Childhood Obesity Epidemic: Article Analysis

Childhood obesity is a growing problem in America. "the percentage of obese children doubling from 6.5% in 1980, to 17.0% in 2006. Weight, nutrition, and physical activity are the main components to a child’s overall health.”(1) “When parents become too busy to cook meals in their homes, children learn poor eating habits and develop into unhealthy eaters.”(1) They will take what they learned at home and apply it to anywhere else that they eat. For example a child that drinks milk at dinner and sits with their family at dinner when asked what they want to drink when they are at a friend’s home will ask for milk because the child would associate milk with dinner. Children cannot make healthy choices of their own they need to be guided so

One of the biggest medical issues in America today is childhood obesity. A child is considered obese if that child is above the normal weight for their age and height. Childhood obesity is a “national epidemic” problem in America that needs major attention. In the article,”The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food,” by Michael Moss he acknowledges that “Among children, the rates had more than doubled since 1980, and the number of kids considered obese had shot past 12 million”(473). Moss’s point is that the rates of childhood obesity has increased tremendously over the past years. And the number of children that are overweight are at risk of becoming obese keeps growing. In addition, they are at greater risk for serious medical

The new generation continues to increasingly fall under obesity’s evil spell. Although many Americans recognize that their children are obese, they fail to accept that this is an epidemic that should be controlled and given dramatic attention to. Research suggests that childhood obesity in the United States has doubled in the past decade. Despite the fact that we have necessary resources to control these statistics, Americans continue to expose their youngsters to unhealthy and fattening meals. It is no joke that America is the fattest nation in the world. Thus, preventing this serious issue should be perceived as a life-or-death situation where if we fail to control it, many more overweight children will grow up to be obese adults in the future.

The obesity epidemic here in the United States affects a mass portion of all children and adolescents. The rapid growth in childhood obesity has become a prevalent health concern that is overlooked due to its’ normality. The main focus of this issue has always been fixated on how to help those facing current problems with obesity. Instead, attention needs to be brought to the prevention of our country’s #1 leading health concern, which has yet to be compromised. This ignorance has led millions of children ill-educated on the importance of lifestyle and the simple concept that “we are what we eat”. The reality of this issue is not one many want to take responsibility for, but the significant impact education has on what children consume is greater than we may think. The lack of effort in our education system and the simple changes in the education we provide can significantly help reduce the obesity crisis we face. Our education career is one of the most influential aspects of all of our lives and though most of children’s time is spent in school, it lacks teaching the importance of food, the consequences of unhealthy diets and its’ little value on health as being part of our future success.

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.

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

“The Childhood Obesity Epidemic,” is an article written by Bronwyn McHugh, based on childhood obesity dealing with causes and preventions affecting the reduction of children’s life expectancy. Bronwyn McHugh states that the main cause of childhood obesity is the lack of energy imbalance caused by the difference of calories consumed and calories expended. This could be because the food children decide to eat contains high percentages of fats and sugars. Each child is raised in many different households or cultures, some children are encouraged to eat heavy while others to eat light. For example, “Childhood obesity appears to be associated with low socioeconomic status, maternal nutritional status, single parent status, and low education levels.” (McHugh, B. 2016) Other social cost mentioned in the article is the cost of technological advances decreasing the physical activity of fitness. Without the proper necessities to exercise or motivation the child will not put in the effort to exercise. As technology improves over the years the hand-held devices and the media games children are exposed to, increases the risk of obesity. Health conditions that obesity leads to are: cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, etc. Medical personals are there to provide assistance and consultations to the many approaches to lose weight. Some approaches could include “gastric banding, employment personal trainers, and

Over the past decade there has been an epidemic on the rise. This epidemic is child obesity. We spend millions of dollars each year trying to help or prevent the onset of obesity. Some of the reasons are due to our youth consuming more processed foods and not being physically active. However, we as a society cannot just blame the laziness and not eating the correct types of foods as the cause for obesity. This problem is more complex than people think and we can fix it, but we do need government cooperation. There are many causes of obesity some of which are poverty, food insecurity, parenting, and physical activity.

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

If we want to dramatically decrease childhood obesity policies and behaviors need to change as well. Fast food is a big problem that comes to mind. Cara B Ebbeling, PhD from the article, “Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure states”, “The rise in consumption of fast food, in developed and developing nations, might have particular relevance to the childhood obesity epidemic”. Ebbeling also states, “Although there are no data on fast food and obesity in children, adolescent girls who ate fast food four times a week or more consumed about 770–1095 kJ (185–260 kcal) per day more than those who did not. A large fast food meal (double cheeseburger, french fries, soft drink, dessert) could contain 9200 kJ (2200 kcal), which,

Base on a group of Researcher, in an article “Health consequences of obesity Archives of Disease in Childhood.” Written in 2003, after collecting evidence prove that obesity in childhood tend to persist into adulthood. Obesity can cause cardiovascular in childhood that will cause mobility/mortality in adulthood. The authors mention that “A large body of evidence has shown that childhood obesity is strongly associated with the presence of clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in childhood.” This explain that obesity in the childhood is the development for serious issue in the adulthood.

The article, “‘Nature’ more important than ‘nature’ in childhood obesity,” is about a research group, London School of Economics, who conducted multiple case studies on families about the effects of genetics and environment on childhood obesity. The group tested multiple situations including testing on obese parents who adopted and one’s that had biological children. They tested to see if children who were adopted developed childhood obesity and if it was any different than biological children. The group found that children in adoptive families with obese parents were only six percent less likely to be obese than those in families with biological obese parents. Their conclusion was that childhood obesity is more dependent on environmental factors

“The rise of obesity has placed the health of an entire generation at risk” (Vilsack). With childhood obesity rates skyrocketing in the last decade, multiple culprits have been blamed as the source of the epidemic. Sometimes, the blame is all placed on genetics. Other times, people believe it is the responsibility of childcare centers of schools to teach healthy habits. While these accusations do hold some truth, the fact is that the obesity rates in America are increasing because children are not being taught the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods, or given an example of healthy nutritional habits during their most crucial years of learning. Although there are other factors that hold some influence, a child’s nutritional behavior is primarily determined by the home environment during his or her years of early childhood.

According to the JCEM Metabolic and Body Composition Factors in Subgroups of Obesity, article published on June 1, 2004, “Obesity is thought to be a heterogeneous disorder”. Research shows that obesity is an issue that is getting worse even for little kids according to this quote, “In developing nation’s child obesity is most prevalent in the wealthier sections of the population”(obesityreviews). “However, child obesity is also rising among the urban poor in these countries, possibly due to their exposure to Westernized diets coinciding with a history of undernutrition”(obesityreviews). Ultimately child obesity is increasing in different countries due to the lack of nutrition and not getting enough protein in their bodies. Overall the problem