Argumentative Essay On Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity has increased dramatically in the past few years. It is a result of an imbalance between how much a child eats and how much a child keeps their body active to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Common factors that are influencing childhood obesity would be the lack of self-control, environmental, and genetics. In order to combat these rising numbers of childhood obesity, people as a collective force must target problem areas within homes, schools, and their surrounding community by educating each other.

As indicated by the graphic above (U.S Department of Agriculture, 2017), each child and adults plate need to have the proportional foods in order to consume a healthy diet. However, with the availability and pricing of healthy

if you want to stick to the obesity argument you might want to think of arguments such as 'should the government be doing more to tackle the problem or is it up to the individual?' or 'How is it people can allow themselves to get that far into bad health(obesity)?' (might be more of a Psychology question though..) A good one for looking at arguments relating to the fast food industry is 'Super-Size me' that documentary, that might give you some more ideas about arguments, to look into some of the issues that Morgan Spurlock touches on, (size of food portions, advertising, health related problems of obesity, etc..)

viii. Fast foods are high in calories, provide less fruits and vegetables, and are packed with sugar, fat, and sodium

According to an article, “Obesity in Children”, published through the medicine health website, the issue on childhood obesity in the United States has increased within recent years. “Today, nearly a third of youths are overweight or obese. That’s more than 23 million children and teenagers,” (Childhood Obesity in the United States). Obesity can eventually lead to different and more serious health issues. Fast food restaurants attract the attention of our younger generation and are some of the main causes of obesity today. This has become a huge issue to Americans, but especially to the youth. With that being said, my goal in this paper is to show how rapidly obesity is increasing in children in the United States.

Childhood obesity is a global health crisis and an epidemic that has drastically increased over the years. A comprehensive report from 2010, revealed forty-two million children below the age of five suffer from obesity worldwide, which is a 50% increase since 1980 (Garel, 2014; Moore, Wilkie, & Desrochers, 2017). Not only is the issue of childhood obesity a public health threat, but it is also a form of child abuse with potentially fatal consequences. However, many people do not consider childhood obesity to be a child abuse issue. As a result, this topic is hugely controversial and has attracted some heated public debate. Even more controversial is the argument that the state should intervene on behalf of morbidly obese children. People opposed to the idea that the state should interfere in such matters often argue that blame cannot be placed solely on parents when there could be other factors involved, such as an underlying medical condition or a genetic predisposition to obesity. Moreover, some argue that the 14th amendment gives parents the right to raise their children how they choose and state intervention in such cases is an overreach of government power, and there are better ways to address the problem without removing children from homes (Garel, 2014). Although there are undoubtedly other factors that contribute to the widespread prevalence of childhood obesity, studies have shown that parents are primarily to blame for the growing problem (Wolfson, Gollust, Niederdeppe, & Barry, 2015). Parents indeed have the right to raise their children how they wish, as long as their children are healthy and thriving. If a child is in harm's way or is not adequately taken care of, then by law, the state must intercede on behalf of the child. Nevertheless, parents are responsible for the health and well-being of their children. Therefore, this paper is intended to show that morbid childhood obesity is a severe and life-threatening form of child abuse worthy of state intervention when parents fail to comply with lifestyle changes and recommended medical treatments.

Childhood obesity has now reached an epidemic in several parts of the United States. As a result, children now have a higher risk to have numerous chronic and acute medical problems. Several of the long-lasting medical problems a child might face as a result of obesity could eventually result in death. In addition to chronic medical problems, childhood obesity has severe psychosocial effects on an individual such as low self-esteem and depression. Childhood obesity is a serious problem that is caused by a numerous amount of factors that can eventually lead to severe health complications.

There were no statistically significant differences between groups for changes in high fat food intake, moderate to vigorous physical activity, and cardiorespiratory fitness.

