Question

Brainstorm several specific plans of action that you could implement to improve the nutritional health of the OBESITY AND CHILDHOOD OBESITY target population.

Answer 1

Obesity

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health. It is defined by body mass index (BMI) and further evaluated in terms of fat distribution via the waist–hip ratio and total cardiovascular risk factors

Obesity in childhood

Overweight and obesity in childhood are known to have significant impact on both physical and psychological health. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop non-communicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age.

Body mass index (BMI) is an indirect measure of obesity based on the readily determined measures of height and weight. This report uses the term “obese” to refer to children and adult with BMIs equal to or greater than the 95th percentile of the age- and gender-specific BMI charts.

In most people obesity is caused by eating too much and moving too little. If you consume high amounts of energy from your diet but do not burn off the energy through exercise and physical activity, the surplus energy will be turned into fat. Our modern lifestyles are also causing more people to be obese.

Being obese increases the risk of many disorders, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and certain cancers, and can result in early death. Increasing activity and reducing caloric intake are essential to treating obesity, but some people benefit from also taking drugs.

Action plans to improve nutritional health of the obesity and childhood obesity

• Optimum BMI and Healthy Weight:-
  • The concept of optimum BMI can be applied to populations. Population weight goals for obesity prevention in adults can also be stated in terms of decreasing the proportion that exceed the threshold of 30 kg/m2, although this goal includes both preventing new cases of obesity and reducing weight among those already over the threshold.
  • The current CDC guidelines for healthy weight in children and youth are in the range of the 5th to 85th percentiles of the age- and gender-specific BMI charts. Therefore, a child whose weight tracks in that range—that is, he or she does not cross to lower than the 5th or higher than the 85th percentiles—would be considered to be in the healthy weight range according to these definitions.

• Energy balance:-

  • ​​​​​​​ Energy balance refers to the state in which energy intake is equivalent to energy expenditure, resulting in no net weight gain or weight loss.

  • In adults, who have stopped growing, this relationship between energy intake and output must be equal and reach a zero net energy balance to prevent body storage of extra calories from food as fat and result in weight gain, which represents a positive energy balance.

  • Growing children, even those at a healthy body weight, must be in a slightly positive energy balance to satisfy the additional energy needs of tissue deposition for normal growth. The “energy balance” in children to indicate an equality between energy intake and energy expenditure that supports normal growth without promoting excess weight gain.

  • Energy intake is the calories ingested in the form of food and beverages. Children require a dietary pattern consisting of a variety of foods that provide all the necessary nutrients to support normal growth and development, as well as regular physical activity. Thus, a balanced diet refers to the consumption of appropriate amounts of a wide variety of nutrient-dense foods that provide adequate amounts and proportions of macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) as well as sufficient essential micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) and dietary fiber, in addition to providing adequate energy to meet the needs of maintenance, growth, and development.

• Genetic Variation and Biological Considerations

  • ​​​​​​​Obesity has long been recognized to occur in families, and having overweight or obese parents increases a child's risk of being obese. After age 3, parental obesity is a stronger predictor of a child's future obesity as an adult than is the child's current weight.

  • The genetic characteristics of human populations have not changed in the last three decades, while the prevalence of obesity has approximately doubled. Thus, the recent population rise in body weight reflects the interaction of genotypes that predispose individuals to obesity with detrimental behavioral and environmental factors.

  • What now seems clear is that the system evolved to defend the body from excessive energy deficit, a defense mechanism that has far less relevance today, when many humans are exposed to situations of food excess .

• Psychosocial and Behavioral Considerations:-

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• Dietary Intake​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
• Everyone needs to eat food and consume beverages for daily sustenance. But beyond the physical necessities are the complex social, cultural, and emotional nuances that involve food and permeate many facets of daily life. Children and adults alike consume food and beverages in part because they are hungry but also because eating and drinking are pleasurable and are an integral part of family life, celebrations, recreational events, and other social occasions. Food is also important in the psychosocial well-being, emotional expression, and coping responses of many people. It is, therefore, unrealistic to base recommended eating patterns solely on the chemical composition of foods without taking cultural, social, economic, and emotional drivers of food consumption into account.
• Provide nutritional advice to the American public on how to attain a balanced diet (defined in this report as an overall dietary pattern that provides all the essential nutrients in the appropriate amounts to meet nutritional needs and support life processes such as growth in children without promoting excess weight gain.

• Physical activity
• Physical activity, which has been defined as “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure” (Caspersen et al., 1985), is in many respects synonymous with childhood. One of the joys and benefits of childhood is that being physically active is often a natural and fun part of playing and interacting with family and friends and does not generally involve a conscious decision to exercise. This play time is also developmentally important for children's cognitive, motor-skill, and social development