Childhood Obesity and Nutrition

Biography

Biography: Ata pourabbasi

Abstract

Over the past decades, obesity have become a global concern. This issue not limited to a certain range of age so that a plethora of research body has focused on obesity in childhood and adulthood.  Several studies have also supported the impact of obesity in raising the rate of mortality and the incidence of non-communicable diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. However, in parallel with these findings, a new concept, metabolically healthy obesity has been developed in this area.  According to this new concept, metabolic parameters could be normal such as insulin resistance, lipid profile, etc. despite of obesity phenotype.  Consistently, it has been confirmed in several studies that metabolically healthy obese individuals are not significantly different from those of normal weight in respect of risk of obesity-related disorders such as CVDs, and liver fibrosis.

Putting all these findings together raises the question whether the obesity phenotype is a troublemaking health issue or obesogenic behaviors even without obesity phenotype? Is it possible for obese individuals to have normal behavior, and normal weight individuals, in contrast, have inappropriate behaviors such as excessive intake of junk foods, sedentary life style, overeating, etc? Although, no documented study has been so far carried out in this field, but the experience of the author attest to the fact that the obesity phenotype is not necessarily correlated with the eating behaviors; and the issue which leads to the obesity-related complications in different ages maybe not the obesity phenotype but is the abnormal nutritional behaviors even though in non-obese individuals. Thus, it seems necessary to put more emphasis on establishing normal nutritional behaviors in childhood instead of obesity phenotype and fitness.