"We see them everywhere, in the mall, on talk TV shows, and in school. They are the two hundred pound eight year old, the hundred pound babies, the grossly obese teen. Some children are overweight from birth. The TV news showed a picture of a 17 pound newborn just the other day. Overweight children seem to be the norm these days.
We attribute this to overfeeding by parents and caregivers, lack of exercise, hereditary factors, and in rare cases, glandular problems and diseases.
A neurological disease called Prader-Willi Syndrome causes a child to be constantly hungry. These children will steal food, beg from the neighbors, eat off other people's plates, and even eat bizarre items such as a bottle of ketchup, flour, dirt, or plants from the yard. A crinkle in the 15th chromosome causes it. Doubtless, other genetic causes exist that cause gross overweight.
Causes of genuine overfeeding include the fact that parents work and have no time to cook. They take the child out for fast food several days a week. They feel guilty that they cannot spend more time with the child and make up for it with treats, ice cream, candy, cake and other goodies. "
For the first time in modern history, our children's life expectancy could be lower than our own. The reason: obesity.
Every day our children are bombarded with advertisements -- quite often for products that are harmful to them. Each year, the average child sees about 40,000 commercials on television alone, the majority of ads targeted at them are for candy, sugared cereal, fizzy drinks and fast food.
While parents may actually be the ones paying the price for all of this advertising at the cash register, our children are paying with their health.
The role of marketing in the childhood obesity problem is significant. A recent study found that children who spend the most time watching TV, videos and video games are more likely to be overweight.
It is where food advertisers spend billions of euro's each year pushing unhealthy cereals, snacks and drinks through commercials and product placements aimed at children; where beloved cartoon characters chill for fast- food chains (such as Burger King's use of Teletubbies and SpongeBob); and where advertisements for cookies and candy are disguised as arcade-style games. It is where broadcasters and advertisers put their own financial well-being above the health of our children.
Interactive television also has the potential to target individual viewers with personalized ads, increasing the likelihood of impulse purchases, according to the Center for Digital Democracy. Advertisers will be able to target children according to their gender, age, household income and race, by tracking the history of their individual television viewing habits.
“Many people assume that obesity is a result of simply eating too much food, the reality is that our entire lifestyles can contribute to this disease.
New trends: television and computer use is displacing sports and other physical activities as the principal way kids spend their time.” – it’s always easier to blame technology then your self.
Extensive TV viewing carries a double hazard: it exposes young children to countless hours of adverts for soft drinks ('liquid candy') and other energy-dense foods, such as chocolate. Research has shown that TV advertising is all-too effective in programming children into only wishing to eat sugary and energy-rich 'junk' food.
With more and more Irish families having both parents at work (and of course commuting) less time is available for home cooking and for sit-down family meals where young children can pick up healthier eating habits. So the drift is increasing towards take-away foods, often eaten while sitting in front of the TV.”
As recently as twenty years ago, many Irish children either walked or cycled to school. Increased prosperity has led to most families having two cars, with children now usually ferried to and from the school gate. Parents' worries about the safety of their children on busy streets have added to this trend. In a more affluent Ireland, children now have access to pocket money that was simply not available to their counterparts as recently as the 1970s and 1980s. Much of this cash is naturally spent in the local sweet shop.
“Today's parents may be the first generation to bury their own children.”
Why there is no action? First, many people are in denial about their own weight. For example, in the recent major Irish study undertaken by the Food Safety Promotion Board, of the 1,000 adults interviewed, not one described themselves as obese, despite the fact that when assessed, one in eight of them were found to be clinically obese.
“Major lifestyle changes are perhaps even more important than actual food consumption.”
“Bad habits can quickly become engrained. Laziness. To loose weight is effort.”
“Child psychologists are retained by marketing companiesto develop imagery for food branding and advertising based on detailed study of children's dreams – in other words, the images that children are being 'sold' are indistinguishable to them from their own subconscious.”
