Fast Food Restaurants, Childhood Obesity, and Healthy Eating Habits

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.

The Fast Food and Childhood Obesity article discuss how fast food has contributed for the weight gained by childrens. According to the article Americans are eating out more, which has influenced on the children gaining weight, but the weight gained by children are significantly weight from fast food calories. Childrens from twelve to nineteen years old are more likely to eat fast food and the reason for that could be because at this age they get influenced more by what they see on tv, commercial and their parents do not have a lot of control on what their children's eat. This article states encourage people to their meals at home because home cooked food tends to be smaller and healthier. I can use this article to help with my research paper

Fast food restaurants have all these unhealthy options on their menus, and as a parents you’re supposed to be your kid’s role model. If you are going to eat at fast food restaurants and feeding that to your children, then don’t expect for your child to grow up and not want to eat that as

Since the 1980’s obesity rates have soared. Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled between adults and children. Twelve years later in 2012, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention estimated more than one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Being overweight is defined as having excess body weight from a combination of height, fat, and muscle. On the other hand, Obesity is simply having too much excess body fat. Being overweight and obese are the result of caloric imbalance. Society tends to consume more calories than calories expended. Obesity can lead to more serious medical issues such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even cancer. I believe that there are many causes of obesity, but there are just as much solutions for a healthier life.

Obesity in the United States continues growing alarmingly. Approximately 66 % of adults and 33 % of children and teenagers in the US are overweight. Obesity is the result of fat accumulated over time due to the lack of a balanced diet and exercise. An adult with a BMI (body mass index) higher than thirty percent is considered obese (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011, pg. 271).

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

In the United Sates approximately 10 percent adults were recorded to be obese during the 1950s. Helen McClintock noted that, “In 1980, 7 percent of children ages 6 to 11 were recorded to be obese.” In 2011 to 2012, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) reported almost 35 percent of U.S. adults were obese. The growth in obesity in American citizens has increased in the last six decades. There are many reasons for the increase in obesity in the U.S. One of the reason is the average restaurant meal is four times larger than it was in the 1950s. “Researchers found that children who watch more than three hours of television a day are 50 percent more likely to be obese than children who watch fewer than two hours”. The unhealthy food

Fast food, in today’s society, has become a major part of individuals’ lives. For it’s easy, quick and cheap food. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically it is referred to as low quality, prepackaged foods that have little preparation time. Through further research of fast food restaurants and their role in the obesity epidemic in America, it lead to further conclusions on the need for changes that must be done in order to combat obesity. There are, however, multiple individuals who feel that the fast food industry is simply taking a toll on Americans and their health. For instance, the article “Don’t blame the Eater” explains the battle of fast food chains in America, and the major causes of this epidemic. Obesity in America, costs the United States about 147 billion dollars annually. In a recent article, Author Eric Finkelstein, a researcher for Triangle Park conducted a study in which explains the multiple causes and affects of fast food chains and its role in creating an unhealthy society. Considerably, “The Effect of Fast food Restaurants on Obesity”, an in depth article written by authors Janet Currie, Stefano DellaVigna, Enrico Moretti and Vikram Pathania, share their studies and findings on how fast food chains are indeed a major player in obesity across the country, as well as a leading player in the up rise in health related illnesses. There is a connection between neighborhood scarcity and fast food industries.

As obesity rates in Australia continue to increase and now in 2017 more than one in five school-aged children in New South Wales are being put into this category, people tend to point fingers at the fast food chains like McDonalds and KFC. However, they are not to blame as it is simply the parents who are to blame for their obese children. Child obesity is a medical condition that affects children and teenagers. It is caused generally by children not getting enough exercise and continuously eating unhealthy foods. Parents are the blame if their children are obese due to the foods and quantities they allow their children to eat, not being suitable role models with exercise and outside activities, the use of technology time allowed and over-protective

America is facing a rigorous obesity plague that is endangering the health of millions. Moreover, we are passing our bad practices down to our children. Obesity is a stipulation in which anomalous or excessive fat buildup in adipose tissue that damages health. Obesity is defined in adults as a body mass index (BMI) exceeding 30 (kg/m). Obesity is one of the most discernible, but until recently, most deserted public health problems. The present high pervasiveness of obesity and the brisk increase in pervasiveness in the last twenty years has been referred to as an endemic (Johnson SJ, Birch LL. 1994). Children all through the U.S. are getting fatter and less fit, through potentially treacherous enduring consequences. The figure of

country alone, 17% of all children and adolescents are now obese, triple the rate from

Several studies have shown that the increase in fast food restaurants over the past few decades has resulted in a negative impact on the already outrageous obesity rate.According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the number of fast food restaurants over the past thirty years has tripled, which equates to about three hundred thousand establishments in the United States alone. During this time the number of children, ages six to nineteen classified as obese, has risen from five percent to seventeen percent. The percentage of adults classified as obese has risen from half to two-thirds the population. Although fast food restaurants may be a contributing factor to the increasing obesity rate in the United States, people are

Human nutrition is one of the vital topics discussed in the fields of health, largely because a diet predicts the well-being of the human species. Recently, Americans have been eating a particularly hurtful diet, deficient in nutrients needed to maintain a healthy physiological state. A steady increase of obese and overweight people developed over the course of the last century to present day, and the issue has only recently gained the attention of the public. The cause for concern is due to the health of obese people. They have an increased risk for health complications such as diabetes, high-blood pressure, stroke, cardiac arrest, hypertension, coronary heart disease, cancer (specifically endometrial, kidney, and gallbladder), etc (Head 1-2). Obesity and overweight are ways to define a person with more than normal body fat, which is measured on the body mass index chart (Harvard School of Public Health). According to the Centers of Disease Control, an adult with a BMI between 25 kg/m2 and 29.9 kg/m2 is labeled overweight, making a BMI of over 30 kg/m2 the label for obesity. In children, overweight falls between the 85th and 95th percentile of BMI, with obesity being over the 95th percentile (CDC). In 2012, a total of 68.5% of the adult population is either obese or overweight, and the same qualifies for 16.9% of children (The State of Obesity). Despite the risks associated with an excessive weight, obesity rates have yet to significantly decline for all age groups, and the

The fast food industry promotes childhood obesity by manipulating the young mind, putting them at risk for health complications such as hypertension and diabetes. The super-sizing of America is been a frequently talked about subject lately. Especially since it is seem to have negative effects on the health of children and adults alike through massive consumption of fast food. Health providers and other authority figures are now concerned about children’s obesity rates shown during the past 3-4 decades. They have now drawn a close connection between fast food and obesity and identified a childhood obesity epidemic with increased negative health factors. According to the American journal of public health, 2005 September issue, fast food

Fast food has a resulted in child obesity. Which is truly a tragedy not only has obesity affected adults and but also children at an alarming rate. The numbers of fast food restaurants targeting child and adolescent customers are found to be clustered around schools. The addicting flavors and affordability of fast food has contributed to encouraging the young gradually to grab a quick lunch a thought. For example, a small hamburger has 200 calories, and a large hamburger has about 500 to 600 calories. If individual put this together is like they are eating 400 to 1,800 calories in one fast food meal. Apart from the many types of fast food offered inside the school cafeteria, the fast food restaurant outlets are multiplying around the school grounds and neighborhood. On the other hand, children are taught to obey their parents to do as they are told and parents do not see the risk they are of their actions. They do not realize the