Parental neglect of offering healthy food for their kids led to compound the crisis. Recently, the consumption of fast food has dramatically risen in the U.S. The huge relevance of fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell and others, could be a contributor in changing the Americans style of food, and increasing their intake of these unhealthy foods. According to a research conducted about fast food consumption in the U SS, 22% of parents said that their kids consume fast food meals at least once a week, which might easily drive to obesity. As known, the main aim of fast food companies is raising their profitability, and therefore, their plan is to sell food as much as they could despite their knowledge that it is unhealthy. So, they focused on attracting kids to buy from them by enticing advertisements. They know how to draw kids’ attention, especially when they describe the taste of their meals and show their toys that come with them. There is no doubt that TV programs and advertisements have a strong impact on children. Many studies have confirmed that watching TV for a long time during a day is able to influence kids in their attitudes and habits. The problem of eating fast food is that it has a lack of fiber and dairy, contains a high density of energy, and has big amounts of protein, fat and sugar, which makes it the unhealthy

Obesity is an extensive problem in the United States. “25% of children in poorer areas are obese, compared to about 11% in more affluent areas”(Ellen). People believe that other causes of obesity are significant, but others believe it is from financial standing. These are controversial among researchers, health professionals, or nutritionists. SNAP helps impoverished people to eat healthier with the help of financial security. Obesity rates will decrease when encouraging SNAP users to eat healthier.

These lifestyles are best summarized by the author Louis Rene Beres in his article “The Few, The Proud, The Individuals” as being caused by the American tendency to be “gorged with bad food.” In summary, the American people have become so accustomed to their complicated, daily routine that they do not stop to enjoy a healthy, homemade dinner. Thus, these complicated lifestyles, that include frequent trips to fast food restaurants, help increase obesity rates. This increase in obesity rates, has also come to affect many children and adolescents (teenagers). The increasing rates of obesity in teenagers and children and the small attention they are being paid is an issue that is prevalent in America. Current experts say that the solution to obesity is to manufacture new drugs, change exercising habits, and to decrease advertisements of unhealthy foods. They should instead consider leading a simplified life that allows one to remain in contact with

A lot of times, not everyone who wants to conceive a child gets the opportunity. It is very common to hear of pregnancies that are unplanned, or maybe unwanted, but that is still no excuse to not take care of yourself. Being obese doesn’t necessarily mean you choose not to take care of yourself, because there are many factors that can be put into play when you look specifically at ones weight, but purposely not getting all of the nutrients and trying to do everything to have a healthy child is. The diet of the mother during pregnancy could determine the life-long outcomes of both the mother and child. Meeting adequate diet requirements during pregnancy can have major impacts on how healthy or unhealthy the pregnancy is. I have cared about the

The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s (“Healthy Schools.”). Childhood obesity is a medical condition that affects children and teenagers who contain excess body fat. This condition is very common today, having about 3 million cases per year (“Healthy Schools.”). A sign that a child is suffering from obesity is when their weight is well above the average for a child’s height and age. Today about one in five school children, ages 6-19, are obese (“Healthy Schools.”). I will be addressing the causes, health complications, treatments, controversy, and supporting obese students.

In the humanistic perspective, obesity can be caused from a number of different things. Gender differences could be a recent factor to why children are becoming more obese from a younger age. We can link this to how social media is teaching its younger viewers. Social media today talks a lot about how women do not have to be super skinny to be pretty and to embrace their natural curves of their body. It also talks about men “bulking up” and eating a lot more in order to do so and gain as much muscle as possible. Children from a young age seeing this everyday can be the cause of so much weight gain because they do not understand when to stop or what

    Two thirds of American adults are obese or overweight. Obesity is a silent killer that is taking over the United States slowly but surely. People do not typically realize how serious obesity is and it gets joked about, humiliating those who are affected. Obesity is not a joke, it is a disease that is killing everyone’s family, friends and neighbors. Obesity alone is detrimental to the health of an individual, it causes many adverse effects to the body that are often difficult to repair or cure.