the pandemic of childhood obesity

TARGET AUDIENCE: Teachers, Parents, Policy makers, Editors, Newspaper Readership.

There’s an epidemic, not of COVID 19, but of obesity in children. This trend is so pervasive that obesity that used to be associated with affluence and indulgence of the rich nations is now common with the poor nations of the world. Childhood obesity, therefore, needs policy intervention to avoid a catastrophic health crisis. According to WHO, 39 million children under the age of 5 were overweight and obese in 2020. If the trend continues at this alarming rate, more children and adolescents will be obese by 2022.These could be unnerving as childhood obesity causes obesity, premature death, and disability later in adulthood. (1)

The cause of obesity in children is the same as in adulthood obesity, eating cheap, ultra-processed, calorie dense, nutrient poor foods. (2) Consequently, measures taken to tackle child obesity will influence the mitigation of adult obesity. The bottom line is that childhood obesity is preventable.

Government can tackle obesity by providing supportive environments such that healthy food options are available and affordable. UK governments are laudable in their effort at curbing sugar consumption through the introduction of Sugar Tax in 2018. But more needs to be done.

UNICEF Framework for tackling childhood obesity has proposed a ban on all forms of marketing of foods that are high in saturated fats, sugar, and salt that children are exposed to. This is due to the result of such adverts in influencing children’s eating habits. No government in all the countries that signed up to the charter has implemented this suggestion. The government of United Kingdom can lead the pack by being the first to ban such adverts. 

Notes:

United Nations decade of Action on Nutrition 2016-2025

Tenfold Increase in childhood and adolescent obesity in Four Decades: new study by Imperial College London and WHO