Children At The Edge : Obesity

Fast food advertisements can be found around the world, on newspapers, television, and even online. Children, teenagers, and parents have seen marketing focused on fast food. While adults may think little about such blatant advertising tactics that are solely designed to attract new customers, how are kids affected? People across the United States worry about the ever increasing obesity rates amongst children in recent years. A common explanation is the spike in popularity of fast food. Most kids and teenagers have eaten fast food at least once in their lifetime. But why has fast food gotten increasingly popular recently? Fast food has always been known to be very unhealthy, but kids still consume it anyway. The culprit: fast food advertising. In modern times, the majority of kids living in the United States have access to the internet or television, where they are easy targets for advertising. To prevent the nation from growing up obese, fast food companies should end all ad campaigns targeted towards children and focus advertising strictly on adults. These advertisements cause kids to consume fast food more often, to eat an unhealthy diet, and to grow up in a culture dependent on fast food.

Some children’s families do not have the finances to purchase healthy foods, so they buy what they can afford which is fast food and junk. Markets have lowered their prices for the unhealthy food making it easier for consumers to buy and harder to resist when it fits in the budget. Also, television has become a big part of the youth’s extra-curricular activities. Children don’t spend most of their time outside playing anymore, now they watch TV for more than seven hours. A recent literature review by Kaiser Family Foundation highlighted a number of studies that suggested that advertising influenced dietary and other food choices in children (M. Dehghan, N. Akhtar-Danesh and A. Merchant). While watching TV for hours on end, they will see advertising for fast food restaurants and junk food. Unhealthy foods are advertised on TV to target children and adolescents. TV viewing is a contributing factor to childhood obesity because it may take away from the time children spend in physical activities. Watching TV leads to increase calorie intake through snacking and eating meals in front of the TV. Plus influence children to make unhealthy food choices through exposure to food advertisements that are unhealthy.

Because of parents using food as a reward, many children learn that being good means eating unhealthy. Combined with the advertising techniques used by the fast food industry, children begin to make a correlation between fast food and a reward. Ellen Gustafson further confirms that fast food contains “more refined grains, fats and oils and sugars than the 1980’s.” All of these components of fast food make it appealing to children. Furthermore, many parents do not have time to make healthy meals for their children because of our fast-paced society. As David Zinczenko relates in Don’t Blame the Eater, “lunch and dinner, for me, was a daily choice between McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Pizza Hut. Then, as now, these were the only available options for an American kid to get an affordable meal.” This is not a rare situation. Many parents work long hours and therefore encourage their kids to eat fast food instead of taking the time to teach healthy habits. This has the ripple effect of overeating and lack of exercise. Without exercise, many kids gain weight, become obese or are at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and asthma. (Childhood Obesity) Today, type 2 diabetes exists in 30% of childhood obesity. (Zinczenko 154) Gustafson further states in her presentation “1/3 of American children are overweight and obese.” When a child has obesity, their ability to participate in everyday activities like sports and play is inhibited, which means

It is an established fact that childhood obesity in America is a developing disease that has become an epidemic with ongoing psychological effects, this is due to many reasons, among them are the wide spread of fast-food advertisements and bill boards, the lack of physical activities and parental control. This has made food become a major health issue in many young teenagers’ life today.

This article incorporates essential realities about the fast food industry. Likewise, has late news and moves made by well known fast food organizations. The site likewise has tabs that clarify the wagers and most noticeably worst kid’s meals and after that another tab that includes the calories in kid’s meals. The site additionally discusses the different advertising to children and adolescents that the fast food industry does. Most of the data

Individuals and groups in support of the government intervening in order to combat the epidemic of childhood obesity claim that, “parents who strive to keep their kids healthy may not have all the tools they need to do so” (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). Therefore supporters agree that the government “should step in and enable parents to do the best job they can” (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). Joe Thompson, “director of the Rober Wood Foundation Center to prevent Childhood Obesity” claims that not all parents are able to have full control on what their children eat as well as how much they exercise (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). He claims that some families do not live in neighborhoods where “fresh produce” are inexpensive and readily available (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). In addition, Thompson states that, along with the foods children eat, parents are also not in full control of how much physical activity their children are involved in (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). He asserts that, “you can’t say to a parent, ‘your child should exercise more’ if there’s no PE in school” (“Childhood Obesity.” Issues & Controversies). It is apparent that not all parents have the money as well as a strong influence in order to guide their children into forming a healthy lifestyle that involves clean eating and engaging in physical exercise. Because of a parent’s lack of time, money, and other resources to keep

Ultimately, parents and advertising play a huge part in childhood obesity. Parents need to teach kids at a young age, the importance of exercising and eating right and how it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. If parents are parenting, by encouraging their children that the commercials aren’t always right and they

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic across the world, and has become a rapidly increasing problem in the US. In the past thirty years, the obesity rate for children aged 12-19 has quadrupled, and it has doubled in children aged 6-11 (US Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). When compared to the lifestyle of an average 13 year old thirty years ago, today’s lifestyle is one that seems to stack the cards against them. Thirty years ago, kids participated in recess and gym class daily, today those programs are being cut in order to allow for academics. Children thirty years ago enjoyed fast food only on occasional and typically ate a home cooked meal, with a wide range of food groups and smaller portions (Let 's Move!, 2010). Kids no longer walk to school for a multitude of reasons, and they often opt to come home from school and play their favorite video game or watch their favorite show instead of playing a game outside like children who grew up 30 years ago did. There are also factors that contribute to obesity that may be out of the children’s control. Often times children aren’t in charge of what they eat or what activities they participate in (Haelle, 2013). Socioeconomic factors may also contribute to childhood obesity (Wang, 2001) yet another factor that the children themselves cannot control. While there may be many reasons why we see a spike in childhood obesity, there are also things that we can do to fix the problem.

