...Solutions to Childhood Obesity “Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. Children with childhood obesity face many health problems like type two diabetes, high blood, pressure and are at risk for many types of cancers. The lack of children’s physical activity today is one of the major factors that lead to obesity as well as eating unhealthy diets, the increased food portions and the lack of information about healthy choices. Dr. Anand, the Executive Director for the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, describes the prevalence of obesity as being “at epidemic proportions” (Center for Nutrition Policy & Promotion, 2008, pg. 2). This statement was made in 1998. Since then, the rates of obesity have continued to rise dramatically and if we don’t do anything to stop it these numbers will keep rising. Many people think that dealing with obesity is only the parent’s responsibility, but what we need to realize is that it is not only the parents responsibility, fighting this epidemic has also become the responsibility of our schools and communities. Obesity education needs to be in our homes, schools and our communities to raise awareness of the causes, as well as the risks. We need to take action in helping reduce this health problem which is affecting more and more children each day. Parents and children need to know how to eat a healthier diet and understand how exercise...
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...all honesty, this is what I felt like eating in the short amount of time I had to grab a “lunch”. I thought it was pretty ironic that while I was reading about all these “unhealthy” food options, I was eating them. This obesity epidemic has carved its way so deep into our lives, there is possible room to improve, but it’s difficult to come up with some miracle solution to make it disappear. Kelley Brownell suggests that the legislature should get rid of food advertising especially ones pointed at children watching television and also eliminating soft drinks and unhealthy snacks from school vending machines (Newman, 2004). I do favor Kelly Brownell’s suggestions but it is obviously easier said than done. I understand that food advertising is something that children see often when watching television and it does often times persuade children to decide to get up and look for something to snack on. But what is the point of getting rid of these advertisements when they could already have it in their pantry? If we get rid of these foods at school, how would we know if the kids aren’t just going to go home and eat them? Both The ABC News “Obesity in America” clip and Taubes Reader’s Digest article both suggest that the major dietary enemy in childhood obesity is refined carbohydrates. Taubes suggests that pasta, bread and rice should be cut from our diet (Taubes, 2012). I do agree with him to a certain extent although, I don’t think these items should be absolutely cut from our...
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...9th 2015 Topic: Childhood Obesity INTRODUCTION I. Attention Getter: Hi, my name is Jill. I have been a pediatric nurse for almost 2 years now. According to the National Center for Health Statistics in 2011, childhood Obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. And in 2012, more than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. II. Specific Purpose: I would I like to inform you all of childhood obesity and ways to get involved in preventing obesity in children. III. Thesis: Childhood obesity is a preventable disorder that could lead to other health effects, short-term and long-term. IV. Preview: I will discuss what obesity is, what health effects it could lead to, and how to prevent it. BODY TRANSITION: To start off, I will explain what obesity is. I. Main Point #1: Obesity is a disorder involving the excessive amount of body fat. A. There are 2 types of classification involving weight gain 1. The classification of being overweight refers to the excess of body weight. 2. And obesity is the excess of fat. 3. Childhood obesity occurs when a child is well above their age and height range which is determined by the body mass index. Children that are at risk for obesity may be ones that are genetically predisposed and have parents that are obese. 4. TRANSITION: Next, I will talk about what health effects that is caused by obesity. II. Main...
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...Child Obesity –Finding Solutions Specific Purpose: To provide information on how we can reduce childhood obesity. 1. Introduction Attention material: How many of you have seen chubby babies, and you thought “Oh they are so cute” and you wanted to pinch their cheeks? And we thought that their baby fat would disappear as they grow older. But unfortunately many of them end up carrying that fat until their adulthood. Nowadays, it has been proven that childhood obesity can be very harmful for our children. Not only can it cause health problems but also psychologically it could be traumatic for the obese person. [Transition: Shahbaz have presented you with all the problems of child obesity and what has caused them. In observing these causes (of childhood obesity), confidently we can reduce down the epidemic spread.] 2.Body Just to remind you, approximately one-third of American children are overweight and around 20 percent are considered obese (MMWR 42-46). [Transition: Now I am going to tell you what is expected from you as parents] Solutions to end the widespread: As parents and siblings it would be better if you: * Breast feed the newborns babies; it reduces the risk of obesity (Pamela Kanda, MPH 424-430). Recent studies had proven that nearly 30% of mothers do not breastfeed their children. A lot of doctors’ recommend parents to breastfeed their babies at least until age 4-6 months (MMWR 42-46) * Since most kids consider their parents as role model it’s important...
