what causes obesity?

Last week, I talked about how obesity could be caused by hidden physical diseases. Today, I will be talking about how obesity, especially obesity amongst children, could be caused by other factors. What causes obesity? Simple – if a person takes in more calories that one uses for energy, it is very likely that he or she will gain weight – they eat way too much and don’t want to move their lazy butts! As you all would know now, IT IS NOT THAT SIMPLE. Our knowledge on how the body regulates weight and body fat is limited and is an area that requires further clarification, increasing the difficulty in picking out one single cause of childhood obesity. In fact, it is often a complex combination of risk factors, such as socioeconomic factors, genes and lifestyle choices that contributes to the formation of obesity amongst children. Studies have shown that genetics play a main role in determining whether one would have obesity or not – it is indicated that a child’s risk for obesity rises if one of the parents was obese. Socioeconomic factors, surprisingly, significantly affect one’s eating habits. There is a very strong tie between one’s economic status and obesity – generalizations such as obesity is a lot more common among people with low-income are often raised in articles . When we pause and think about it, it is actually not that hard to believe given that fast food, such as pizza and burgers, are a lot more expensive than fresh vegetables.

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