Childhood Obesity, Health & Nutrition and its Effects on ...

1 31 Spring, 2020 Journal for Leadership and InstructionAbstractThe purpose of this article is to examine the com-pelling evidence of Childhood obesity across the world andwithin the United States and the major contributors to thishealth crisis. Factors contributing to the obesity Health crisisand potential interventions are given a preliminary analysiswithin related research of the IssueAccording to the Center for Disease Control's mostrecent data, the prevalence of obesity is now amongyouth (compared to in adults). This statistic is slightlyhigher ( ) if one considers adolescents aged on ethnicity, rates are highest for Hispanic ( )and Non-Hispanic Black (22%) whereas Non-HispanicAsians have the lowest rate (11%).

2 Non-Hispanic white ratesfall in between at (Hales, Carroll, Fryar, & Ogden,2017). These data are based on the National Health andNutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a survey researchprogram conducted by the National Center for Health Statis-tics to longitudinally assess the Health and nutritional statusof adults and children in the United to the World Obesity Foundation: Atlas ofChildhood Obesity, October 2019, the current number of chil-dren ages 5-19 years old living with obesity is 158 millionindividuals. This number is predicted to rise to 254 millionby 2030 (retrieved from 10/15/19).Tim Lobstein, the director of Policy at the WorldObesity Federation, was a contributing editor for this WHOdocument.

3 He has been a tireless advocate in combatingchildhood obesity, focusing efforts on the marketing of foodand beverages to children, nutritional policies and programsand on Health inequalities and income disparities. Obesity, previously believed to be a factor of over- Nutrition , currently isstrongly associated with poor diet. New research is nowlinking obesity with under- Nutrition . Known as the doubleburden of malnutrition, obesity, and under- Nutrition are oftenseen in the same person (Dietz, 2017). This problem children has become a Health crisis within the last threedecades (Tim Lobstein et al., 2015). According to Lobsteinet al in the 2015 study, it is the energy-rich but nutritionallypoor diet that leads to rapid weight gain.

4 He suggests aneed for improvements to governmental Nutrition policies,commercial food promotion and marketing to documented Childhood weight gain, significantnutritional deficiencies co-exist, often leading to stunting(short stature).Most Americans consume the Standard AmericanDiet (SAD) which is very high in ultra- and highly processedfoods. These food choices are very unbalanced, Nutrition -ally speaking and can sometimes contribute to 60% of dailycalories and 90% of added sugars (Eur dice Mart nez Steeleet al., 2016). Most ultra-processed foods are high in sugar,refined carbohydrates (like sugar and grain-based foods)and chemically altered industrial seed oils (canola, soybeanand other seed oils).

5 This phenomenon seems to be in-creasing worldwide. According the findings from Euridice etal., ultra-processed foods are cheap and of lower qualityingredients. However, factors like a pleasant mouth feel,enjoyable taste, palatability and sensory enjoyment makethem highly contrast, these food choices have little-to-nonutritional value and are very high in calories. Food manu-facturers work very hard to showcase the positive (taste) todisguise the negative aspects (excessive sugar leading toweight gain, poor nutritional value) of their products (EuridiceMart nez Steele, Popkin, Swinburn, & Monteiro, 2017). It ap-pears that it is the hyper-palatability, long shelf-life and port-ability which makes these foods so attractive to busy fami-lies and the fact that processed foods are easyand fast to prepare and to consume, it is this very conve-nience that is hurting our children.

6 Problems cascade fromthese conveniences. Consumption of these conveniencefoods are believed to alter the brain's perception of appe-tite, reward and cognitive control and appears to lead toadditional cravings associated with convenience is often the result. Manipulation by food manufac-turers goes mostly undetected by most Americans(Blechert, Klackl, Miedl, & Wilhelm, 2016). Foods like so-das and other sweetened beverages (includes fruit juice),sweet or savory snacks, reconstituted meat products, pre-pared frozen meals, sweetened yogurts, boxed and baggedChildhood Obesity, Health & Nutritionand its Effects on LearningBy Dr. Chrystyne Olivieri, DNP, FNP-BC, CDCESSCOPE-JLI-Vol19-1-Spring 314/18/20 10:52 AM32 Spring, 2020 Journal for Leadership and Instructionfoods like chips, pretzels, cookies, crackers and cereals allfall into this category.

7 Mostly all of these food choices aremade with artificial ingredients (sweeteners, flavors and col-ors) as well as with highly oxidizable fats like seed oils andtrans-fats. They are also poor sources of healthy fats, pro-tein and fiber as well as of important micronutrients likepotassium, iron, calcium and to try to achieve improved food fortificationthrough enrichment have failed miserably. Lobstein et al par-ticipated in a study in conjunction with the World ObesityFederation, (2019) asserting that reducing the obesity rates(and associated under- Nutrition ) targets for 2025 are likelyto fail. He warns those in the medical field to expect an in-crease in significant obesity linked Health problems, espe-cially in children (T.)

8 Lobstein & Jackson-Leach, 2016). Health Effects associated with ObesityHealth problems traditionally only seen in the adultpopulation like hypertension are increasingly found in chil-dren (Samuels, Bell, Samuel, & Swinford, 2015). They areoften associated with obesity. Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM), adangerous metabolic disease previously only diagnosed inadulthood, is now often found common in children and ado-lescents. The development of T2DM in youth is particularlydangerous for the cognitive abilities of our young people, butalso for their overall study by M. Constantino, et al. on the relationshipof T2DM diagnosed in youth comparing complication riskand mortality, found that the progression of complications(kidney disease and neuropathy) occurred faster and moreaggressively than in adults (Al-Saeed et al.

9 , 2016).Constantino first identified this problem in a prior study aboutthe dangers of T2DM in youth compared to type 1 diabetesand found T2DM to be the far more aggressive type of diabe-tes (Constantino et al., 2013)."Treatment Options for T2DM in Adolescents andYouth" (the TODAY study), a large-scale study from 2007,examined the benefits of intensive and sustained lifestyleinterventions to children from mainly racial/ethnic minoritieswith T2DM. It found that despite good glycemic control (bloodsugar control), the metabolic abnormalities of abdominaladiposity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension and early kidney dis-ease were not ameliorated (Zeitler, P.

10 , Epstein, L., Grey, M.,Hirst, K., Kaufman, F., Tamborlane, W., & Wilfley, D. (2007). A2013 follow up study on TODAY found that hypertension andearly kidney disease progresses despite adequate glyce-mic control (Lynch, J., Elghormli, L., Fisher, L., Gidding, S. S.,Laffel, L., Libman, I., Pyle, L., Tamborlane, W. V., Tollefsen, S.,Weinstock, R. S., & Zeitler, P. (2013). Glycemic control is achiev-able by using pharmaceuticals however their use is limitedin the pediatric population compared to their use in study suggests that lifestyle interventions (improvingdiet and increasing daily activities) to gain glycemic controlwill help preserve the Health and cognitive function of ouryoung people.)