The Association Betwixt Childhood Obesity and Fast Food

Is there actually an association between childhood obesity and fast food? The response will vary depending upon whom you ask. Obviously the fast food industry prefer to deny such a connection. But parents will do well to consider the facts. Obesity isn't merely a problem of how a child looks. It also means many dangerous and often fatal health conditions. Being overweight is associated with asthma, arthritis, joint damage, heard disease, diabetes, many types of cancer, arthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory distress, and chronic pain. So, considering whether or not childhood obesity and fast food are linked can mean keeping a child's health. Let's consider this matter a bit closer.

One reason to believe that there is a link between childhood obesity and fast food is that obesity is a modern problem. Doctors have never observed as many cases of it in the past as they do today. It seems as if it's no coincidence that we also have more fast food restaurants today than ever before! These restaurants are on just about every street corner in the U.S. They are even inside of many other businesses such as retail stores, libraries, office buildings, and even schools. But the number of restaurants and the number of cases of children being overweight does not itself prove that there's a connection between childhood obesity and fast food.

All the same, you would do well to consider the types of foods served at fast food restaurants. With this in mind, the association between childhood obesity and fast food may be more evident. Almost all items on a fast food menu are very calorie-dense. This means that they provide a lot of calories for the amount of food you're getting. Almost all average sized hamburgers have about 500 or more calories. Compare that to a turkey sandwich on wheat bread which might have around 200 calories. And, of course, along with the hamburger comes fries and a soda, and maybe even a milkshake or dessert.

The association between childhood obesity and fast food gets obvious when you think about how frequently children consume these kinds of meals. Just one fast food meal can hold a full day's worth of calories. A child that consumes these meals several times per week or more than one per day can mean they're virtually consuming thousands of extra calories per week.

The amount of calories that a person will normally devour at a fast food restaurant is an obvious connection between childhood obesity and fast food. If a child is active enough to burn the extra calories it might not be a problem. But a lot of children today live very inactive lives, sitting in front of the TV during their spare time instead of than being outside playing. Even though the association between childhood obesity and fast food is obvious, the food isn't the only perpetrator or cause to the problem. A parent had best get their child up and active in order to preserve his or her health.

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