Childhood Obesity And Its Effects On Children

Childhood obesity is a major cause for concern within the United States. This is mainly due to children not getting the require nutrition that they need. Although study show that there is a decrease in obesity in children, it still remains at an all-time high. Children are failing to eat as healthy as they should, and it has become an even bigger problem now that they aren’t getting the require amount of food in their diets. The USDA made a decision a couple of years ago to reduce the amount of food given to children while they are at school. This hurts them tremendously, because the majority of the food they eat comes from being at school all day. The other half lies on the parents when they go home and eat dinner. It is very important for children to eat healthy and eat the required amount of food according to various dietary guidelines. First Lady Michelle Obama has started a new campaign to help kids and parents combat obesity in children. One thing that the campaign has placed emphases on is getting healthier food within school. Although they are getting healthier foods in school they are beginning to change the proportion they are giving students. Through the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign students should be giving healthier foods and also be allowed to have the correct proportion to help them maintain a healthy diet.

School lunches, curriculum focus, and daily activities have changed in elementary schools over the years. The nutritional value in school lunches often meet a bare minimum. Curriculum is focused strongly on idealistic future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics; but often forget teaching basic healthy habits needed for lifelong health. Physical education is no longer required every single day. Obesity has become an epidemic and not just for adults, it is increasingly affecting children as well. Children spend a generous amount of time in the classroom. They spend more time in school than at home or anywhere else. Therefore, schools have a responsibility in preventing obesity in adolescents by teaching them healthy habits, serving them nutritious food, and providing them with adequate physical activity.

Prevention of health related disease attributed by obesity should begin with educating children to choose healthy lifestyles and not to spend all their money on sugary snacks and drinks. Schools are aware of the increasing rate of childhood obesity and know that education is one of the best tools that can be use at an early age to help reverse the rate of

Childhood obesity is considered to be a serious issue among our youth. Obesity can cause many types of physical problems, which most are aware of, but it can also cause some undesirable internal feelings within children and adolescents who suffer from it. Self-esteem, or self-worth, is important as it helps develop personality and is a major ingredient to our mental health status (Wang, F. and Veugelers, P. J., 2008). Some have said obesity may even have a negative effect on cognitive development, as well. There have been studies performed to research the effects of obesity on children and adolescents, which I am going to review.

Childhood obesity has expanded tremendously within the past thirty years (CDC, 2015). It is not only a state, but also a nationwide issue. For many children, they depend on their school lunches to provide them the nutritious meals they cannot afford to have at home. As a community, we need to get our children into better shape. Not only will they become more astute, but they will also live healthier lifestyles, and have less health complications as they age. When you are overweight or obese, you are much more likely to develop health problems like heart disease, diabetes, or even a stroke. It is our responsibility as a community, state, and nation to offer nutritious meals and activities for our youth and future.

The obesity epidemic is a widespread problem in children and turning it around will be a huge challenge. However, the right place to start attacking the epidemic is at our schools. American children and teenagers are consuming more unnecessary calories than ever, resulting in health problems and rising obesity rates. Schools should provide healthier foods to promote good nutrition and to prevent obesity and health problems. According to an article titled “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause” published in the New York Times in 2011, systematic approaches to lower the obesity rate include schools increasing the price of unhealthy foods and drinks, schools providing a larger selection of healthy food, and introducing

Obesity has substantially increased in the American population, affecting both adults and children. According to the Mayo Clinic, the definition of obesity is defined as a condition of increased body weight that is caused by an excessive accumulation of fat. Many factors contribute to weight gain such as the two important ones, poor diet and physical inactivity. As people are exposed to high fat foods and have very low physical activity, it’s so easy for that person to become overweight or obese. As in today’s society children tend to overeat, many changes in a child’s life are the reason why there is an increase in overeating. The place where children should be fed healthy and should influence them to eat healthy is actually where the problem starts. School cafeterias have been known to serve food with large fat content and low nutrition. School cafeterias even supply students with soda and candy machines (Kempster, 2004). According to a study done by King et al. (1999) has shown that fruits and raw vegetables given in school cafeterias has decreased substantially. Instead they provide unhealthy meals for these children like, pizza, tater tots, and many other numerous high level fat foods. At school children should have the access to eat healthy, however they are exposed to fast food choices everyday, making it difficult to support healthy eating (Kuntzman, 2004). The lack of physical activity is another major factor in the cause of childhood obesity. Due to the increase

Obesity is a condition where someone is significantly overweight for their age and height. On a child, it can lead to life-threatening diseases and health problems in the future. This excessive amount of weight that a child bears can lead to future diseases and mental abuse from peers and even on rare occasion 's parents. Childhood obesity has become a national problem in the United States and continues to grow at a substantial rate. This growing health problem presented with children is affecting them negatively for the future. Is fast food really to blame, or is it the new lazy lifestyle that revolves around technology? With technology growing quickly, children seem to be less likely to play outside and live an active lifestyle than

