I stumbled upon this diagram when I simply Googled, “childhood obesity” and I felt that it was worth sharing. It is from a website called, “Why Mozart in Shape?” and I believe it to be a fantastic website for families to search through together. It explains the myths and facts concerning childhood obesity in a family friendly manner and I cannot stress enough how important it is see the facts for yourselves.
I feel like I keep stressing the importance of eliminating childhood obesity, but I have yet to provide a graphic to support my words. Honestly, looking at this illustration makes me sad. To see that one child could experience one or many of these symptoms due to being overweight or obese breaks my heart because it is all PREVENTABLE. Health issues like hypertension, gallstones, sleep apnea, and depression are not ones I associate young children having, but not getting the right nutrition during those vital years of growth and development will cause issues earlier than normal. Let’s keep our kids healthy so they do not have to deal with serious health problems when they should be living carefree lives with their friends and families.
If this website does not convince you that childhood obesity is a problem, I want you to check out the website for Penn State University’s Center for Childhood Obesity Research. I understand that sometimes it takes research from a renowned institution to convince us that things need to change and that is why I highly recommend visiting this site. This group at Penn State is devoted to finding ways to keep up childhood obesity prevention programs by proving research that supports the fact that these programs actually do their intended job. There are links for parents and caregivers to other helpful sites. They also provide access to their research and publications, which I believe to be the greatest part of the center because it shows that they truly want to get the public involved and informed.
dyanazeidenstein 