health

Genetics is one factor influencing childhood obesity that cannot be
changed. Having at least one parent who is obese increases a child’s
risk of obesity throughout life. Researchers disagree, however, on the
importance of genetics as a factor in obesity. Some doctors have
pointed out that the rapid rise in the rate of childhood obesity within
three decades could not be caused by genetic factors alone. One study
reported that 41.95 percent of the children in the study with normalweight
mothers were obese or overweight while 34.25 percent of
children with normal-weight fathers were obese or overweight. Most
doctors in the early 2000s regard childhood obesity as the result of a
combination of genetic factors and behaviors (food choices, exercise,
and eating habits).
A small percentage of overweight children (less than 10 percent)
become obese because of metabolic or genetic disorders. These disorders
include Cushing syndrome, caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland;
Turner syndrome; achondroplasia (dwarfism); disorders of the thyroid
gland; and Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder characterized
by mental retardation and an abnormally large appetite for food. In a few
cases children become obese as a side effect of medications given to treat
rheumatoid arthritis and a few other diseases.

Most doctors believe that the most important factors in childhood
obesity are:

• Poor food choices. The easy availability of fast foods and junk
  foods, combined with parents’ allowing children to choose their
  own foods at home instead of eating shared meals with the family,
  is one reason why many children become obese
• Lack of exercise. The popularity of computers, video games, and
  television as leisure-time activities means that the average child is
  now much less active than a child in the 1970s. Many children
  spend as much as four hours a day watching television. Researchers
  studying a group of 133 children in a suburban community discovered
  that the obese children were 35 percent less active on
  school days and 65 percent less active on weekends compared to
  children of normal weight.
  
• Psychological factors. Some children learn to use food to calm or
  comfort themselves when they feel lonely or anxious, in some cases
  by watching their parents eating when they feel stressed. Unfortunately,
  stress-related eating sets up a vicious circle in which the
  child’s weight gain often leads to further loneliness or greater
  anxiety, and more eating.
  
• Sleep deprivation. Children who do not get enough sleep do
  poorly in school, which in turn can lead to low self-esteem and
  overeating.
  
• Social factors. Get-togethers and other family or group activities
  centered on food (holiday meals and parties, etc.); advertisements
  in the mass media that encourage overeating or poor food
  choices; and schools that have cut back on physical education
  programs.
  
• Economic factors. Low family income and obesity are often
  associated because low-income parents may lack the time and
  resources to make healthful eating habits and exercise a family
  priority.