Childhood obesity is a condition that affects children in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the rates of obesity in children have more than doubled in children in the past 30 years. There was increase of 18% from 1980 to 2012 in children 6 to 11 years of age, estimating that more than one third of children are overweight or obese. ("Childhood Obesity Facts," 2014) Obesity usually begins in children during the ages of 5 and 6. The most troublesome fact is that studies have shown that obese children between 10 and 13 have a predisposition of becoming an obese adult. ("Obesity in Children and Teens," 2011) Consequently, overweight teenagers have a 70 percent chance of becoming obese or overweight adults, and if at least one parent is obese the child’s predisposition rate increases to 80 percent. (Bishop et al., 2005)

“The percentage of children aged 6–12 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012” (cdc.gov). Subsequently, the obesity epidemic has continued to increase over the past few years in the United States. There are many different aspects that have contributed to the obesity epidemic. For example, many people today choose to be convenient instead of eating healthy, which results in the consummation of processed foods. Processed foods have a significant effect on the risk of obesity. With a current society always on the go, adults and children have become more susceptible to junk and fast foods. As a result this has caused an increase in the energy intake which results in storing fat thus gaining weight. In addition, having less to no physical activity is also a contributor to obesity. For example, sixty minutes of physical activity is needed for the prevention of obesity (ncbi.gov). These contributions to obesity results into the many different health risk. With this in mind, I believe as a student, schools have the influence to help prevent young students from childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is a condition where a child has unnecessary grossly fat. Many children who are overweight suffer from medical to self-esteem issues. These issues can have a big impact on a child’s educational success. Therefore, there are ways that schools can get involved to help prevent young students of becoming obese and in the process help students

In April 2014, an article was published in The Toronto Star Magazine discussing the recent increase of obesity rates in children and the dangers associated with this rise. The research focused specifically on children who had survived cancer and later developed obesity, causing more complications in their health. This rise of obesity in child cancer survivors has been linked to numerous potential factors causing an increase in the possibility of developing this disease. The potential factors that increase the risk of childhood obesity in cancer survivors include, treatment therapy, lack of physical activity, and restricted diets. Childhood obesity will be viewed based on how prominent the condition has become, and its relations to the potential risk’s that develop in cancer survivors and its significance to nursing. Child cancer survivors have a higher risk of develop obesity due to a number of factors, such as treatment therapy, lack of physical activity, and restricted diets.

Childhood obesity can have complications on a child's physical social and emotional well-being and development Obesity during childhood has both instant and long-term health effects Immediate effects of childhood obesity is the increased risk of impaired glucose tolerance insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes is a chronic health condition that affects the way a child's body uses sugar (glucose) Obesity along with a sedentary lifestyle increase a child's risk of type 2 diabetes (Mayo Clinic) Children who are obese also have a higher risk of joint and bone discomfort sleep apnea which is a potentially serious disorder where a child's breathing repeatedly stops and starts when they are sleeping or asthma as well as some psychosocial

Up until the late 1990s, seeing an obese child was extremely abnormal because children’s main form of entertainment was playing outside. The rate of childhood obesity drastically increased due to the fact that children’s main form of entertainment has shifted from outdoor activities, to vast outlets of easily accessible technology. Children are also being served a variety of unhealthy meals from fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s or Taco Bell. Unfortunately, most parents do not know the underlying truth about what they are feeding their children and often choose the cheapest route for feeding their families. Research indicates that the corpulence of today’s youth is becoming severely problematic, and drastic steps are being taken to solve the obesity concern in adolescents.

Childhood Obesity in America is a growing disease that has become an epidemic that has lasting psychological effects because of advertisement of fast food, lack of physical activities, and parental control has made food become a major health issue in many young teenagers lives’ today. Obesity in children is an ongoing concern which many people have to deal with. Obesity is the condition of being overweight. It affects about 12.7 million children and adolescents (“Ebbeling”). Your weight is the result of many things working together-the choices you make, your environment, your metabolism, and your genes.

During past several years, obesity has become a major problem, which is directly or indirectly associated with diabetes, coronary heart disease, some types of cancer and with high risk of hypertension (Ellis 2000). Obesity term is used when we have excess body weight in the form of fat. It is considered as a medical condition, which leads to sever health problem. Obesity is a worldwide problem, which affects both adult as well as children of all age groups. There are different way have been presented to describe obesity in children. Recently international obesity task force has revised the definition of obesity in children (Table 1)