With obesity rates continuing to climb in the West it is perhaps not surprising that we are seeing an increasing number of obese children. But just what is it that results in childhood obesity?

As is so often the case there is no one cause of child obesity and there are many things which account for obesity in our children.

It is often the case for instance that a child whose parents are overweight or obese will also be overweight or obese and this suggests that there could be a genetic or inherited component to obesity. However, although this is presently being looked at, no genetic link has yet been established and it is thought far more likely that it is the eating habits of the family that cause obesity and not genetics.

We have witnessed a considerable change in eating habits in the last few years with fast food restaurants springing up on every street corner, junk food available just about everywhere and the shelves of our supermarkets overflowing with so-called 'convenience' foods which are frequently extremely high in sugar. The days of home cooking are far behind us in many homes and have been superceded by take-away food or microwave meals. In fact, all too many parents are now electing to take their children to fast food restaurants rather than to prepare a meal at home not simply because it is simpler than cooking a meal but also because it saves a lot of washing up!

Additionally, we have witnessed a very significant drop in levels of activity amongst many groups of children, aided in no small measure by the introduction of home-computers, video gaming machines and now the ubiquitous mobile phone. Not surprisingly, as activity levels have dropped so our children have also lost their normal ability to burn up the calories gained from eating a growing quantity of fast food.

Magazine, television, the Internet and other types of media also play a part as they dominate the lives of our kids and junk food, fast food and candy manufacturers are not slow in jumping onto this bandwagon and make full use of the advertising opportunity provided by the media. Many people would argue that commercials have done more to fuel the rise in child obesity that just about anything else in recent years.

There are also clearly many social factors at play in our modern world and a significant number of children nowadays will simply eat whenever they get bored. They will also turn to the comfort of food whenever they find themselves angry, stressed, depressed or anxious.

At the moment a lot of medical research is being aimed at the causes of child obesity and its treatment and most of this research is aimed at solving the problem using a combination of diet and exercise once presented with an obese child. However, with child obesity continuing to increase at an alarming rate, perhaps the time has come to tackle the roots of the problem and to stop our children from becoming obese in the first place.