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Childhood obesity and underlying health conditions
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents
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Are your children getting all the right nutrition in their school lunches? Do they know what their lunch options are and whether or not they contribute to obesity? David Zinczenko in his essay, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” tries to persuade readers that consumers are obese because of the lack of food options, and how innutritious foods at fast food restaurants is harmful to the human body. He claims that when only unhealthy meals are available, there are many different health problems that result such as obesity and diabetes. While I both agree and disagree with Zinczenko that eaters aren’t to blame, I will assert that school lunches have an impact on childhood obesity (like fast food restaurants) and also how it is a young eater’s responsibility whether or not to eat the healthy nutritional foods.
Childhood obesity can be impacted by the nutritional values of school lunches. Most school age
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children don’t meet the daily consumptions of fruits and vegetables. Dietary Guidelines explain that it is important that children consume fruits and vegetables each day because they contain tons of nutrients (McKinney, Schmidt, 3). Many children have poor diets and don’t meet recommended daily values which leads to health problems. Many schools don’t provide healthy meal choices and it was brought to attention to add salad bars to school lunch programs. When School lunches offered salad bars, the finding was that it brought fattier, salty foods, “… side salad bars had more total fat than was found in the regular fruit and vegetable components of traditional school lunches” (McKinney, Schmidt, 4). With the salad bars becoming available students weren’t educated to know how much of each ingredient can be used. Schools were putting out regular dressings and different kinds of fattening cheeses which led them to having even more calories and fats then before. The HHFKA updated the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans school-nutrition standards and came to conclusion of providing more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains available to children rather than all the trans fats and sodium, keeping the meals at low calories (Woo Baidal, Taveras, 1) A lot of schools in world run on a budget and to purchase more nutritional food would involves an increase in the money. Janet Poppendieck writes how we live in a new age where there vending machines, pop machines, fast food places in a food court, these were all for these students who had money.( O'Donnell, Michael, 53) Also how a traditional cafeteria are, ran by USDA, where there are so many fattening foods like greasy fries and burgers, etc. Most children who buy those items eat mostly unhealthy foods and think they ate all the recommend food groups. Nutrition at school is very important because two of their important meals are consumed at school. In 2012, it argued how “School Nutrition Association (SNA) has raised concern about the food the children waste, decreased school-lunch participation, difficulties in meeting whole-grain and sodium goals, and potential for increased operating goals.” (Woo Baidal, Taveras, 2) In other words, if school lunches were changed and students didn’t like what was being served, students would start buying or bringing their own unhealthy meals to school anyways. When students don’t like what is being served in school cafeterias it leads to them wasting a lot of the food, which is why people who work in the school system believe that it shouldn’t matter what is being served because children will waste it anyways. A study was done on a few low income schools to see how much food waste was happening after the new standards were made and found out that more students were consuming more of the new healthier meals, “researchers followed 6000 students in 2011 and 2012, and weighed individual food items after each meal they consumed.” (Woo Baidal, Taveras, 2) Many children as young as four loved the nutritional food and it was a great way to influence them to eat more nutritional foods. In the United States “the dramatic surge in the number of children and adolescents defined as either overweight (BMI is at 95th percentile or above for the age and gender) or at risk for overweight (BMI between the 85th and 95th percentiles for their age and gender).(Wojcicki, Janet M., and Melvin B. Heyman, 1542) In other words, many children and adolescents suffer from being overweight. Some of the causes can be from the poor nutrition at school and lack of exercise, “the escalating prevalence of overweight among school-aged children has been directly linked to declining levels of school-related physical activity, poor eating behaviors, proliferating consumption of fast foods and soda, and increased television.”( Wojcicki, Janet M., and Melvin B. Heyman, 1542) Obesity in children and adolescents has been a cause for many years and has been rising as the population grows. Surveys were done with more than 100,000 students in many different countries and it was explained that many students consumed unhealthy junk foods on a daily basis which was bought during school hours. “In California, a state law eliminating soda sales at elementary and middle schools went into effect on January 1, 2003.” (Wojcicki, Janet M., and Melvin B. Heyman, 1542) All schools of this age group had to eliminate all soft drinks out of the school system. High schools weren’t included in this because they have more control of where and what they consume during school hours and a lot of money is made from this age group of students. Schools who provide healthier meals and have healthier snacks and drinks available influence and educate students on what is a balanced meal. Childhood obesity can also be impacted as being the young eater’s responsibility whether or not to eat the healthy nutritional foods.
