The childhood obesity It is a social and health problem of great relevance in our society, in fact in Peques and Más we care about keeping up to date on this issue, and we also know the importance of ensuring a balanced and healthy diet, as well as possibilities for physical exercise, as prevention factors.
The Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (SEEDO) wants to warn of the upward trend of this pathology that has not been known to curb or reverse in the last fifteen years, reaching to affect, today, 44.5% of the Spanish population in prepubertal age.
These figures were already announced by the ALADINO report that Marcos told us about a few months ago, and we surely cannot help asking ourselves “where is the cause of the growth of this disease?”. Because although it seems exaggerated to talk about almost half of Spanish children being obese, the truth is that We are all surprised to see smaller and more overweight. Childhood obesity is one of the great endemic ills suffered by the society of the 21st century, and SEEDO has compared the data collected in our country by the study in Kid (1998 - 2000) and the ALADINO (2010 - 2011) carried out with more than twelve years apart.
The ALADINO study data, extracted after analyzing a sample of 7,659 children from 19 Autonomous Communities, allow to map the map of childhood obesity in Spain. The study shows that overweight and obesity affect boys more than girls, and to a greater extent those who never eat breakfast or do so less than three days a week.
Also to those who eat at home and lead a sedentary life, either because they always come and go by car from home to school or because they do not have green areas near their residences. And yet recently we also read that a study revealed a fact related to the possibility of eating at home: "children suffer less obesity."
It is clear that eating at home is not equivalent to spending many hours lying on the couch, and that is why the exception is made in the data analysis. At this point, the ignorance of how to make healthy menus can influence, because one can eat at home and rest for an hour after the day's stay staying very active playing sports or playing
But Is childhood obesity due only to excess food consumption and sedentary lifestyle?
The conclusions of the comparison made by the (SEEDO), tell us that no, since Other variables that may affect the spread of this disease are the hours of sleep and the educational and economic level of the parents and / or guardians. And it is that the prevalence increases as children sleep less.
According to the data, the growth of this pathology has caused Spain is at the top of Europe in childhood obesity, second only to Italy and Cyprus, as reflected in the latest European analysis on this subject, concluded in 2011: the IDEFICS study. An investigation, activated in 2006 under the coordination of the University of Bremen, to explore the risks of overweight and obesity in children, as well as its associated long-term consequences.
“Thanks to this study it has been found that one in five European children is obese or overweight and that there are more girls in the continent than boys under 10 years of age who are overweight. Likewise, it has also been known that the prevalence of childhood obesity is higher in the southern European zone (up to 20%) than in the northern zone (less than 5%).
“A fact that coincides with the fact that in the southern regions it is more frequent for children to eat while watching television, compared to northern Europe”, concludes Dr. Empar Lurbe, member of the Board of Directors of SEEDO.
The most important thing about all this is that let's be aware of the problem and take the necessary preventive measures to avoid it: the most decisive of all is - without a doubt - to obtain the necessary information that allows us to act.
