Enhancing the quality of life
Amelia and her mother

 

Amelia Neville, 15 years old, High School Student

I have put on a lot of weight over the past year. When I’m with my friends, I feel I have to eat the same things they do, with many fried and sugar-rich foods. I often feel tired and have a problem concentrating, especially in the afternoons. I was doing well at school, in maths and science. But this year, my grades are not good. And the boys tell me I’m fat and ugly. I don’t feel like going to school any more.

Melissa Neville, 47 years old, Amelia’s mother, Supermarket Employee

Amelia doesn’t want to go to school. She has lost all interest in clothes… can never find anything she likes! No motivation, even to brush her teeth, comb her hair and shower! She wants to be on her own. In her room watching TV or listening to music! The doctor says she is obese and we have to help her more. But I don’t know how. I do everything I can for her already. He says we should take the TV out of her room, but this might cause even more problems.


Young and obese

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Juvenile obesity at a glance

Health researchers have come to a chilling conclusion. They predict that the present generation will be the first in human history with a shorter life expectancy than their parents. The main fear is juvenile and adolescent obesity, which has now reached epidemic proportions in all industrial countries and is fast catching up in emerging countries.

In France, for example, overweight among 5 to 15 year olds bounded from 3% in 1965 to 20% in 2005. About one third of these are clinically obese. This is the average for Europe as a whole, varying between a low of 12% in the Netherlands to 35% in Spain.

Food certainly plays a role. But changes in lifestyle in the past 40 years have been faster and more radical than at any time in history. Today, in the US, 32% of 2 to 7 year olds and 65% of 18 year olds have a TV in their room; on average, they spend 3 hours per day watching TV and over 6 hours on video and computer games, DVDs and Internet.

The trend worldwide to “no physical activity” is quickly generalizing. With less and less physical activity, the inevitable result is an increase in both juvenile and adult obesity. Obese adolescents have a high risk of becoming obese adults and of exposure to a number of dangerous cardiovascular disease risk factors from a very early age.

Prevention of juvenile obesity

Obesity control and prevention as young as possible is critical in stemming the massive rise in obesity. But juvenile obesity is not a fatality. Research with children shows that they respond to education. The critical age range is 5 to 11 years old, before puberty. In the first year of life, children naturally gain fat which they use for rapid growth and development. Baby fat generally decreases up to 6 years old. Then fat naturally increases again in what is called “the adiposity rebound”, running all the way through the puberty growth spurt and into the mid or late teens.

Educating children on body fat and the natural changes in body shape as they get older gives them a reference where they can see that they are developing normally. This is especially important for girls who become very conscious of their weight and shape, often compared to older and unrealistic role models.

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