The percentage of overweight children in western societies has increased by almost 20% in the last 10 years. Discuss the possible causes and effects of this disturbing trend and offer a solution.

Over the past ten years, there has been an alarming increase of 20 per cent in percentage of over-weight children in the western countries. Obesity can be caused in children because of several reasons. To begin with, one of the major reasons behind obesity among the children is the lack of appeal of healthy food. Junk food items like pizzas, burgers, wafers often appeal more to children than healthy food items like salads and fruit bowls. Junk food is one of the major driver of obesity. Another plausible cause of the growing issue of obesity among teens is the lack of physical exercise. With growing technological developments, the need to indulge in physical activity has greatly reduced over the years. For instance, common daily activities like buying groceries which earlier required the person to go to the market can now be done from the comfort of one's homes. In exceptional cases, where the person still needs to go to the market, he/she can do the same by covering the distance in a vehicle without actually indulging in any considerable amount of physical activity. Furthermore, with time, there has also been an evolution in the way people spend their free time. Earlier people preferred pursuing sports that required physical effort in their free time like cricket or hockey. Nowadays, however, people spare their leisure time usually by playing board games and video games. Now, obesity can take a serious toll on both the physical and mental health of children. Obesity makes a person more prone to diseases like diabetes and thus impacts one's physical health. With practices like body shaming which are still quite common in the world, obesity can have a major impact on one's mental health. There are various ways in which the problem of obesity can be tackled. Firstly, the concept of eating healthy food needs to be popularized. One should aim at making healthy food as appealing to children as is junk food. Another way to bring down obesity is incorporating physical activity in the day to day lives of children.