Obesity rates have risen sharply in the United States over the past few decades, such that now nearly one-third of all children are either overweight or obese. These children are developing diseases, like diabetes and high blood pressure, that were once the domain of adults. Moreover, their weight problems as children give them a higher lifelong risk of chronic illness---and a shorter lifespan. The toll on the country is great: the cost of health care and a generation of young people who are not fit for military service give a glimpse at how serious the problem is.
Obesity is Expensive
Obesity is expensive. Because obese children will develop diseases much earlier in life, the cost of health care will be greater. When they get older, factors like time off work, disability payments and loss of productivity make for a situation the current healthcare system may not be able to handle. According to the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity, care for obese adults cost $1,429 more than healthy-weight people. In 2008, medical spending on obesity in adults was $147 billion. For children, it was $3 billion and rising.
Obesity is a National Security Problem
Obesity in childhood affects the country's military readiness. More than 25 percent of youths ages 17 to 24 are not qualified to serve in the military because of their weight. As the prevalence of obesity grows, this figure may get larger. A military leader quoted in the report "Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity within a Generation" commented, "These are the same young people we depend on to serve in times of need an ultimately protect this nation."
Obese Kids Won't Live as Long as Their Parents
The quality and length of children's lives are being dramatically cut by obesity, reports "The New York Times," reporting on a study published in the March 2005 issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine. Children who are obese could live five to 20 fewer years than their parents and deal with far more health problems than previous generations. The imbalance in life expectancy hasn't happened in this country for 200 years. The NEJM study says that it's precisely the risk raised by obesity in childhood that more people die from heart disease and that rates of diabetes tripled. "Shockingly, life-threatening complications, including renal failure, may develop by young adulthood in at least 10 percent of children with type 2 diabetes," the authors write.
Government Policies Contribute to the Childhood Obesity Problem
Some children are overweight because of a lack of access to affordable healthy foods and lack of health insurance that may have provided the monitoring needed to resolve the problem. In addition, school lunches, including those served in day care, don't always meet the standards required of them, says the Department of Agriculture. Budgets have also cut short physical education and recess, contributing to the childhood obesity problem. The country therefore has an impetus to remove these hindrances to good health in childhood. Busy working parents are now buying more fast food and sugary beverages rather than cooking meals. Children in urban and rural regions may have to travel many miles before they reach a full supermarket with healthy foods, but their families may not be able to afford them. Children in urban environments are more likely to live within walking distance of fast food and corner markets, where unhealthy food is ubiquitous and cheap. These conditions create the disturbing situation in which children are overweight but malnourished.
References
- White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity: Solving the Problem of Childhood Obesity Within a Generation
- New York Times: Children's Life Expectancy Being Cut Short by Obesity
- CDC: Food and Beverages Sold Outside of the School Meals Program
- USDA: Childhood Obesity: Causes & Prevention
- Institute of Medicine: Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity
- USDA: The Economics of Obesity
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