaged in McDonald’s wrappers. That’s not a surprise, which is the truly frightening fallout from that particular data point.

Written by: bob