Not So Sweet.

With the myriad of civil wars and severe economic crises occurring throughout the world, it’s easy for a global problem like childhood obesity to lose its immediacy. The severity of the problem, however, has not been touched: the current generation of children are the first throughout history living with the very near danger of achieving shorter life spans than their parents.

There are many factors responsible for the steady rise in childhood obesity; generationally, the ever-increasing technological advancements are producing more sedentary childhoods, both in necessity (walking to school) and in play (such as with the prevalence of video games). Socioeconomic factors give less affluent children a far poorer range of foods to choose from, with the cheapest foods often being the most calorie-dense and laden with sugars, saturated fats, and a wealth of preservatives that can wreak havoc on the growing bodies in children.

Although there are many other factors, adding biological factors into this confluence of problems is arguably the most disheartening of all in the fight against obesity. The reason here is sugar: apparently, children are hardwired at birth to have a love affair with sugar. Julie Manella studies the affect of sugar on children, and how it biologically lessens their pain. As a natural

She conducted a study with children and adults of all ages, testing their preferences for sugar solutions of varying strengths. While adults tended to prefer a solution fairly equivalent to a can of soda, children generally preferred solutions twice that strength.

According to Ms. Manella, children are, “living in different sensory worlds” than adults. They have a much higher preference for sweet and salty foods, and are more sensitive to bitterness. This preference often halts or slows as the child reaches adolescence. In adolescents whose bodies were still growing, the sugar preference prevailed, while childrens’ bodies whose growth had slowed had lost the preference.

Though still highy unexplained, this is due in part to hormonal effects within the body. Growing bones secrete hormones that can influence metabolism, and other well-known metabolic hormones such as leptin and insulin affect the brain areas that control craving and appetite, even binding to the tongue to affect the child’s response to sweet things.

While these cravings are natural, they make a child living in this age of evolutionary decadence much more susceptible to serious health problems. Foods are laden with sugars, and at least for children in America, its frightening how much cheaper and more easily soda can be found than a piece of fruit. I don’t know what’s happening in Malta, but the United States should be worried.

- Liana

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/09/26/140753048/kids-sugar-cravings-might-be-biological

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