Christopher Magryta it asserts in his article about all the cases of the obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes cases in North Carolina, and also any other place in world. (Magryta, Christopher J., 352) Nutrition all starts at home and parents need to learn the right nutrition before they can teach their children about nutrition. As a reader many would agree with this because parents and home is where it all starts at and home is where everything is most influenced. Some of the leading cause of childhood obesity can start from poor eating, little activity, and, many other distractions involving not being active. Schools in this community of North Carolina and also many other places in the world explain how the schools are providing all junk food in their meals, “In our local schools, a daily choice of a pizza, hamburger, French fries, and other low-nutrient quality foods are being offered to our children.” (Magryta, Christopher J.,
352) Regards to all this unhealthy food there are also many schools that do provide healthier schools students just don’t choose them options, “teens want to eat fries and fatter stuff, explains a 10th grader Erin Meyer.”(Lee, Elizabeth, 1) Some of the things the schools provided wasn’t any help to choose healthy choices like the pop/sugary drink machines, vending machines, and different kinds of treats in a serving line. “In many schools, especially middle and high schools, the cafeteria resembles a mall food court. Chicken nuggets, hamburgers, French fries, pizza, tacos, and deli sandwiches show up on almost every school menu in a given week.” (Lee, Elizabeth, 3) With these kinds of foods being served along with healthy food available most children would choose the fattier meals. A lot of parents are concerned about what is being fed, some take it into consideration and make sure they get healthier meals at home, some just let their children eat whatever they want. “Parental Control and personal responsibility are often cited as the most direct way to regulate what children eat.” (Lee, Elizabeth, 3) If parents and young children/adolescents would take their responsibility as what is good and bad nutrition is and throw out those fattier foods it can help impact the cases of obesity and diabetes. There was a women “Sharon Omahen, worries about her 13 year old daughter, who is trying to lose weight. It irritates her when she feels like she’s being sabotaged because when your at school you have to eat what’s there.” (Lee, Elizabeth, 4) This is a case for a lot of children, back where I’m from lunch was free and there was no options, we had to eat what was provided or we didn’t get to eat. Many children at smaller schools who are in the school lunch program don’t have much of a choice but usually everything that was served more was the foods the cooks knew students loved like pizza, fries, and hamburgers. Children need more influential surroundings and people to lead them. “Nearly half of all commercials on children’s TV shows are food and beverages,” this is where most children learn after school hours. Children aren’t as active as they used to be back in their parents day, they are attached to electronics, and TV shows. As we move on generations technology advances and children are becoming more educated with it which takes up the time of their physical activity. I believe both situations I addressed can be a big impact on the many cases of childhood obesity and diabetes. School lunches can be one of the major impacts of childhood obesity but it can also be what is being served at home with one’s responsibility. As a young child we eat whatever is being served to us, not caring what the nutrition value is. This is where nutrition should all start because if there was nutritional being served most children would ask for a better snack rather a bag of candy or bag of chips. Children can start school at the young age of three to four years old, nutrition needs to influenced at school and at home. I have some family who I have watched grow since they were babies and continue to watch them grow. Some go to a family babysitter and others are in school, with their parents, babysitters, and school they all have poor eating habits. A few of my examples didn’t have any education on the nutritional values on what to provide to children and others have made their own decisions on what to eat whether they ate at school or what was provided at home. Some of these young kids are overweight and really need to have influential people in their homes and at school to educate them on what I healthy and not health, explain the health problems associated with it. For sure the fast food industry plays a critical role in what children and adolescents eat, but fast food restaurants don’t invade your home and force cheesy burgers and fries down your throats. Parents bring their children to fast food places to eat, adolescents make their own choices after they have been exposed to all fast food restaurants and what is being fed to them at home. Everyone who influences eating behaviors whether they are healthy or unhealthy can be reliable for the causes of the many cases of obesity and diabetes. Because there are so many cases of obesity and diabetes in the world people should be more concerned on what they are consuming whether it is the young eater’s responsibility or a meal eaten at school. Many schools in this generation have made a change in the nutrition served at school and it just falls back on what the kind of food the young eater will choose.
