Childhood Obesity Epidemic Analysis

Childhood obesity is a major public health epidemic which has significantly risen over the past three decades and there is no chance in sight of slowing it down unless real action is taken. This major health crisis continues to reduce individuals’ quality of life and has caused severe health problem like heart disease which is the leading cause of death in the United States and around the world. In most cases, obese children grow up to be an obese adult. The prevalence of childhood obesity can be addressed through education initiatives such as school prevention programs because children spent a majority of their time outside of the home at school, therefore school provides a great opportunity to educate and improve a child’s health at an ideal point before the problem gets worst. My paper will focus on childhood obesity prevention in Hill Top Middle school Lodi, New Jersey.

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.

Childhood obesity is not just an issue in United States- it is an growing epidemic. Obesity epidemic in kids has increased by alarming rate just in last few decades. Nearly one in every five child is obese in the United States. If the pattern of obesity continued on most of America’s children will be living with diabetes, heart disease, and dying young due to obesity. The American Heart Association reported this year that childhood obesity is the top health concern among parents in the United States, beating out smoking and drug abuse. My own younger siblings suffer with child obesity. Their craving for fast food and very limited physical activity has made them overweight and currently they suffer from health problems. Is this the future of our young generation? How much contribution should a parent have in their child’s diet? Fast food has taken over American diet and it has lead to poor nutritional diet among American youth. Fast food companies spend billion of dollars every year on commercials, convincing youth to love and eat their product. It’s just not our eating habits that has lead our young generation into obesity, lack of physical workout has also played a major role in obesity epidemic. TV, computer, video games and other technology entertainment has contributed to children getting no exercise. Obesity in children can put them in high risks of developing chronic and serious illness. Unhealthy weight leads to having weaker lungs, poor blood quality, heart

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

Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States with wide-reaching effects. In “America’s War on the Overweight” by Kate Dailey and Abby Ellin, they discuss the prejudice encountered by people in America, and how it’s difficult for most people to fight against obesity and not the obese. Then in “The Cooking Animal” by Michael Pollan, he describes the rapid decline of home-cooked meals. Furthermore, he writes how the more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower the rate of obesity. Finally, “The Problem of Childhood Obesity” by Ginger Beebe and Joe Thompson, explains the strides that Arkansas has taken to fight the epidemic of obesity by coordinating school health and cooperative education. All three articles target

As our society advances and adapts, we continue to come across many social issues. We have just recently abolished slavery, but the after effects of racism still exist, making life difficult for those of color or immigrants in specific areas of the country. Racism is just a small part of the adapting "American Culture", there are many other sociological issues, like that of the obesity epidemic. In Chapter 2 of Gendered Media: Women, Men, and Identity Politics, Ross asks the following question in regards to the obesity epidemic, "But who (or indeed what) is really responsible for the increasing of obesity of our citizens and therefore slimming down our expanding waistlines? The individual or the state?" The blame is constantly shifting between

Obesity in childhood has become a global epidemic in developed and developing countries, and is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st Century (Chan, Deave, & Greenhalgh, 2010; Fleming & Parker, 2015). One-quarter of all Australian children between the ages of five and seven in 2007-2008 were overweight or obese (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABOS], 2015). Obesity in childhood is known to have a significant impact on both physical and psychological health (Wieting, 2008). These children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop non‑communicable diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases at a younger age (Hoey, 2014; Perpich, Russ, Rizzolo, & Sedrak, 2011; Throsby, 2007). It is widely

The nation has developed a cheap food model. The kind of food Americans eat is the kind that is most profitable, commercial. This source of nutrition has caused over eighteen percent of children in the nation to become obese or overweight. If the obesity epidemic is not taken seriously the nation will have to pay the price. Not only adults but future generations are at a higher risk of developing severe heart conditions earlier than past generations. If improvements are not made, our children will die younger than us.

For the past few decades, the dire situation of obesity in America has gotten worse and is now affecting new generations of young Americans. Every day the poor eating and physical choices that children make can lead them to a life with diabetes, heart disease, and cancers. The unhealthy lifestyle that children have is influenced by their parents and the society that surrounds them. This unprecedented surge of poor lifestyle choices has lead to an epidemic that young children are now facing. Ultimately, the health of young children is at stake.

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.

Presentation is important to how a person receives the information because it can determine how they perceive it and what they will do with it. The point is that obesity has been viewed by many as simply an epidemic that has been caused by eating too many unhealthy foods. Although both children and adults should acknowledge the fact of how obesity is developed and hold strong to changing those habits, is the real solution held within our mentalities or physicalities? Our decisions result in the foods and the amount of exercise that we have. Therefore, our mentalities seem to outweigh our physical, but it is because of our physical well-being that we make certain decisions which brings a balance between both aspects. The idea athletic

In recent years, topics that relate to diet, nutrition, and obesity epidemic have been covered by experts in the United States. Different experts advocate various, and sometimes conflicting strategies for maintaining a healthy weight. One approach to this obesity epidemic is that being overweight is caused by the “obesity genes”. Yet some disagree on this approach and insist that parental influence play a bigger role in obesity. Obesity is a major global health condition that involves excessive body fat. Obesity is the main cause of some chronic illness. Following this further, childhood obesity can be linked with type-2 diabetes and studies also indicate it is associated with an increase in mortality in adulthood.

Published as a commentary in this month’s American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dr. Bray and colleagues present a provocative thesis that links the U.S. obesity epidemic to the introduction and widespread use of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a sweetener of most beverages and processed foods. HFCS was introduced to the food processing industry in 1970 and is now consumed by all Americans at an average of 318 calories per capita per day, making up about 16% of the calories in the U.S. diet. Commonly found in most soft drinks, fruit drinks, canned fruits, dairy deserts, and baked goods, HFCS has unique properties that could contribute to weight gain. About half of its composition is fructose, which is rapidly emptied from the stomach, thereby

Childhood obesity is an epidemic that is rapidly affecting multiple families across the world. Firstly Obesity can simply be defined as the condition where excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that individual’s health may be adversely affected. Body Mass Index (BMI) is the most commonly used method to measure obesity on a population level for both adults and children. There are four widely accepted weight categories; underweight (BMI less than 18.5), normal weight (18.5 to 25), overweight (25 to 30) and obese (over 30) (WHO 2000). For children aged 2 to 18 years however, there needs consideration to changes to the body during development, which is why an internationally recognised set of age and gender specific BMI thresholds are

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