Childhood Obesity Statistics Shows Why it is a very danger epidemic

Childhood Obesity Statistics

• Obesity levels among children have tripled over the last 20 years. Seven percent of 15 years old children are now in clinical obese.
• Only 2% of school-age children meet the recommended minimum number of servings for all five major food groups on the Food Guide Pyramid.
• Young people today are eating more fast foods with ever increasing portion sizes.
  Over 40% of an average family’s food budget is spent on fast foods.
• Children’s diets are also high in added sugars.  The risk of children being overweight has been shown to increase by 60% for each additional serving of a sweetened beverage that is consumed daily for a period of 1.5 years.
• Potential health problems associated with high intake of sweetened drinks.
• Forty-three percent of elementary, 74% of middle and 98% of high schools have either vending machines, a school store or snack bar where students can purchase food or beverages that compete with the federally supported Child Nutrition Programs.
• More students are choosing to purchase foods from “competitive” sources such as a la carte and vending, which, unlike the USDA Child Nutrition Programs, have no federal nutrition guidelines.
• The Surgeon General recommends that children should accumulate 60 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week.
• Thirty five percent of high school students don’t participate in any regular physical activity.
• Participation in all types of physical activity declines strikingly as age or grade in school increases.
• The National Association for Sport and Physical Education recommends physical education instructional periods totaling a minimum of 150 minutes per week for elementary children and 225 minutes per week for middle and high school students.
• Only 25% of students are enrolled in daily physical activity.

Expenditure statistics on children who come from the National Statistics Office survey results were published in June 2005. Survey used information from the Diaries kept by more than 4,000 children. They recorded all their expenses during the period of two weeks, and paid $5 for their efforts. Data collected during the period 2002 to 2004. Survey found that women tend to have more spending money than boys.

New official childhood obesity statistics show that spending 7-15 years old spend a greater proportion of their weekly money on food than on the other items. Sweets, snacks and take-aways account for more than a third of young people from spending money each week. This applies to both boys and girls.

On average, children between the ages of 7-15 years old spend $ 2.30 per week sweets, drinks and snacks. They spend the same amount again on other food products, including school meals. Typical of a budget of $ 13 per week, children spend almost $ 5 on food.

Faced with the growth rate of childhood obesity statistics, health experts emphasize the importance of a balanced, healthy diet. Aware of this, there are plans at the end of the year 2005 for the sale of poor-quality meals and snacks in schools. From September 2006, if included in the proposal to get action, the school will not be allowed to provide ‘fast food’ to the students.