This documentary takes a look at how our school’s lunch programs and government play a role in the spread of obesity across the nation. The film really attempts to drive home the idea that our children are being immorally brainwashed into wanting unhealthy foods. At some points of the film, it appears that the director uses big companies and school lunches as a scapegoat for our nations crisis. It is a valid point that our nation’s children are being
Summary/Response Essay 1 In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” Zinczenko explains that during his childhood, which was in the mid 1980’s, his parents split up and he lived with his mom. Her income was barely enough to pay the bills, so they lived paycheck to paycheck. Under this circumstance, fast food was the only food that they could afford to buy in large quantities because it is generally cheaper than most other restaurants. Due to eating fast food for both lunch and dinner on a daily basis for his entire childhood, when he was 15 years old, Zinczenko weighed 212 pounds.
Government date shows that in the past thirty years, rate of being overweight in six to eleven year olds is up 19% and 6% in age 12 to 19. Without support, school lunches remain high in fat. (Finkelstien) According to the CDCP, obesity is double what it was in children and triple in adolescents since 1980. Many reforms were attempted to help this problem, but many inadvertently caused more problems. (Finkelstien) A 730 calorie lunch should have no more than 24 grams of fat and no more than 8 grams of it saturated yet the average USDA lunch has 31 grams of fat and 14 rams of it is saturated. (Yeoman) These very high levels of fat are why obesity is becoming worse in children. It can be concluded that school food is still extremely high in fat and this can be directly linked to the high rates of obesity in young children and
As the world strives for convenience and a fast-paced lifestyle, an epidemic of poor health is on the rise. With constant life struggles, fast food readily available, and little time for preparation, citizens of the United States are not paying attention to what they’re putting in their child’s mouths. The state of Mississippi has developed the highest percentages of childhood obesity in the United States. Although this percentage has decreased in recent years, the numbers are still astounding. The children of Mississippi are slowly being poisoned by their parent’s poor choices. Due to parent’s poor nutritional education and poor health habits, the children of Mississippi will continue on the destructive path of obesity
Many people in America love to get greasy, high calorie fast food from many places such as McDonalds and its competitors, but in the article “Don’t Blame the Eater” by David Zinczenko, he reveals the health problems associated with these fatty, salty meals. His articles are affective with its well organized layout, rhetorical appeals and tone which give it a very convincing argument. As you read through the article the author reveals the underlying problems with eating fast food and how there are no warnings of such problems posted. As a former obese child who grew up to diet and watch what he ate he sets a credible stance for the argument.
