Childhood Obesity In America Essay

Do you get enough exercise? Are you sure about that? Or how about this, are you overweight, do you even know? Today’s adolescents don’t. In fact today’s adolescents face serious risk from their lack of activity. Today’s children are obese because they have developed some very bad habits related to healthy living and as result can suffer serious physical and psychological damage.

Having a child that is obese brings different feelings to people. Some see it as it’s their fault because they want to eat so much. In no way is it the children’s fault as they eat what the parents give them. When you see a child that can’t speak a word but knows how to open a cupboard or the refrigerator to get food it should classify as obese. Most cases of obesity don’t start later, in life there are some cases, but it is usually from young age. The parents of these kids should be punished for making their kids become like this. Thousands of young children know who the spokes person for the fast-food chains are but can’t answer simple questions about famous people. Child obesity in America is getting worse before it will become

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

Why is it that America, deemed to be the most developed and advanced country in the world, has the largest epidemic of childhood obesity? Obesity is a frequent topic of discussion, and extensive research and studies to find the root of this disease. So why are some American children, despite the knowledge of the importance of health, variety of food that is available, and health awareness at schools, are still gaining excess weight? Lack of proper nutrition and sedentary lifestyle of some American children may be contributing to the rise of childhood obesity in the United States.

Us Americans love to eat food and eat more than we need to. We tend to snack and constantly eat even when we even arent hungary. Childhood obesity has brought many problems for kids and has allowed them to suffer from things. Surgeon general Richard states that “Because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits and physcial inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parent.” Childhood obesity is increasing among the years, it tends to have many health effects, environmental causes, theories, and many reasons on how to prevent it.

Obesity has been a problem for many Americans. People miss out on most of life because of obesity. They can’t move, they can hardly breathe, and some people even die early because of obesity. Obesity in adults is difficult enough. But, what could be worse than adult obesity? Well, childhood obesity definitely earns the top spot.

Over the past few decades an epidemic has occurred called childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is defined as a child having his/her BMI (Body Mass Index) higher than 94% among children in the same age and gender group. One third of American children are overweight and over 15% are obese (Lanham, 2009). Research and documentation is without dispute, our children are not just overweight, but physically and mentally becoming ill. Specialists are seeing specific life-threatening medical conditions, all associated with childhood weight issues. An unhealthy lifestyle is the number one factor in childhood obesity. However, many researchers believe the parents are to blame. Recently, the United States is evolving its legal definition of child abuse to include child obesity. Prosecutors propose that it is time for legal intervention, as parents are failing to provide a healthy environment for children. Others argue that the government has become increasingly intrusive in private matters. Should a law consider childhood obesity abuse? Are there other options that could create change, without legal prosecution and the dismantling of the American family?

Topic: Childhood obesity in the United States Thesis statement: Childhood obesity nowadays is a big issue in our society, so it is necessary to know the factors that cause obesity to develop in children, while looking for a solution and ways to prevent childhood obesity. Search strategy and evaluation of resources: I began my research by going into the ASA databases and borrowing from the Ebsco e-book collection a book called Childhood obesity in America. I read it and get a complete overview of what exactly is childhood obesity. This book has plenty of information related to my topic, so that is one of the reasons why I chose this book as source of investigation. In fact, the book discusses very deeply about the factors causing the development of childhood obesity and can be shown with the following example: “Moods like

It’s a scary feeling when climbing a simple flight of stairs only to reach the top and be completely out of breath. In America today this is the reality that many children face. Obesity has become an epidemic in our world, it has many contributing factors, affects learning abilities but there are preventive methods for it. Although little is being done about obesity, it's affecting the lives of many but mostly children and by a multitude of different factors.

Forty years ago in America childhood obesity was rarely a topic of conversation. A survey done in the early 1970s showed that 6.1% of children between the ages 12 and 19 were overweight. Eight years later the same survey was done and 17.4% were considered overweight (Iannelli). “Childhood obesity epidemic in America is now a confirmed fact since the number of overweight or obese children has more than tripled during the last 30 years” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic). “Over the last 20 years, the prevalence of obesity in children aged 6 to 11 years has tripled from 6.5% to 19.6%” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic). As a nation statistics should be alarming. Why are American children today so obese?

A very good indicator for the health of the nation is the national epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity, currently a target objective for Healthy people 2010 (DHHS). The Surgeon General reports there are 12.5 million children between toddlers and school age who are obese, a prevalence of 17%, while children at risk for obesity have a prevalence of 16% (General). A third of the child population are obese or at risk for obesity. This condition crosses all age groups, ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds and is determined by the measurement of high Body Mass Index (BMI), based on weights and heights in children. Obesity is a leading contributing factor known to have an effect on the morbidity and mortality rates.

There was a time when chubby children were considered cute. It was assumed that their baby fat would melt away and a healthy adult would emerge. We now know that childhood obesity can be very harmful for our nations children. Not only can obesity cause health problems but also psychological problems. In observing the causes of childhood obesity, hopefully we can slow down the epidemic.

It’s been shown that children with obese parents are more likely to become obese. Heredity contributes between 5-25 percent risks of obesity. Other risks can be attributed to the environment and behavior. Obesity is generally linked to over eaten but in most cases its heredity problem children should be careful because genes can also pass to their offspring. The problem cannot be corrected but you can prevent it. Children should be given an appropriate diet and should be deterred from overeating. Child obesity can be predicted at an early stage and children should be aware of the consequences of obesity.

In order to impede the epidemic of childhood obesity, the actual causes of the problem need to be evaluated and dissected. Obesity in children is becoming a huge problem in American society. In the past three decades, the rate of overweight children has increased by 300%. This is an alarming rate that is only climbing higher. Every member in society should take steps to becoming healthier. This would help the present generations as well as future generations to come. The lifestyle of Americans keeps us too busy to be a healthy society.

Imagine you are at school and you do not go to the playground or participate in physical activities. The school does not feed you a healthy lunch and then you eat lots of junk food and sodas full of sugar while developing serious health problems. How would you feel when someone tells you that childhood obesity affects 31 percent of children in the United States? I am going to persuade you to believe there are dangers for children who are obese.