People who are severely obese as adolescents or in their early 20s can expect to have significantly shorter lives, according to research published in a Journal.

Overweight in children and adolescents is generally caused by lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns or a combination of the two, with genetics and lifestyle both playing important roles in determining a child’s weight. Society has become very sedentary. Television, computer and video games contribute to children’s inactive lifestyles. Forty-three percent of adolescents watch more than two hours of television each day. Children, especially girls, become less active as they move through adolescence.

The excess weight puts children at risk of a range of preventable health problems, including Type 2 diabetes, susceptibility to heart attack and stroke, joint problems and mental health issues, hypertension and other obesity-related chronic diseases are nowadays more common in children at younger age. “For the first time in recorded history, today’s younger generation will live shorter lives than their parents. According to a survey by the Canadian Medical Association, nine per cent of parents identified their children as being overweight or obese.

The recent research and study suggests the young one’s to control weight through more physical activity and better dietary habits. Latest surveys have found that today’s youth are considered the most inactive generation in history.

Rates among aboriginal children are worse, with 55 per cent living on reserves being overweight or obese, compared with 41 per cent for First Nations children living off reserves, said the report. Merrifield said if one meal a day is made of traditional First Nations food, than the obesity level will go down besides children’s habit of snacking. The report asks’ the federal government Start a public awareness program and remove fatty foods from Canadian diet and use its alternative. Conservative MP Steven Fletcher said that it will take generation to change the culture, but it is possible. We have to change the paradigm so that it’s unfashionable to overeat and it’s very fashionable to exercise more,” Merrifield said.
We need a revolution, a delicious revolution, that will induce children - in a pleasurable way - to think critically about what they eat.

Children’s eating habits stay with them for the rest of their lives. The best way to defeat the obesity epidemic is to teach children about food - and thereby prevent them from ever becoming obese. Our children are our future due to the obesity epidemic, our children will not be as healthy as we are. But if we could improve their health, we could improve so many other aspects of their lives.

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