National Childhood Obesity

This week we will discuss the obesity problem for children in the US. Our guest, once again, is Dr. Joan Ifland. Dr Ifland has been creating breakthroughs in recovery from food addiction from 1999 with her first popular book to 2018 when her textbook, Processed Food Addiction: Foundations, Assessment, and Recovery was released by CRC Press.

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She founded the online Addiction Reset Community (ARC) in 2016, www.foodaddictionreset.com. The Facebook group, ‘Food Addiction Education’ (2014)

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www.foodaddictionresources.com (2014) provide free support. Reset Week is the first online live video program for withdrawal (2018). ARC Manager Training is a program training future Addiction Reset Community leaders (2020).

Dr. Ifland is the lead author of the first scholarly description of processed food addiction and definition of addictive foods.

Dr. Ifland earned her PhD in addictive nutrition at Union Institute and University (2010); her MBA at Stanford Business School (1978) and her BA in Economics and Political Science at Oberlin College (1974). She currently resides in Seattle.

Social Media links:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1806154526275515

Twitter

https://twitter.com/JoanIfland

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/foodaddictionreset/

Childhood obesity is a complex disease with many contributing factors, on including genetics, eating patterns, physical activity levels, and sleep routines. About 1 in 5 American children has obesity. Compared to children with healthy weight, children with obesity are at a higher risk for asthma, sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, type 2 diabetes, and risk factors for heart disease such as high blood pressure.

"Childhood obesity continues to rise around the world, and the World Health Organization has called it “one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century.”

Yet the prevalence of childhood obesity appears to vary across countries.

Island nations in the Pacific, such as Nauru and the Cook Islands, appear to have the highest obesity rates among children 5 to 19, but the countries Ethiopia and Burkina Faso appear to have the lowest rates. The number of obese or overweight children 5 and younger climbed from 32 million globally in 1990 to 41 million in 2016, according to WHO data. If current trends continue, the number of overweight or obese children in that age group could increase to 70 million by 2025." (CNN Health News)