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Childhood Obesity Research Paper

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Hawai’i Pacific University

THE RISING COST OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY
The relationship between income and childhood obesity

Barbara Can
Ms. Amber Leonard
WRI 1200
Mar 1, 2011

Just take a short drive down any main street in a popular city and you will drive past no less than eight fast food restaurants and three convenient stores within a couple of blocks from each other. If that is the route driven on your way home every day from work and you don’t feel up to making a home cooked meal, what do you think your family will be eating that night. It is sometimes cheaper to buy a cheeseburger off of the value menu rather than cooking one at home. Fast food is a large reason why childhood obesity takes place. Fast food restaurants do not …show more content…

Every child is different, you can see a group of children all different heights and weights but same age group. Almost every commercial break on television has a thirty second bit about a special at a local fast food restaurant. In the 1990’s McDonalds had their hamburgers on sale on a certain day of the week, instead of one dollar they were thirty nine cents. Imagine a family going there easily ordering twenty for a family of six. In a low income family, having the specials McDonald’s had to offer were almost the best thing that could happen because everyone is able to eat and have a full stomach. Everyday there are new ideas for new snacks, either healthy or un-nutritional, but each person has their choice at the store for which items them buy. Price on items are constantly changing, mainly rising, especially the food that feed us energy and help us to live a healthier lifestyle. . Americans have consumed 400 more calories per day than the average in 1985 (Russel 2). If a low income family is trying to eat healthy, they might find it almost impossible because of the economy. A recent Cornell University analysis shows that the inflation-adjusted price of fruits and vegetables rose 17 percent between 1997 and 2003, while the price of a McDonald’s quarter-pounder and a Coca-Cola fell by 5.44 percent and 34.89 percent, respectively (Russel 2). It has been said that as long as you are physically active you can eat whatever you want and still keep off the weight, but

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