Obesity is a growing problem in the United States. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, obesity rates in both children and adults have more than doubled since the 1970’s. Reports published in the last few years have stated that there may be some decline in obesity among certain groups, however, it is still very much a problem, as well as a leading health issue here in the United States.
There are many factors that play into the predicament of obesity including demographics, socioeconomic status and the region in which one lives. For example, in a study published this year, data showed that 82 percent of black women were considered highly overweight or obese. Figures showed that 77.2 percent of Hispanic women were obese as well, compared to the much lower figure of 63.2 percent of white women who were considered overweight or obese.
While obesity in adults may have decreased in recent years as some researchers suggest, or at least plateaued, obesity in children has only become more of a nationwide problem. Doctors are seeing obesity in children as young as two years old. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity in children has doubled in children, and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 1980, the percentage of children between the ages of six to eleven years of age who were obese abruptly increased to 7 percent. In the year 2012, the percentage increased to 18 percent. In that same time frame, the percentage of adolescents 12 to 19 years of age who were considered obese jumped from 5 percent to roughly 21 percent.
There are many organizations that have come forward in recent years to address and facilitate with the dilemma of obesity in children. Even fast food restaurants have tried to adjust their menus, adding healthy options in meals made for kids. Doctors urge parents to combat the sedentary lifestyle that most children have become accustomed to; put the video games away and get them outside.
A new study has recently been published by the Journal of Pediatrics that shows that eating meals together as a family can significantly help put a stop to obesity. The study reports that children who do not eat meals with their families are more likely to become obese in adolescence and later in life. Researchers took data from the Project Eating and Activity in Teens study. This study included 2,117 middle and high school students, and researchers noted their dining habits and body mass index. A decade later the participants, now young adults, were reexamined. More than half of the 2,117 young adults were considered overweight or obese, and the results proved that frequency of family meals as a child or teenager played a major role in the massive weight gain.
Sitting down to a family meal even a few times a week helped dramatically with keeping weight down. Young adults in the study who had just one or two family meals in a week’s time were 45% less likely to have weight problems compared to those who sat down to zero family meals. Young adults who sat down to three or more family meals each week cut the risk of obesity in half. The study did not take into account what the family meals consisted of, so they have no way of knowing if the meals were home-cooked or take out. No matter what factors are involved in the relationship between family meals playing a role in fighting obesity, the results are in, and parents need to step up to the plate (pun intended).
By: Lauren DiDonato