Obesity in children increases during the holidays
Childhood obesity rates increased during the holidays
Childhood obesity rates increase during the holidays, according to a new research.
We all know over indulgence during this festive season leads to further weight gain among adults.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a US study has been published in a journal Obesity has found out that this time of year can be a major risk factor for the weight gain among children too.
Associate Professor Paul von Hippel from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas in Austin says that schools have never been a big part of the childhood obesity problem.
“I wish I could further say that changes schools have been made that over the last decade are further helping to reduce obesity, but they are not,” von Hippel said.
“Kids are gaining BMI at some healthy rates during the school year, and then further becoming overweight when school lets out.”
The study further added We cannot make a dent in this problem if we could further continue to focus on school food and some physical education programs that would affect the children only when they are at school.”
Researchers at the LBJ School examined the body mass index (BMI) and obesity prevalence in a nationally representative sample of more than almost 18,000 children from the start of kindergarten in the year 2010 through the end of the second grade in 2013.
Overweight and Obesity
During that time, all of the increases in overweight and obesity has prevalence has also occurred during the two US summer holidays and this is not during the time of three school years.
This study has been second nationally representative analysis of the seasonal BMI gain.
The first, published in the year 2007 in the American Journal of Public Health, found that the children has gained weight faster during summer holidays than during the kindergarten and first-grade school years.
Melanie McGrice, Australian dietitian from Nutrition Plus, a charity that helps to further improve the diets of Indigenous children, says that the parents must be extra mindful about the number of treats they would allow their kids to be consumed during the school holidays.
“If we are going to be eating more treat foods, then we need to compensate at other times when we usually eat treat foods. If you are going to a school Christmas party, then maybe you don’t have the Friday night takeaway that you usually have to compensate.”
Staying active and further maintaining regular meal times is also important to further avoid overeating, advises Ms McGrice.
“Try to create some healthy strategies as a family, like not keeping sweet drinks in the house, only snacking on fruit or two hours of outdoor play everyday.”
“There is certainly nothing wrong with further having some treat foods occasionally, but the problem is that occasionally can become everyday rather than a sometimes food,” said McGrice.