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...parents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on videogames and televisions and sometimes even motorized scooters in order for them to get around so they don’t have to walk. This causes thousands of Americans per day to go bankrupt, but parents just can’t say not to their kids! The parental aspect of childhood obesity also causes great disturbances at school. Teachers are having to force kids into exercising during gym classes and recess. If these children don’t put in the effort, a letter gets sent home and the parents complain to the school board and the teachers get fired! These schools are also struggling to feed all their students, with the amount each obese kid eats, they are having to bring in 10x the amount of food they used to have too. This is just too much money the schools are wasting. When a healthy child at school sees and obese child, not playing or exercising, and eating as much as they want, the healthy child wants to become just like them. This causes the healthy child to stop participating in gym, stop playing at recess, and protest vegetables at home. This is a serious problem! I have the solution however. In order to rid the world of childhood obesity, we need to superglue all children’s mouths shut. This will stop them from eating and they will be able to start losing weight. Who needs sustenance anyway? This will also stop them from begging for new video games, and allow parents to sell...
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...as gone by the Healthy People 2010 has to be redone. It setting the new goals for 2020 I would like if we could get you support one of the goals. I know there are many objectives and sub-goals of Healthy People 2020, so I want to tell you about an area that deservers your attention and support. Let me tell you a story about an Ohio woman. Can you imagine having your child taken away from your custody? Well this Lady had her child taken from her; her son was in the third grade. This may seem shocking but it's true. So why am I tell you that some lady had her child taken from her? It is because this third grader weighed more than 200 pounds and that was after he lost some weight. This is not the only case of Childs be taken away from their parents weight do to obesity. My question to you is how have we left the youth of our nation get so big? How does a third grader weigh as much as a fully grown man? It is obvious that Healthy People 2010 has failed at helping the youth of the nation overcome obesity. That is why I am writing to you the President to get your support on this issue of childhood obesity. This is an issue that effects thousands of our youth. Now study shows that it does seem like it is going to get better in the near future. Over the past 30 years childhood obesity has more than tripled (http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/obesity/facts.htm). It is scary that we are leaving our future of the nation hurt their health. In 1980 the percentage of children age 6 through...
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...society used to consider a luxury, is now the cause of childhood obesity, poor communication, and a far less educated society. Television, the internet, and cell phones have taken over the lives of many children and teenagers. This causes us to plaster our eyes to a television screen, waiting for a new episode of ‘”Keeping up with the Kardashians” to come on, all while staring blankly at our cell phone while typing “LOL.” Lets face it social media and electronics have corrupted us. Twitter allows teenagers to hide in their rooms all day while updating their statuses every 2 seconds, and video games and television allow teenagers and children to be glued to couch cushions all day....
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...children in the U.S. (12.7 million), between the ages of two and nineteen years, are obese (Childhood, 2015). That in itself should be cause for concern. These kind of numbers are very alarming and show just how serious the situation is. What seemed to be a problem that has recently emerged, childhood obesity has been a growing concern for years. How did this happen? What is causing such a catastrophic health concern in our children? Politicians argue the fact that advertisement is to blame as this is an obvious scapegoat. We need to open our eyes to what should be an elementary problem and solution. While there are several contributing factors to this epidemic, poor diet and lack of physical activity stand out as the direct cause. Local leaders and parents must take a more active role to encourage their children to become more active and eat healthier to combat the overwhelming crisis of childhood obesity in the United States. Balanced is a term that should be in everyone’s vocabulary concerning the health of our children. A National Institutes of Health study indicated that obesity is a result of an imbalance “between energy intake and energy expenditures” (Cullen, 2006). In other words, children are ingesting more calories than they are burning. With the affordability and availability of fast food that is high in calories, and the prevalence of video game consoles, it is easy to see how this can be a true statement. However, there are several underlying issues that also cut down...
