Child and Adolescent Obesity: Part of a Bigger Picture
2015
This series paper stresses a need for the governance of food supply and food markets to be improved and commercial activities subordinated to protect and promote children's health. The prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity has risen substantially worldwide in less than one generation. In the U.S., the average weight of a child has risen by more than 5 kg within three decades, to a point where a third of the country's children are overweight or obese. Some low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have reported similar or more rapid rises in child obesity, despite continuing high levels of undernutrition.
The promotion of energy-rich and nutrient-poor products will encourage rapid weight gain in early childhood and exacerbate risk factors for chronic disease in all children, especially those showing poor linear growth. Whereas much public health effort has been expended to restrict the adverse marketing of breastmilk substitutes, similar effort now needs to be expanded and strengthened to protect older children from increasingly sophisticated marketing of sedentary activities and energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages.
This paper is a part of The Lancet Series: Obesity 2015, which explores how food environments can facilitate unhealthy eating, exploiting people’s biological, psychological, social, and economic vulnerabilities.
Child and Adolescent Obesity: Part of a Bigger Picture
Source:
Lobstein T, Jackson-Leach R, Moodie ML, Hall KD, Gortmaker SL et al. Child and Adolescent Obesity: Part of a Bigger Picture. The Lancet 2015; 385 (9986): 2510–2520. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(14)61746-3