Childhood obesity is a widespread epidemic in the United States. The amount of overweight children is constantly growing and is going to continue to increase until changes are made. Fast food restaurants provide entertaining toys with every poor nutrition filled meal. Parents need to stop feeding children fattening foods and instead give them a healthier start in life. Playing on computers, cell phones, and video games are more entertaining to children than playing outside. A combination of these influences leads to childhood obesity, which comes with numerous negative effects. Children who are obese have a greater chance of developing serious illnesses such as type two diabetes, poor blood quality, heart disease, cancer, and many other health …show more content…
Poor eating habits are affecting people all over the world. People are eating unreasonable sized portions five to seven times a day. In the article, Childhood Obesity, written by Jimerson he states, “poor diet and nutrition can negatively affect mood, self-esteem, and school performance as well as weight and the risk for diabetes and other health problems” (39). Parents who are not aware and concerned about their children’s health are setting them up for failure later on in life. Schools are beginning to provide students with healthier, more nutritious foods such as fruits, vegetables, and less sugary snacks. Fast food restaurants are rapidly spreading all over the country providing cheap, quick meals all day, everyday. Unfortunately, healthy foods such as meat, vegetables, and fresh fruit are available at a variety of grocery stores and markets for a much higher cost. Introducing adolescents to healthier meals and snacks will gradually decrease the amount of gained weight and, as a result, obesity in today’s children. Establishing a meal plan with nutritious food choices is helpful when it comes to eating …show more content…
In her article, Bell states, “to make exercise a fun activity instead of a chore for children, parents are encouraged to exercise with their kids” (Bell). Throwing a ball in the yard, biking to the park, and splashing around in the poor are fun ways to exercise. Another way to motivate children to be active is by exercising as a family. When parents are eating healthy foods and exercising regularly, their children are going to follow in their footsteps. The amount of time children are allowed to use computers, cell phones, and video games needs to be restricted to 2 hours everyday. Limiting the amount of time children are allowed to spend playing with their electronic devices and laying on the couch while watching TV will make it easier to monitor and limit the amount of snacking that occurs. When these restrictions are set and understood by the child the chances are good that when the “electronic time” runs out the child will go do something active instead of sitting there for the rest of the day. Today, especially with girls, children and young adults are extremely worried about the view and opinions others have of them. One’s body image is important when it comes to confidence and how people carry themselves. Huang suggests that, “The strong relationship of body image and childhood weight status is an important issue that must be addressed in the setting of childhood obesity” (91). Social media tells us that in
Child obesity became a very serious issue that is taking on the health of the nation 's children. It is everyone responsibility to work on preventing and reducing childhood obesity, from the parents who are suppose to care about their children’s health, to the public health representatives, who should care about a future healthy nation, and everyone in between. Every part of society should create a set of lifestyle changes in order to save our kids from obesity. There are many aspects, which have to be changed or improved, including parent’s nutrition education, children’s physical activity and kid’s nutrition in a school and home, food industry and etc.
To help out with my research on childhood obesity I am creating this annotated bibliography. I am researching the health issues related to childhood obesity as well as the long term effects.
Childhood obesity has been on the rise in the last couple of years. In the 1970’s childhood obesity was never a concern to the public until the number increased over the years. An alarming rate of 31% of all adults have been obese since they were children and the rates of childhood obesity don’t fall too behind with an 18% of children being obese. That makes almost half of obese adults and children. A child that is obese has a 70-80% higher chance of staying obese even through their adulthood if no action is taken. Childhood obesity is not something children are in control of, these children suffer from different outcomes since they can’t look after themselves and heavily rely on someone to aid them when they need it. These numbers can be drastically altered in a positive way by educating both children and parents about healthy, nutritious foods to consume, supplying schools with better lunch and healthier vending machines with healthy choices and promoting after school activities to keep children active and away from electronics.
Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.
“More than a third of the county's children are overweight or obese.”(Gustin, 1). As shocking as this is, it's true. One of the big reasons that children and teens are overweight is because of the foods that they eat. They are fed these fattening and unhealthy foods by the school system. Their futures can be changed if we change our choices. Having more nutritious lunches can have a positive impact on the health of American teens.
It is apparent that living an unhealthy lifestyle, as well as eating poorly, negatively affects one’s health. From a young age it is quickly learned which foods are considered healthful as opposed to junk food. It is a parents responsibility to supervise the intake of their child's food, however there is a higher risk than ever before of childhood obesity.