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...Childhood obesity is a growing problem with many possible causes and solutions. Some argue that fast food advertising should be banned, others argue that more physical activity would cure the problem and then there are those who blame the parents, arguing that it is their responsibility to monitor and teach their children to eat appropriately. Children spend a large portion of the year in school consuming many of their daily calories from school lunches; something must be done to make the food they eat healthier. School lunches are full of fat and calories and do not offer the right type of fruits and vegetables, no appropriate proteins and dairy items. The government has partnered with farmers to provide the food to the schools but in doing so has not offered our children the healthiest options. In addition schools do not have the budget to purchase healthier options on their own and will often subsidize the food program by selling name brand fast food in the cafeteria for a marked up price. Changing children’s eating habits in schools will be very difficult because you can’t force children to eat. It is uncertain if changing school lunches would decrease obesity or not. Though children are in school for a large portion of the day they still have time at home and if life changes are not made changing how they eat in one area may not do much of anything. Another assumption I have made is that by increasing recess time rather than decreasing it children would not be as obese. The...
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...Nowadays, people are emphasizing too much on pursuit of wealth in their life yet overlooked the importance of health. Recently, the issues related to obesity around the world are increasing as well as in our country. Obesity in Malaysia is growing in an alarming rate and it has associated with multiple problems. Ismail (2002) claimed that 20.7% of Malaysia’s adults are overweight with a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9. According to Asia Pacific Family Medicine, obesity is a condition in which the natural energy reserve, stored in the fatty tissue of humans and other mammals, is increased to a point where it is associated with certain health conditions or increased mortality (2009). Not only adults, childhood obesity also become one of the serious problems. It grown considerably in the past two decades and most of the children are more likely become overweight adults. Obesity will lead to suffering from the disease, for example heart attack and diabetes. According to Price, Danielle and Nicholas (2000), there are around 300,000 people die each year because infect the disease that causes by obesity (as cited by Sidik and Rampal, 2009). Generally, I strongly agree that obesity is a kind of disease among Malaysian because obesity can cause physical, mental and social problem. First and foremost, obesity can cause negative effects to our bodily systems, which will further affect our physical health. People who excesses weight will more care about their body health, compare to normal...
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...conversation point every single day. Whether that, of where someone should eat, to how we should go to the grocery store, to even how we should better our lifestyle with better choices of food. It is said that some people eat food to live here, while others with live here to eat food. Michelle Obama, wants to make the food that we consume, whether we need to eat or want to eat, a healthier lifestyle point. For many of us, have an uncontrollable intolerance to the food we consume. Which leads to so many illnesses such as obesity, diabetes. She wants to rid Americans of this lack of understanding that plagues the entire country. Thus by starting at the beginning stages, such as our schooling system, and using campaigns on television and billboard to promote healthier lifestyle choices. For the thought is that if we simply promote a healthier lifestyle, then the desire to consume these such livid and awful food would simply walk away. Yet Judith Warner sees another problem in this vision, that the promotion and ideals of eating healthy are too far back in our minds, that the idea of war on food would be a main concentration is absurd, and that the point of getting people to enlist would be almost intolerable. We as a society cannot just look at something and automatically do it, we need a stigma or propaganda to understand the necessity behind it, we don’t shame ourselves currently for our role, yet maybe we need guidance in doing so. Michelle Obama decided to launch a campaign by the...
