The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has tripled since the 1970s according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which means one in five children has obesity. That’s probably well-known information worldwide but it is in fact a continental problem, in Latin America and the Caribbean according to the FAO, 58% of the population lives with overweight and another 23% has obesity, which represents roughly 360 million people. About half the population in every country in the region, the most affected countries are Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad y Tobago and Antigua and Barbuda.
Obesity is defined as having excess body fat. Overweight is defined as having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, muscle, bone, water, or a combination of these factors. Children with a BMI at or above the 85th percentile and less than the 95th percentile are considered overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Brazil next to the United States and China is one of the most affected countries by child obesity, a study presented at the Brazilian Congress of Cardiology in 2016 showed that obesity ascended from 6% in 1986 to 18% in 2016 in the South American country.
“Our findings are worrying, given that adults who were obese in childhood and adolescence are the most common victims of early death from cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke,” said Dr Andréa Araújo Brandão, a cardiologist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The problematic started when the Brazilian government started a period of economic growth. As the economy boomed a part of the population joined a lower-middle class, which represented about 60 percent of the population, due to this progress the overweight rates increased rapidly due to the population going from precarious situations to better incomes, they started buying more junk foods and processed food.
The situation is a burden to the public health system due to the increase on the levels of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease but the economic problematic is not the worst part of the situation but the problematic that come with child obesity; they have a higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health, such as asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and risk factors for heart disease, constant Bullying and teasing from peers, and it will most likely lead to obesity in adulthood as well linking it to other serious conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, consuming more energy from foods than the body uses for functioning and physical activity may lead to weight gain nonetheless genetics, metabolism, environmental factors and social and psychology, influenced sometimes by families, the community, the media and industries also contribute to this alarming obesity rate.
