Obesity is a problem hitting New York City currently. Obesity occurs when you put inside your body more calories than you burn. The calories that aren't burned through exercise and daily activity are stored inside the body as fats. Almost half of all New Yorkers are obese and about 40% of children are obese. I believe with the proper knowledge the obesity problem can be reduced dramatically. Tackling obesity at an early age can reduce the risk of children developing health problems when they age. Obesity can lead to diseases such as heart disease, a stroke, and diabetes if action isn't taken. The individual, family, institutional, community and policy are five important risk factors when that contribute to being obese. These five …show more content…
Especially in this day and age people rather spend hours playing a basketball video game rather than going outside and playing a sport. However kids aren't the only group that are inactive nowadays. Many more seniors are inactive either due out of fear of getting hurt or some are unable to move around freely. Only one in four New Yorkers actually participate 30 minutes doing some form of physical activity at least four days a week. In order to burn calories it is essential that you get up and move. If you don't engage in physical activity you lose the balance needed to maintain a healthy weight. The key to a healthy weight is to find a balance between what you put into your body and the amount of time you dedicate to physical activity. Another risk factor for obesity is ones community. Statistically the numbers show that families living in a lower social class tend to obese. People who tend to not be as wealthy have less access to healthier foods when they live on a tight budget. On a budget you tend to look for fast and cheap and don't stop to think about what's more healthy. Also these families often have less room to engage in physical activities. When it comes to
Don't have good opportunities to exercise. Electronic entertainment; kids used to go outside to play with friends, now they have electronics to entertain themselves. Number 1 cause is fast food and junk food influence. Statistics show that since 1980, the number of American kids who are dangerously overweight has tripled. One-third qualify as "obese" or "overweight." A study by the U.S. military showed that 27 percent of young people ages 17-24 are too fat to join the army. A lot of kids are developing
Obesity is a huge problem that needs to be resolved because it affects all people, unlike most issues. People of every gender, every age, and every race are at risk of being obese. Obesity rates in America have nearly doubled within the last twenty years. Something must be done not only to prevent obesity rates continuous rising, but also to dramatically increase the percentage of obese people in America altogether.
Exercise, food, technology, and money all play a role in causing childhood obesity. Lack of exercise among adolescents has been proven to be the leading cause of childhood obesity. According to a May 2012 Institute of Medicine report, only half of America’s children and one in four teens get enough activity to meet current guidelines (Doheny and Noonman 1). The recommendations call for children to participate in at least 60 minutes of vigorous to moderate physical activity every day (Hendrick 1). “Only four percent of elementary schools, eight percent of middle schools, and two percent of high schools provide daily physical ...
In order to impede the epidemic of childhood obesity, the actual causes of the problem need to be evaluated and dissected. Obesity in children is becoming a huge problem in American society. In the past three decades, the rate of overweight children has increased by 300%. This is an alarming rate that is only climbing higher. Every member in society should take steps to becoming healthier. This would help the present generations as well as future generations to come. The lifestyle of Americans keeps us too busy to be a healthy society.
The obesity epidemic is one of the most pressing issues at this point in both American society and U.S. public policy initiatives. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 35.9% of U.S. adults over the age of twenty are obese (CDC, 2013). The CDC further notes that 69.2% of U.S. adults twenty years of age and over are overweight (this percentage includes those who are obese). The obesity problem is not exclusive to the adults in the U.S. The CDC notes that 18.4% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are currently obese (CDC, 2013). These statistics illustrate the severity of the obesity epidemic in this country, but what can be done to address or even correct this problem? Many people have proposed solutions, but few are as radical as the proposal from Michael Bloomberg (the New York City Mayor) in 2012.
Childhood obesity is a chronic health problem in the United States. Today, "nearly a third of youths are overweight or obese" (National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research). Obesity affects children psychologically and physically. Obesity is a chronic imbalance of more calories consumed than expended each day. Childhood obesity is closely linked with housing and food securities, children without stable homes are more likely to suffer from hunger, chronic disease, and malnutrition. Demographic, socio-structural, and environmental variables also play a significant role in the childhood obesity prevalence and incidents. For instance, environments with lower than the average neighborhood, availability of healthy foods and higher than
Without recognizing the reality of and suffering the results of living with obesity, together with the feeling of losing control with a continually growing weight and avoiding acknowledging the reality of being obese, a desire for change will not foster. The aspiration and willpower to make a change is initially conveyed in several failed efforts to lose weight and is supported by the wanting to take back control and to reverse the issues stemming from the excess weight. A journey of gathering information follows, that ultimately guides the overweight individual to information about gastric bypass surgery. Sometimes this will happen due to chance, but in most cases it is consequence of endlessly seeking for aid outside the conventional methods
All parents believe, or would like to believe, that their children are in a state of perfect health. In some cases, this is incorrect due to the parents and children 's lack of knowledge on what the actual state of optimal health is for children. For example, a hot topic around the world today is the issue of childhood obesity. This topic caught my eye because it is truly beginning to have a negative impact on today’s society and is something that needs to be addressed. Currently, my job at the Littleton YMCA provides me the with opportunity to work with children and teach a variety of fitness classes for kids. This has helped me to become passionate about promoting a healthy lifestyle, and showing younger generations ways in which to go about this. Gaining more information on this topic can help me to better
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).
