The mind and body of a human are the parts of a single mechanism. Therefore, if the organism suffers from some diseases, our intellectual abilities decrease. Scientists have long been talking about the fact that obesity can cause serious problems. One of them is low academic performance.
Research on the issue
A group of British scientists analyzed the medical data of 6 thousand 11-year-old kids and compared it with their academic achievements at school.
The results of the performed work revealed an interesting regularity: girls who had excessive weight at that age showed lower school performance than their peers who did not face the problem of obesity. It was especially difficult for these schoolgirls to study English, natural sciences and mathematics. In these subjects, the scores were the lowest compared with the skinny peers.
Low self-esteem can be the reason for poor academic performance of students with excessive weight. They suffer from bullying, critics and jokes of both classmates and school teachers. In addition, there is an opinion that obesity affects the work of the brain. Other reasons for bad marks of fat children are laziness, disobedience, poor nutrition and lack of physical activity.
That is why teachers need to be more attentive to obese children, to conduct more work with them to increase their self-esteem, to explain the rules of a healthy diet and the importance of active lifestyle.
In one study, it was found that children who managed to lose weight during the school year, by the end of the second semester, showed better results in mathematics than their classmates.
Obesity and brain functioning
It was found that obesity slows down the working processes of a brain, which are responsible for memory. Now we can say with confidence that excessive weight affects the cognitive abilities of the students. This was confirmed scientifically.
Several dozen volunteers with high body mass index participated in the experiment. The features of their brain activity, in particular, memory, were studied. After that, people who participated in the study changed their diet. Different options of nutrition regime were used. But all they were aimed at competent weight reduction without causing stress to the body.
At the end of the study, it was found that the participants not only lost extra pounds, but they also activated the work of their brains. The ability to memorize information has improved significantly.
So, we already understood that obesity is dangerous for mental abilities. Now it is necessary to identify the causes and ways of fighting it.
Causes of obesity
Excess weight at a young age can appear due to the following factors:
- The most common cause of overweight is a wrong diet. If a child consumes more calories than his body needs for development and growth, the accumulation of excess kilograms is inevitable. It is worth analyzing a child’s diet: how often and under what circumstances does he eat? As a rule, extra calories “hide” in fast food, snacks, as well as in children’s favorite sweets and pastries.
- Genetics inherited from relatives also can be “guilty” for obesity. It has long been proven that if one parent is obese, the probability that the child will inherit this propensity is 40%. If both parents are fat, chances increase to 80%.
- Hormones. There is a common opinion that a frequent cause of excess weight is a poor functioning of the glands of internal secretion. In fact, diseases of the pancreas and adrenal glands can provoke obesity only in very rare cases, as well as the reduced activity of the thyroid gland.
- Hypodynamia (a sedentary lifestyle, excessive love for a TV and a sofa) is a really common cause of excessive weight. The active games in the courtyard are replaced by computer programs. By the way, parents themselves often create a negative example of leisure, and children only copy their behavior patterns.
How to fight obesity?
In order to avoid negative consequences for the child’s organism, it is necessary to develop a special program, in which all members of the family should be involved. Fighting obesity is a lengthy process, and its success largely depends on the behavior of adults. What should such program include?
- Balanced diet. It is important to know that hungry diets are unacceptable for children. In a timely manner, the young organism should receive a full set of useful proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates that are necessary for proper development and growth. The task of parents is to change the nutrition stereotypes that were formed in the family. For example, if mother prepared pies and buns on weekends, it’s worth abandoning this tradition. Fruits and freshly squeezed juices should become coveted delicacies. It is also worth enriching the child’s diet with fermented milk products.
- Physical activity and sports. Very often, obese children do not like physical education. During these lessons, they feel themselves out of place and constantly expect ridicule from the peers. Parents and teachers should instill a love of sports in a child. It’s very good when the whole family is engaged in cycling, table tennis, yoga. The desired effect appears very quickly: the first achievements inspire children to strive for the subsequent successes.
- Psychological support. In the fight against obesity, it is very important not to return to the old way of life. Any stressful situation (quarrels in the family, conflicts at school) can provoke a crisis. A child should feel protection of the educators and adult relatives. They have to be interested in the events of his life, help to cope with the problems.
We hope that the above facts turned out to be useful. If this topic seemed interesting, and you would like to disclose it in a serious academic work, it is worth contacting a reliable essay writing service.