Childhood Obesity

Obesity is now a global issue and in most parts of the world, it has reached epidemic proportions in the last decade. The attendant problems with being overweight and obese had increased across developed and developing countries, in both genders and in all age groups. Technological advancement and lifestyle and cultural modernization, initially regarded as the way to enrich lives are now under reconsideration. In order to cope with the demands of this fast-paced world we inhabit, convenience has become key.

But, at what price?

But first we should identify what obesity is. As defined by the book Human Nutrition, (Geissler and Powers 11^th edition, 2005);

“Obesity is not a single entity, but it is most commonly classified by a single measure, the body mass index (BMI), a ratio of weight and height. The term overweight refers to a BMI greater or equal to 25, but is frequently adapted to refer to BMI 25-29.9, differentiating the pre-obese from the obese categories.”(p.380)

We all know that obesity in adults is steadily growing around the world. Blaming it from genetics up to their busy lives and also caring for others, it seems that adults just don't have enough time for their health. And the consequences are slowly showing worldwide. But most importantly, about 10% of children here in the Philippines are now considered obese (that is from age 12 years and below). From a country where malnutrition in children is a major problem, now childhood obesity is slowly becoming a huge threat to the communities.

The efforts to change this epidemic (among adults) are becoming more apparent. With more people becoming aware of their health, from joining the gym and buying more products that are considered to be healthy, it seems that if the "trend" of staying fit doesn't go away, then maybe we can influence the younger generation to do the same. BUT,

what is the proper way to do this?

how can we teach our children to eat healthy?

how can we pull away the external factors that influence our children to lead unhealthy lives without making them feel deprived?

These are the questions that I have to answer for my thesis, but most importantly, these are only some of the questions that our community have to answer in order for us to fight childhood obesity.

write to you later,
ains :)

Why it's personal

I'm not really a writer so please bare with me. It was four years ago, I was browsing through my files looking at old photos. At that time I still liked looking at old photographs as it reminded me of the good times I've had when I was in high school. I was one of the, let's put it in good terms, the "chubby girl". We were almost 50 in our class and there were 3 of us who were on the heavy side, but it didn't bother me at all because I knew that as long as I felt good about myself and how I looked, then everything was going to be alright. As I was looking through the pictures, I saw one picture that I will always remember. It was a picture of our classmate wearing a costume and it looked like she was going to burst out of it! I felt sorry for her, how she must have felt having to wear a ridiculous costume. And as I looked closer at the picture, I was surprised to see that the person whom I felt sorry for was not my classmate but regrettably, myself. And at that moment on, I realized that I was no longer happy with how I looked and felt about myself.

And 4 years later, I am now an incoming fourth year at the University of Santo Tomas, and gladly doing a thesis, an advocacy campaign against childhood obesity. I created this blog to share with others what I have learned, based from research and my personal experience.

(4 years ago)

BEFORE

(i've always wanted to do this!)

AFTER

(by the way, im the one on the left, the other one's my bestfriend, reg :)

(the one in the middle)

Four years had gone by, 50 lbs off, a hundred books and articles read about losing weight, thousands of calories burned, and countless questions on how I can be better has changed my thesis to once an academic requirement to a personal quest. (Thank you Sir Velez for approving my proposal, yey!)

I am now re-learning and re-tracing my steps to how I lost all the weight. Hopefully, this blog will serve useful to others as others had been to me.

Write to you soon,

ains