Canada's Future Epidemic?

“Overweight and obesity have become major public health problems among children in countries around the world including Canada”, He & Beynon (2006) p. 125. This startling fact has prompted me to investigate further the issue that is childhood obesity. Far from being an issue of beliefs or conformity, obesity may be the single biggest overall threat to the health of children in developed Western countries. While our popular culture is obsessed with the image of the thin and fabulous, this same culture is breeding generations plagued by obesity and the complications that are associated with this condition.

“The major epidemiological transition in the 20th century was the shift in mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases to chronic diseases, with cardiovascular disease leading the list.” Kimm & Obarzanek, 2002, p.1003. This startling movement of increases in chronic disease prompted researchers to begin to look at the causes of this new wave of disease. During the 20th century North America was really developing. Food became no longer a reason for living, but a guarantee no matter who you were or where you came from. Both sides of the border enjoy a constant influx of a variety of food. According to Kimm & Obarzanek, 2002, p. 1003, “The availability of abundant food led not only to better overall nutriture and improved child health, but also to the current population’s state of excess positive energy balance, accelerated by an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in recent decade.” Sunny Grewal