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...The United States is facing a growing obesity epidemic. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States - triple the rate from just on generation ago” (CDC.gov 2012). Is it the children’s fault? No! The fault lies with our society, its leaders, mentors, adults, and parents. It is up to the older generation, to properly teach our children the rights and wrongs of life, and today, we are teaching them the wrong way to eat. Public School Lunch Programs are teaching them that processed foods, high sugar drinks and snacks, are part of a balanced diet, and this is setting up our children for a lifetime of health issues, and adding to an already elevated obesity problem in the United States. Our society, public school system, and parents themselves are setting up our children for an unhealthy lifestyle and a future of health problems by teaching them unhealthy eating habits and feeding them unhealthy food. The days are long gone of the “Farm to Table” cooking methods in our schools that our older generations depended on. Today, we rely on processed foods that are full of additives, fats and sugars. The National School Lunch Program was created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), when President Harry S. Truman signed the National School Lunch Act in 1946. (USDA.gov 2012) When it began, it actually gave schools recipes on how to cook their meals from scratch, the...
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...| 2016 | | | [Economics of Obesity] | ECO6150 RESEARCH PAPER | Abstract There has been a significant growth in obesity over the last several years which has been a major epidemic in which more than half of Americans are considered overweight and shockingly 1/3 of the population is shockingly considered obese. Research supports that there is a major economic impact that is associated with the rise of the epidemic of obesity. Medical costs, loss of work, wages and insurance are all key factors which contribute to the direct and indirect costs behind obesity. I will cover the most prevalent information as it pertains to the costs and identify challenges and potentials in regards to the research trends and the impact of obesity. The potential economic impact will be provided and seek to explore potential future research opportunities. In addition it has been shown that there is a correlation to high rate obesity and low income groups in America. With the increase of fast food restaurants competing against each other and their accessibility coupled with their inexpensive menu options has created an increase in weight for Americans in dangerous proportions. Foods that are nutrient filled such as vegetables and fish have a much high cost and are less convenient to most. The refined sugars and grains along with the high fat content and fillers that most of these foods are laden with have caused an addiction and craving for these foods. Because of the small national...
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...TEENAGE PREGNANCY In their research, Melissa Schettini Kearney of the University of Maryland and Phillip B. Levine of Wellesley College controlled for just about everything: welfare benefits, abortion restrictions, health insurance, federal abstinence programs, unemployment, religion, race, political persuasion, rates of incarceration, "anything that you would think would affect decision-making," The researchers had found something that allowed them to move from correlation to causation. Poverty and hopelessness are the main reasons teens might decide to have a child out of wedlock; they are the main reasons they drop out of school and the economic mainstream.Teen pregnancy is a symptom of poverty, not a cause, the researchers found. They are not poor because they had babies as teens. They are just still poor. As a matter of fact, teens in poverty who do not have children do not have significantly better outcomes as a result, the researchers found."They choose nonmarital motherhood at a young age instead of investing in their own economic progress because they feel they have little chance of advancement,".The CDC report found that Mississippi had the highest teen pregnancy rate, and New Hampshire had the lowest. You might conclude that is because there are more poor people in Mississippi than there are in New Hampshire. But the reason for the difference is not as simple as that.It is not the number of poor, nor the vast space between the very rich and the very poor, that...
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...How Junk Food Affects Children Frendester Shanna Williams DeVry University How Junk Food Affects Children It is getting late as a busy mother of three, wife, and nurse is rushing to pick up her kids and head to softball practice. Its thirty minutes until the oldest child is expected to be on the field. The kids are crying and screaming that they are hungry. What is the mother to do? McDonalds bails her out again. The kids get a quick, hot, and fun meal. This mother doesn’t have to face the challenge of balancing work and life situations, especially cooking a dinner. All may seem at ease, but let’s reveal what is really at stake here. Once at softball practice the mother notices that her child is lagging behind during drills, becoming agitated, and is easily fatigued. She also notices that her child is not as lean as the other girls. The other children seem to be running circles around her child. It seems that her child is continuing to become more and more behind the expectations of her team at each practice. What is wrong? She does some research and is quickly taken by surprise. A diet comprised of an increased intake of sugars, sodium, and additives has numerous repercussions. “However, the potential negative psychosocial aspects of obesity, such as poor body image (BI), social isolation, and stigmatization, are also relevant in the lives of youth” (Martin, 2011, p.245). Parents and other youth leaders are strongly encouraged to be the defense against such harsh ramifications...
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