Ul-Haq, Z., Mackay, D. F., Fenwick, E., Pell, J. P. (2013). Meta-analysis of the association
Obesity is not a disease. It is a condition where our body stores excessive fat and affects our health or well-being. Childhood obesity is a major cause for disease and health risks which may be lifelong. Childhood obesity is becoming a threat to society because of its prevalence. Obesity reduces life expectancy. Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States. The number of obese children has increased and doubled within two decades. (Helping your overweight child." Pamphlet by: National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, 1997, p. 2+.) The childhood obesity epidemic requires more prevention focused on the first five years of a child’s
Many children become obese due to lack of exercise. Today’s generation of children enjoy television, video games, iPads, and laptops much more than what the earlier generations of children did. Electronics have taken the joy out of things, like going outside to run around and play. In her book Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance, Jeffrey P. Koplan includes how to get children involved in others things besides electronics, “Encouraging children and youth to be physically active involves pr...
Childhood obesity is a serious problem among American children. Some doctors are even calling childhood obesity an epidemic because of the large percentage of children being diagnosed each year as either overweight or obese. “According to DASH sixteen to thirty-three percent of American children each year is being told they are obese.” (Childhood Obesity) There is only a small percentage, approximately one percent, of those children who are obese due to physical or health related issues; although, a condition that is this serious, like obesity, could have been prevented. With close monitoring and choosing a healthier lifestyle there would be no reason to have such a high obesity rate in the United States (Caryn). Unfortunately, for these children that are now considered to be obese, they could possibly be facing some serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancers. All of these diseases have been linked to obesity through research. These children never asked for this to happen to them; however, it has happened, and now they will either live their entire life being obese, or they will be forced to reverse what has already been done (Childhood Obesity).
Since the fast food industry is targeting America’s youth, providing healthier options on children’s menus will reduce the rate of childhood obesity and allow for a healthy future.
Parents are not teaching children how to eat healthy. They feed them cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, and fries. Kids are not being exposed to a regular diet of health fruits and vegetables. Now some people are just naturally overweight, but being “overweight” is not the same as being “obese.” Someone who is overweight has reached a maximum weight limit for their height. When someone goes beyond this maximum limit, then they are considered “obese” (Kiess 1). Research shows that “obesity is generally defined as the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in adipose tissue” (Kiess 1). The increase in childhood obesity today is mainly the fault of the parent because they are unable to tell their children “no” when it comes to junk food (Kiess 104). Parents are the one buying all the food that comes into the house. They are the ones buying the sugary drinks and chips. They are the ones allowing the children to “have what they want.” Because parents are not teaching their children how to eat healthy, we will continue to see childhood obesity increase. Unfortunately, overweight children will be the ones who suffer because statistics show children who are overweight are more likely to become obes...
Childhood obesity is a health problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in society’s youth. For a number of years, children across the nation have become accustomed to occasionally participating in physical activities and regularly snacking on sugary treats. In result of these tendencies, approximately one third of American children are currently overweight or obese (Goodwin). These grim statistics effectively represent all the lack of adult interference, in regards to health, has done to the youth of America. The habits of over consuming foods and under participating in physical activities are all too common in the children of today. Children cannot solve this issue alone, though. These young people need to essentially be given the opportunities to make positive health decisions and learn about good, nutritional values.
In our society today one of the most difficult problems we are facing is the large numbers of obesity in our children. One of the major factors in that is this; our children have become less physically active. At an early age children start watching TV, learn how to operate a computer, and play video games. Having technological skills is now a necessity in all of our lives because everything has turned “computerized,” but the fact is that our children are relying on these types of entertainment rather than getting up and physically exercising to entertain them selves. This directly affects the large number of obese children in our country today because of the lack of physical exercise. It is not that we want our kids to look a certain way or to be better at sports than everyone else, but it is that we want our kids to be physically fit and to develop a healthy lifestyle. Physical exercise is not only for adults, it is for children as well, so we must understand the importance of our children exercising and the benefits from it. By doing that it will make an impact on that child for the rest of his/her life.
Obesity simply put, is an excessive amount of body fat. Obesity puts children at increased risk of disease and other health-related problems. Childhood obesity is a very serious and ongoing problem-putting children on the pathway to health conditions earlier in their life such as diabetes, elevated cholesterol, hypertension. Childhood obesity also has a link to depression as well as affects the self-esteem of children and adolescent. I recently performed a community teaching on childhood obesity and will be discussing the teaching experience, observation, summary of the teaching plan, epidemiological rationale for childhood obesity, evaluation of my teaching and the community’s response to the teaching.