One of the consequences of the crisis is the increase in children with obesity. Only in extreme cases does malnutrition occur, but malnutrition is much more frequent and we have it closer than we think. Economic difficulties are enemies of good food on many occasions, since it is cheaper to fill the shopping cart with junk food.
There are several studies that link obesity (in developed countries) to the lower social classes and now a new investigation just published by the "European Journal of Public Health", Children living in low-income families are two to three times more prone to excess weight..
The study was conducted with more than 20,000 family units in the United Kingdom. College London researchers took data from children at five and 11 years and the results clearly showed the link between poverty and childhood obesity.
Among the least disadvantaged children, 6.6% suffered from obesity, while among the most privileged, this figure was reduced to 3.5%. When children reach the age of 11, the gap widens to almost triple the incidence (7.9% vs. 2.9%).
Eating habits were taken into account. For example, if the child skipped breakfast, the daily consumption of fruits and vegetables, the intake of soft drinks ... as well as other influential factors (how much they took breastfeeding, mother's weight ...).
Bad nutrition and sedentary lifestyle
As we said at the time, it is possible to eat properly despite the crisis but there are many factors that make it difficult to do so. A lack of access to information by parents, difficulties in putting into practice certain healthy habits ... favor the increased risk of obesity.
And we remember that not only calories are responsible for weight gain in children, also sedentary. And in this case, the crisis is also having its negative effect. One of the consequences is that with the crisis there are fewer children who carry out extracurricular activities (especially sports) with what increases sedentary lifestyle and the risk of being overweight.
The College London specialists responsible for the study we have mentioned also evaluated the frequency of physical exercise per day of the participants, the interactive game with their parents, the hours they spent watching television or playing in teams, bike rides or hours of sleep.
They conclude that playing sports more than three times a week plays an important role as a protector against being overweight, as well as going to bed earlier and eating fruits regularly. On the contrary, factors such as smoking during pregnancy or the mother's body mass index could pose an additional risk of obesity of 20% for the child.
Children from families with few resources go out less, do not practice much sport (extracurricular sports are paid), watch television more ... Their parents often have no chance of making healthy purchases or accompanying them to exercise (or ignore the importance of this point), or simply the children are alone at home in front of the TV.
Prevention strategies are important to reduce obesity and they have to be carried out from different fields. Researchers insist on parental education even since pregnancy, but it is clear that there is a long way to go and that the crisis is not a matter of two days. In fact, the health effects of children will lengthen over time. You, have you noticed these consequences of the crisis in your environment?