According to the article “Preventing Childhood Obesity: What Are We Doing Right?” by Thomas A. Farley, MD, MH, and Deborah Dowell, MD, MPH, from the American Journal of Public Health in April of 2014, childhood obesity rates have declined in the last decade. After decades of increases in the rate of childhood obesity beginning in the late 1970’s, new data shows that that the rates have been declining in New York City since 2002. The question still remains, what has led to this decrease in obesity rates among children. Many of the policy changes were implemented in the late 2000’s after the decline had already begun. The authors conclude that the most likely explanation for this phenomenon is a combination of several factors that when separate cannot account for the decline, but when pieced together seem to each play a role in the observed decrease in childhood obesity rates.
...mption of food and physical activity. To make their children more active, parents should stop buying videogames and set a time limit to decrease the amount of time their children spend in front of a computer screen. Another way to increase physical activity is to encourage children to join an extra-curricular activity. Although it is easiest to prevent obesity at a young age, many people in the United States grow up obese or become obese. To help and to encourage adults who are suffering from obesity, they need to learn the life-threatening effects that accompany the “heavy” burden.
Because of this in 2015, children aged 2 to 15 in Scotland were at risk of becoming overweight (including obesity). Furthermore, there are studies that are saying that inactivity is also a genuine problem with children. Inactivity is what causes obesity but it allegedly affects performance in school as well. To combat this the NHS has created a new initiative called Change4life which is a guide to help parents stop their children becoming overweight and obese. On the NHS website, it also states that ages five to eighteen should be getting 60 minutes of exercise every day.
America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Take a look around. Fast food chains on every block, more and more technology to make our lives easier, and high amount of stress are just a few factors to weight gain in our country. There are many different views on obesity and how the people think it should be resolved, whether it's government making the change or the people taking care of themselves. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Are we doing enough to bring these statistics down? No. In the last 40 years, there has been a growth to more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America (“Adolescent and School Health”). Restaurants (such as Wendy's, McDonald's etc.) serve more than 50 million people per day, generating about 65 million in sales annually. Only since obesity has become a national epidemic have fast food restaurants changed their ways. But we need to do more than just change the kind of oil the french fries are fried in. Better yet, why don't we remove, or intensely decrease the number of the unhealthy fast food chains, and spread more healthy fast food chains, such as Subway? Is it something government could take act in? Should the United States government take measures to fight the rise of obesity in the country, or are choices concerning diet and nutrition better left to the individuals, free of government interference?
Many folks who become obese are people who abuse the calories their body needs on a daily diet. As stated in “Overweight and Obesity Statistics”, everyone body needs a certain amount of energy from foods to have a proper balance. If the calories you have eaten sum up to the amount of calories you have used or have not burnt, you will start to have a problem if this eating habit continues. You will now be in the stage of overweight, if you do not burn the extra calories you consumer. In March 2004 the CDC publishes a study showing that poor eating habits and lack of exercise were the second leading death in the Untied States (“Chronology”). For example, one major reason why people become obese in America is because the environment is full of fast food restaurants. If you look to your left you will see McDonald’s, you look to your right, and you see Jack in The Box, you look behind you and there is Carl’s Jr, and if you look in front of you and you see a Burger King. According to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, “17% of children and adolescents (aged 2-19) are obese. The prevalence of obesity in America has risen dramatically over the past two decades and continues to increase” (qtd. “Weight Control and Diet”). You see these places all over the place and not to mention food advertising is a big cause for obesity. According to What Causes Overweight
Over the course of the last few decades, the U.S. has seen a drastic rise in the spread of obesity. Through the rise of large-scale fast food corporations, the blame has shifted toward the mass consumerism of these global industries. It is, however, due to poor lifestyle choices that the U.S. population has seen a significant increase in the percentage of people afflicted with obesity. In 1990 the percentage of obese people in the United States was approximated at around 15%. In 2010, however, it is said that “36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher”(Millar). These rates have stayed consistent since 2003. The obesity problem in America is