Obesity is becoming an epidemic and unhealthy lifestyle habits of youngsters are making them the biggest victims of lifestyle diseases resulting in rising incidence of juvenile obesity, said a survey conducted by Max Healthcare.
The survey noted that at least 40% of children (aged 5-9 years), teenagers (aged 10-14 years) and adolescents (aged 15-17 years) are overweight or obese.
The study also delves into insights from around 1,000 parents of overweight and obese children and adolescents, which reveals that 84% of girls and 82% of boys are physically and emotionally affected by weight issues.
Of the various factors leading to obesity, overeating (72%), genetics (40%) and unmonitored food habits (33.5%) are seen as leading causes of weight gain.
Large portion sizes
Large intake of low nutrition but high-calorie foods, high frequency of eating out and large portion sizes are unhealthy lifestyle choices being made by youngsters in Delhi, noted the survey. It added that these poor eating habits eventually manifest into a full-fledged eating disorders.
Parents of obese children agreed that they are very impressionable and get influenced by a lot of things. On the one hand, parents are using food as reward/means to distract children; and on the other, peer pressure, social media and advertising, academic stress and mood swings play havoc with their eating choices.
“Emotional eating and binge eating are hence becoming very common among young children,” said the survey.
Sleeping disorders
Pradeep Chowbey, chairman, Department of Minimal Access, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Max Healthcare, said: “Youngsters are sleeping late and often resort to midnight binging. They do not burn any calories after eating late at night as they sleep afterwards. During the day, they are lethargic and thus burn less calories.”
Bad eating habits can cause sleeping disorders, depression, stress, anxiety and hormonal imbalance. “Stress hormones and steroids production can increases appetite thus contributing to weight gain,” he added.