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
In the Article “Don’t Blame the Eater”, the author, David Zinczenko discounts many details while adverting his notion that Fast Food Corporations are at fault for obesity in adolescents. Zinczenko uses rhetoric, and personal experience to divert the reader’s attention to the emotional aspects of the above mentioned argument instead of showing genuine refutable actualities. At the start of his article Zinczenko complicates matters when he writes “And the problem isn’t just theirs- it’s all of ours.”, implying that we contribute to obesity misfortunes among children. However, his personal account about being a teen who acquired a large quantity of weight because of an assiduous mother, and lack of food alternatives contradicts the statement
In the article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” David Zinczenko blames the fast food companies for causing the obesity epidemic. He told his own story as a kid growing up at the time when fast food was the most popular choice and how it made him a “portly fast-food patron” (241). He then accuses such companies of failing to put a warning label on high calorie. In addition, Zinczenko encourages the new spate of lawsuits against the food industry to give children and their busy parents an opportunity to have a better and healthier food choice. Though I concede Zinzenko’s opinion in addressing the responsibility of the food industry, I still insist that the industry is not the only one who is responsible for this “time bomb” (242). I believe the responsibility belongs to parents, who play an important role in their children’s food orientation, schools, for
David Zinczenko, author of the article “Don’t Blame The Eater” heavily contends that fast-food chains are the leading problem of our nation’s childhood obesity population rise. Blaming these restaurants for failing to inform consumers of the nutritional facts and calories on the food items, as they are on grocery items. Falsely, there are in fact labels on food such as Mcdonalds wraps they just might be hard for consumers to see. He claims “But where, exactly, are consumers--particularly teenagers-- supposed to find alternatives?”. When in actuality, there are many healthier alternatives than just your local Mcdonalds or Taco Bell. For example, it is very convenient to drive (just as you would to your local Mcdonalds) to a nearby Subway and create a sub full of nutritional helpings. Even more so, it is also beneficial to walk into your local grocery store or Wal-mart and purchase a pre-made
First of all, an increasing amount of kids are becoming overweight because their schools pressure them to eat sugary, fatty, and high-calorie foods. Not only do many schools promote consumption of harmful foods, many schools also actively serve them in school lunches. In 1963, 4% of kids were obese; currently, approximately 17% of kids are obese. Some might argue that kids themselves are the reason for the increase, because school lunches also provide healthier foods. Unfortunately, most kids do not have much of a choice - healthier foods are priced much higher than their unhealthy counterpart, consequently many parents do not want their kids to buy the more expensive, yet healthier product. In my 3½ years ...
“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.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” meaning that America’s children need to start eating healthier, including healthier school lunches. The National School Lunch Act is a fairly recent addition to American society. For, as the world waged war a second time, the United States began to worry about the strength and health of the country’s soldiers. However, in the beginning, selling excess agricultural goods was more important than building a healthy, well-balanced meal for students. Unfortunately, many children coming from poorer families could not afford well-balanced school lunches, so in order to compensate, the School Lunch Program changed its focus to help these students. This program, however, decreased schools’ lunch budgets, and schools had a hard time keeping up with the amount of free meals they had to provide, so they came up with some extra ways to increase revenue. However, in a small town in Massachusetts, one chef makes a difference in the health of the school lunch students eat each day, and proves that hiring a trained chef to cook real, healthy meals can increase profit. Unfortunately, that is not the case in most schools across the nation. The quality of health of the food being served in school lunches is extremely poor and was allowed to decline even more with a new set of rule changes. However, there are some improvements currently being made to increase the quality of health of the food being served to students, including teaching them all about food and its nutritional information, both good and bad. In order for students to eat healthier lunches at school, the USDA needs to implement healthier ...
“Don’t Blame the Eater” is an article by David Zinczenko that explains to Americans, specifically overweight young Americans, about the risks eating at fast food restaurants and its cause of affecting one’s health. In his article, he tries to address the issue about America’s food industries by using literal devices such as tone, logos, ethos, diction, and organization in order to spread his message. He begins his article by addressing the topic and as he continues writing, he supports his topic by writing about personal experience and moves onto the reasons why his topic in a serious issue. Although he shows an overall clear progress, he does tend to have a few problems with his writing that could be improved.
Williamson, D. A., Han, H., Johnson, W. D., Martin, C. K., & Newton, R. L. (2013). Modification of the school cafeteria environment can impact childhood nutrition. Results from the Wise Mind and LA Health studies. Appetite, 61, 77–84. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.002
Since 1971, obesity has increased 70.4% (Lewis). Obesity has accelerated at a ridiculous rate. Over 32 million children eat school lunch every day (Lewis). One or two thirds of their daily meals are provided by their schools; therefore most of their daily consumption is trusted in the hands of our government (Lewis). Since obesity has escalated tremendously since the 1970’s, it is only reasonable to make their school lunches responsible for the growth in obesity over the last 45 years (Food Timeline).