Children can be easily influenced by their elders and can create habit forming eating patterns based on their guardians. If a child grows up around a healthy parenting style, that child will make good choices and hopefully follow their footsteps. “An obese adolescent must therefore learn to eat and enjoy healthy foods in moderate amounts and to exercise regularly to maintain a desired weight” (AACAP, n.d, para. 6). Children’s parents should be entitled to prepare a compelling standard of living for their children to help prevent the rising obesity problem in America today. Parents must make health concise decisions about their diet in front of their children if they want to set a good example of what they should and should not be eating. Providing unhealthy foods can lead to future complications and a poor eating pattern for their loved ones. “Compared with normal-weight adults, obese adults had at least 20% significantly higher rate of dying of all-cause. These rates advanced death by 3.7 years for all-cause mortality. The burden of obesity was greatest among adults aged 45 to 64 years” (Borrell, L. N., & Samuel, L, 2014, p.518). Being obese can cause many life threating health problems like diabetes and heart failure. To help prevent this growing problem something needs to be done to affect the nation on a sentimentally level to promote a better life style choice for all. Understandably, parents want the utmost best for their children, so if they know exactly what their
As the obesity rate in America increases, people are pointing fingers at the fast-food industry. Teenagers, with the help of their parents, have filed lawsuits blaming fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s for their own health problems. However, parents, not the fast-food companies, are to blame for the amount of overweight children that are present today. They are the ones who teach their children eating and exercising habits, they are the ones who let their young consume unhealthy foods, they are the ones who allow their children to watch television and play on the computer for hours on end, it is obviously the parents fault for obesity in youth.
Childhood obesity is a health problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in society’s youth. For a number of years, children across the nation have become accustomed to occasionally participating in physical activities and regularly snacking on sugary treats. In result of these tendencies, approximately one third of American children are currently overweight or obese (Goodwin). These grim statistics effectively represent all the lack of adult interference, in regards to health, has done to the youth of America. The habits of over consuming foods and under participating in physical activities are all too common in the children of today. Children cannot solve this issue alone, though. These young people need to essentially be given the
The New England Medical Journal wrote a report that this was the first generation where the children will not outlive their parents. The magnitude of this study should be enough to cause a change in the general’s eating habits. The leading cause of childhood sickness is obesity. Making a conservative effort to change the way American’s think about food will significantly affect the health of the public. It takes minimal effort to make a change but like with any bad habit takes a strong will and mind. Making small changes in diet can begin a tidal wave of good habits that last throughout the rest of one’s life. Life is far too short to die eating a hamburger, make a change for the better of the future. By teaching children the benefits of healthy eating habits will decrease the chances of them becoming obese. Moreover, having to deal with the health complications that come along with it. Making the valiant effort to nourish the body from the inside out will create a more fulfilling, healthy life, that is free of obesity and
Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States. More than one third of children are overweight. This figure is increasing rapidly. This epidemic puts children at risk for various health problems such as type two diabetes and heart problems. Although they are several risk factors for obesity, parents play a significant role in this issue. This paper will look into how parents are influential to their children, how they contribute to this problem and how they may help fight the fight against obesity. Obesity is a very serious problem and there are solutions that parents can apply to help their children lead a healthy lifestyle. Obesity does not only affect a person physically, but mentally and psychologically as well.
Parents continuously make choices for their children. Every day, they decide what the child will wear, what shows they watch, what time they go to bed, what they will eat, and so much more. When grocery shopping in the store, parents have to make conscious purchases in order to maximize their budget (Krukowski, West, Harvey-Berino, & Prewitt, 2010). These decisions will influence whether the family can afford a two-dollar box of Macaroni and Cheese, opposed to fifteen-dollars’ worth of items to create a salad. How will these decisions affect childhood obesity? The answer is simple; it will affect a child. Young children and even adults need a mixture of fruits, vegetables, protein, grains, and dairy on every plate in order to consume a healthy diet (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2017).
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
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
Educating the parents of today’s youth. Critser administers the solution by declaring the parents as the enablers to this rising epidemic. Critser attempts to educate parents by displaying an example of two age groups of children. He uses an examination done by Pennsylvania State University of three-year-olds and five-year-olds and describes how their eating habits differed. From the two age groups, Critser develops a hypothesis due to the fact that the three-year-old age group did not continue to eat when they were satisfied with their portion, while the five-year-old age group devoured the food until their plate was clean. This experiment confirmed that the children responded according to the diets their parents have continuously displayed upon them. In a case of overweight 6- to 12-year-olds, when persistently taught about restraint of food and diets, up to 30% were no longer considered obese. This, alone, exhibits the importance of educating today’s parents so they will deliver their knowledge of obesity, and how to prevent obesity, to their
The United States as a nation is struggling tremendously with high an outrageous obesity rate. According to the documentary “Weight of the Nation,” obesity is number five out of the ten leading causes of death. The lifestyle in the United States has become a “norm” that has to be changed quickly. It is imperative that we as adults draw into our youth the importance of eating healthy. We as people are in control of our own health and can prevent ourselves from getting chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.
Many individuals do not realize it, but obesity has become a huge epidemic in today’s society. Individuals tend to ignore the growing unhealthy products around them; instead of questioning why people are gaining weight so rapidly, they enjoy the unhealthy and unsuitable substances that they are putting in their body. Some eat whatever they can find, and since they are in a certain predicaments, they have no choice but, end up doing the same thing to their children. Many have not seen it yet, but parents are feeding their children unhealthy substances. The nutrients that they are feeding them are unhealthy, and since children do not know any better, they cannot disagree with what is being provided to them, nor can they tell whether they have had enough or not. In an article “Too Much of a Good Thing” by Greg Critser. He explains how parents are partially to blame for their children 's obesity and also their children 's environments. Critser uses statistic, biological experiments, and comparisons show how child obesity has become a great problem in today’s society and that parents have much to do with it.
Parents need to be role models for their children and teach them how to eat and what to eat. If a parent raises their children to eat junk food, the chances of them eating junk food at an older age increases. Parents can limit the time their children are playing on the computer or on their cellphones, which could increase their physical activity. Parents can encourage their young children to join and become a part of a sports team. Setting healthy eating habits and physical activity at a young age decreases their chances of becoming obese. They will most likely keep up with these healthy behaviors at an older ager, since they learned it at a young
The number of children affected by childhood obesity has substantially risen over the last 30 years. 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 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2014; National Center for Health Statistics, 2011). After reading this statistic we begin to understand how rapidly childhood obesity has taken a hold on children. In the last 30 years childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents. In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese (Ogden et al., 2014). It is vital that parents and schools properly educate children on the value of proper nutrition and
Parents should not turn a blind eye on their children’s eating habits in order to keep them from becoming obese. Today’s parents seem unable to accept the unforgiving truth about their child’s weight. It is the parents’ willfully, genuine denial that is fueling a childhood obesity epidemic across the United States.
“Parental behavioral patterns concerning shopping, cooking, eating and exercise have an important influence on a child’s energy, balance and ultimately their weight” said diet specialist, Anne Collins (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). Childhood obesity has more than tripled since the 1980’s (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). Childhood obesity often leads to obesity as an adult which can put a person at greater risks dealing with the heart, diabetes, and many other obese related diseases. People want to blame the schools and today’s technology for childhood obesity, in reality, the responsibility lies in the hands of their parents.