Food companies make millions just from advertising junk food to kids. Food companies advertise using very known cartoon characters to appeal to kids that contain high-sugar levels that can cause many different disorders that can affect them in a server way. Kids tend to beg their parents for junk food and other types of foods just for seeing that they would receive a toy. In the article “10 Things the Food industry Doesn’t Want You to Know” states “On TV alone, the average child sees about 5,500 food commercials a year.” With these advertisements, kids can get the idea of going to eat in places that have unhealthy food. Advertisement like these can cause children to view fast food as something they can be constantly eating without having any problems.

Having an unhealthy eating diet such as fast food, chips, soda, and baked goods all can have an impact on a child’s weight gain. Chains of fast food restaurants such Mcdonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King, and Wendy’s, target young people. For example, there is a young child watching television and a commercial comes on, these commercials corrupt the child’s mind and portrays that it is healthy to it eat when it's not. In addition, parents will buy their kids this junk food because it is cheaper than buying

“The rate of obesity in children has nearly tripled in the last quarter century”(American Psychological Association). Children receive the most exposure to advertisements due to the amount of television they watch and online games they play. At an early age, children shape their first opinions on what they like and dislike, so just by watching advertisements they can develop product preferences for unhealthy foods that lead to poor eating habits. “In very young children, research has found that for every one-hour increase in television viewing per day, there are higher intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages, fast food, red and processed meat, and overall calories”(American Psychological Association). Advertisements targeted at children use colorful images and characters to attract them to their products and add labels like “multi grain,” “no sugar added,” and “all natural” to influence parents to buy their products. But most of these food claims are unregulated and open to abuse. “Approximately 20 percent of our youth are now overweight with obesity rates in preschool age children increasing at alarming speed”(American Psychological Association). Naturally, being obese as children puts them at risk of being obese as adults, which can lead to health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some forms of cancer. In addition, advertising causes

Association, kids often do make food choices based on what they see on television. Doctors who study kids have noticed that food advertised is very powerful” (39). In order to prove that idea, the author adds that children and teens who watch more than two hours of television daily are more likely to be overweight than those who do not. Due to the many fast food restaurants and advertisements available to Americans, the realization that their food is unhealthy does not occur. The United States is aware of the consequences that come along with obesity, yet rarely ever are there advertisements promoting a healthy lifestyle. It is uncommon that an overweight person is shown eating a restaurant’s food in their commercial. It will give off the wrong

Kind states in her article “Halting the childhood obesity epidemic requires support of many communities,” the centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that childhood obesity is now the number one health concern among parents in the United States. Within the past thirty years obesity in American children rates have nearly tripled. The New England Journal of Medicine states, “in the year of 1983, 18.6 percent of preschool children within the United States were defined as overweight, and 8.5 percent were defined as obese; by 2000, 22.0 percent of preschool children were overweight and 10.0 percent were obese” (Rocchini, 2002).  In different studies research has shown a variety of ways in

About a third of children in the U.S. are considered overweight or obese, and researchers believe television advertising is a significant contributing factor (4). Exposure to television advertising is basically universal and the ads present foods as desirable and attractive. Children have been shown to be far more receptive to television advertising messages than classroom lessons (3). It leaves a harder lasting impression on them because the food products are presented in a cool, fun way that attracts children. Most of the time, children would pick foods that they may not even like, simply because they think it’s the cool thing to eat and once a kid gets his mind set on what they want, it is very hard to steer them away from wanting it. Television ads for foods geared toward children are usually fun, and bright with animations and lots of cool characters that the children can relate to. This directly influences the child’s food preference and unfortunately most of these ads are for processed, unhealthy food products like cereals, snacks, fast food, and soft drinks. In the U.S., there are few restrictions on food ads, but that's not the case in the U.K., where junk food can't be marketed on children's television (4).

The commercials feature animated characters selling fast food kid meals. Children relate with the cartoon characters and want to eat the foods that are being promoted. Children receive the message that fast food is good for them, and do not understand that eating too much fast food can be unhealthy for them. Unfortunately the message from this type of advertising is geared toward the child thinking I need to have the fast food. This is a bad message to leave in children?s minds, because it can also cause problems with their health. The obesity rate in young children has risen drastically over the last twenty years. Health reports have attributed this to the continuing increase in the amount of fast food children are consuming. Television commercials for fast food are on every channel, and the number of channels has risen over the last twenty years. Children who watch television are exposed to a non-stop borage of commercials. This continual exposure promotes a cycle of the child always wanting to go to the fast food restaurants. Parents also are affected by the commercials. Their children want to eat fast food, and the fast food is very convenient for busy families. It is much easier to go through a drive-thru and order the food, then to cook the meal at home. This can be a harmful pattern for the family to establish. Convenience over a more healthy home cooked meal adds to the childhood obesity