Childhood Obesity Epidemic Analysis

The United States of America is the fattest country in the world. Obesity in America has reach epidemic proportions. Obesity and weight gain has become major concern of public health in the United States. In every state, at least twenty percent of adults are obese, and in twelve of these states the obesity rate is above thirty percent. Mississippi currently holds the highest rate of obesity with 34.9 percent of its residents being obese. On the contrary, Colorado has the lowest rate of obesity with 20.7 percent. CNN estimated that annual medical care costs due to obesity reached $147 billion, but the Institute of Medicine estimates it is closer to $190 billion.

According to the article, “Attacking the obesity epidemic by first figuring out its cause” by Jane E. Brody, corporations in the food industry are the one causing the problem of obesity. First off salty, fatty, and sugary foods have been introduced to our society since the 70’s. As a matter of fact, “in the 40’s and 50’s” the majority of people actually had to walk to get to places.” Nowadays, people just use cars as a means of transportation rather than walking to get stuff. The food we eat have ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup which increase the risk of diabetes, obesity, and cancer which are devastating.

Obesity in America is literally a growing problem, affecting every age group. Children are the most venerable group because they have no control over where they have dinner or how often they have fast food. Parents and guardians make decisions about food and are responsible for the health of children. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in the last twenty years. This is concerning because Type Two diabetes is a horrible, crippling disease that is affecting children and teens dramatically whereas the disease was primarily seen in adults. Children are said to have a shorter life span than their parents for the first time ever. In the United States sixty-six percent of adults are overweight and one in

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention claims that “obesity related medical care cost in the United States are at an all time high, and in 2008 dollars, these cost were estimated to be 147 billion. The annual nationwide productive costs of obesity-related absenteeism range between $3.38 billion ($79 per obese individual) and $6.38 billion ($132 per obese individual),” according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. An analysis conducted by Emory University own healthcare economist Ken Thorpe, Ph.D. C, titled “The Future Cost of Obesity” estimates that the annual of cost of health care will sky rock by an estimated 344 billion dollars by 2018 or about $20.00 per every healthcare dollar spent in the U.S, providing a financial imperative for obesity prevention initiatives.

Marks, Jennifer B. “Obesity in America: It's Getting Worse.” Clinical Diabetes, American Diabetes Association, 1 Jan. 2004, clinical.diabetesjournals.org/content/22/1/1.

There is a new epidemic running through the U.S. This epidemic is childhood obesity. In the last ten-twenty years, more and more children have become obese/overweight. A study done by the CDC states, “The percentage of children aged 6-11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.” With all epidemics, there is a rush for a quick fix. The quick fix for this epidemic is liposuction, but after a couple months they regain the weight. They then tried dieting, some patients try to diet but keep going back to eating unhealthy and keep the weight on. There is one more thing they can

This article “Parents’ Denial Fuels Childhood Obesity Epidemic” written by Jan Hoffman talks about how parents are ignoring their children’s increasing weight gain and shrugging it off, saying things such as “my kid will grow out of it.” And I agree completely with this article, whether kids are healthy or not depends on who is managing their diet and exercise, so if a teenager is overweight, then their parents must have fed them a lot of bad foods when they were younger and the weight increased over time.

Imagine being at a friend’s funeral, where the parents had to lamentably bury their young child, all due to poor food and health that has dispersed throughout America. Although America is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, it is also the unhealthiest country. The world’s view of American society consists of people having a Big Mac in one hand and holding a remote control in the other. Obesity has begun to be a growing epidemic that has been in debate. The definition of obesity is the condition in which an individual has an abundant amount of grossly fat and being extremely overweight. Obesity has since been officially recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association an action that could put more emphasis on the health

Childhood obesity is an epidemic that has been spreading around the United States like a wild fire in a dry field, increasing more and more without much resistance to stop it from spreading. The SPARK PE program was created in 1989, and aims to be that resistance against childhood obesity, with carefully planned programs in hopes of showing the youths of America that exercise and proper nutrition can lead to a successful, healthy life (SPARK). SPARK aims at achieving this goal by carefully planning out different physically beneficial activities, while also making sure that they are popular with the students in hopes of the students continuing the activities outside the classroom. SPARK, or “Sports, Play, Active, Recreation for, Kids”, isn’t only aimed to improve solely physical attributes for children, but also aims to improve environmental and behavioral change at the same time (SPARK). These planned programs include a classroom & recess program, an after school program, along with the Coordinated School Health Initiative (SPARK). The SPARK PE program is an elite organization who’s goal is to ensure that today’s youth grow up healthy, while at the same time making sure they’re having fun doing it with their classroom & recess activities, after school activities, and the Coordinated School Health Initiative.

Have we all question ourselves what is childhood obesity? Well today about one in three children in America are overweight or obese, which has tripled since 1963. The American Heart Association, comments that among the children today, obesity has been causing a reach of health problem that was only seen in adulthood. Obesity not only affects children appearance or the fit of their clothing. The people that are obese most likely will have health problems such as joint problem, sleep apnea, and asthma attack, liver failure, kidney problems. What would be the best way to prevent obesity. We all know the obesity is and will always be a chronic disease that will be affecting more children, and teenagers and adults. The rates of obesity in children in the United States have doubled since 1980, yet it has tripled for teenagers. Children between the ages of six to nineteen are considered overweight and the other percent of adults are overweight and or obese.

The number of overweight children in America has increased at an alarming rate. Today it is estimated that more than one-third of children and teens are overweight or obese (CDC, 2004). Obesity is the result of excess body fat. It is difficult defining obesity in younger people. Research shows that children who are obese are more likely to grow up to be overweight as an adult (CDC, 2004). Childhood obesity increases the risk of developing serious health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, and asthma (CDC, 2004). Despite the increase in public awareness, overweight children often are teased and excluded from social activities, which can lead to low-self esteem and poor body images. Bullying can increase negative feeling including anxiety

Obesity in the United States has really become an economic problem as well. People are spending the little money that they have and spending it on food that they shouldn’t be eating in the first place, which they should be spending their money on healthier and nutritious food, for themselves and their family. New England Medical Center, Michael Dansinger of the Tufts says:

How the world eats has dramatically changed and continues to do so becoming quicker, faster, and more efficient. Therefore this must be the best way for our food to evolve or is it. America is having an obesity epidemic that is now spreading to other nations. Some major things have to be changed to fix this problem. From the movies and T.V. shows we have watched there seems to be two major trends.The first one was food inc which showed horrific images of how our food is made in order to convince people to eat better. The other was cooked which showed how fun it can be to cook in order to convince people to eat better.

Obesity is an immense epidemic that is drastically increasing world wide (Pandita et al., 2016). It is present virtually in all countries globally and continues to grow rapidly. Obesity is a problem that affects countless number citizen’s across the globe and is caused by various of factors within their lifestyle (Pandita et al., 2016). The World Health Organization states that “ Worldwide obesity has tripled since 1975” (WHO,2018). This statistics proves how vigorously obesity has grown over a certain timeframe and how it will still continue to grow at a steady rate. It is a worldwide epidemic that many individuals especially children struggle to cope with on a daily basis. There are various of factors that provoke the growth of obesity. Possible

Researchers also found that children obesity is connected to parenting styles. In Childhood obesity linked to poverty, parenting style, researchers state, "authoritarian parenting may translate to parents not responding to children's cues of hunger and/or feeling full, and demanding or controlling the child's energy intake"( Kakinami, Barnett, Séguin, Paradis, 2015). Basically, researchers claim that strict parents would not know when to feed their children; they do not know that their children are hungry or not. Thus, they are likely to over feed their kids therefore their children will receive too many calories per