Heart Disease In African-American Women: A Case Study

Obesity is a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in our bodies. This disease is increasing at an alarming rate in American children and adolescents, especially those within the ages 2 to 19. This essay examines the difference between school-based interventions (i.e., educate our children about obesity at an early age, serving right nutrition in schools) and community based interventions (i.e., parents help provide better nutrition for their children) to prevent obesity. Both interventions can help decrease obesity rates in children, but the point of this essay review is to point out which interventions will provide the better results to solve the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States.

Obesity in America is real and profoundly alarming when you look at the major impact it has on our communities. Major health concerns like diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure cases are at an all time high. Specifically, the disparity between low-income urban inner cities in regards to obesity as compared to more upper class wealthier communities makes you take pause. This relates to my professional goals of going back into my community as an activist and organizer of issues related to my environment, like health and education.

“The physical and emotional health of an entire generation and the economic health and security of our nation is at stake” a quote made by the First Lady, Michelle Obama, as she launches her comprehensive initiative to change the way children think about nutrition and physical fitness (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Three decades ago, children lived active lives that kept them healthier. They walked to and from school, ate home cooked, reasonable portion meals with vegetables and played outdoors most of the time. Today, children ride the bus instead of walk, eat more fast food and snacks throughout the day because parents are busier, and watch more television or play video games rather than be active outside with peers (“Learn the Facts,” 2010). Young children are becoming overweight and obese along with being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes more frequently. They are making poor dietary choices, inadequate physical activity, and spending too much screen time all contributing to the obesity crisis. One of the effective solutions to reversing the trend of childhood obesity is to provide safe, affordable and accessible after-school health and physical fitness educational programs for all school ages across the nation.

The American Medical Journal explains that the heart disease is one of the deadliest medical conditions. Medical experts reckon that heart disease is a lifestyle disease, which emanates from excessive consumption of the wrong dietary combination. Foods such as fats and carbohydrates often expose individuals to the threat of heart disease. Consuming fast foods from McDonalds also expose people to the threat of heart disease. The most plausible means of mitigating the risk of contacting heart disease is by observing dietary combination. Individuals must keep a balanced diet always in order to avoid dietary concerns later on in life. The most common symptoms include chest discomfort, nausea, trouble sleeping, breathing problems, and unusual tiredness.

Children and adolescents, their health is of the most upmost importance. The child is impacting through everything they do in their lives and everything that they come face to. One of these factors that come into play into a child’s life is Obesity. Most importantly the racial and ethnic disparities that involve Obesity. Unless this issue of this inclining obesity is addressed, there will be assumptions that the amount of years a person will live will surely decline (Johnson, 2012). Obesity is a killer as it is the secondary killer and could well be our first if the people don’t take action (Johnson, 2012). Obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular disease as well as asthma and diabetes (Johnson, 2012). Seventeen percent of young adults in the USA today are obese (Rossen, 2014). The commonness of obesity has escalated throughout the years in Children and Young adults that were being seen in Adults (Caprio et al., 2008). There are many disparities in which affect children in every way but the one that affects the obesity in childhood is racial and ethnic disparities. The amount of obesity in childhood is increasing in all ethnic and racial groups but it is found that nonwhite population have the most amount of Obesity (Caprio et al., 2008). The Mexican- American and non-Hispanic black children have a heavier load to carry as of racial and ethnic subgroups (Rossen, 2014). As children are expose to different physical and social environments, they are wide-open to different

It is no secret that childhood obesity is a problem in America. With children having to take physical education courses in school, it combats obesity in a way that they may not get at home. “Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults” (Childhood Obesity Facts). Teaching children about the importance of a healthy lifestyle at a young age can help them be less at risk for diseases

Childhood obesity is a major cause for concern within the United States. This is mainly due to children not getting the require nutrition that they need. Although study show that there is a decrease in obesity in children, it still remains at an all-time high. Children are failing to eat as healthy as they should, and it has become an even bigger problem now that they aren’t getting the require amount of food in their diets. The USDA made a decision a couple of years ago to reduce the amount of food given to children while they are at school. This hurts them tremendously, because the majority of the food they eat comes from being at school all day. The other half lies on the parents when they go home and eat dinner. It is very important for children to eat healthy and eat the required amount of food according to various dietary guidelines. First Lady Michelle Obama has started a new campaign to help kids and parents combat obesity in children. One thing that the campaign has placed emphases on is getting healthier food within school. Although they are getting healthier foods in school they are beginning to change the proportion they are giving students. Through the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign students should be giving healthier foods and also be allowed to have the correct proportion to help them maintain a healthy diet.

Unfortunately, childhood overweight and obesity rates in America have tripled the last three decades and tend to be much higher amongst African Americans. According to research done by UC Davis, “Nearly 40% of African American children are overweight or obese.”

First Lady Michelle Obama launched her LET’S MOVE! initiative after engaging in national conversations with America’s children when she broke ground in preparation for the White House Kitchen Garden with students in Washington, DC. First Lady Obama found that over the past three decades childhood obesity rates had more than tripled. She pointed out that the numbers were higher in African-American and Hispanic communities where practically 40% of the children are overweight or obese (Let’s Move, 2010).

In the general population, childhood obesity has increased considerably in the current times compared to two decades ago and certain ethnic communities and races have inexplicably been affected (Rippo & Angelopoulos, 2016). Kovner and Knickman (2011) state the health status of the people varies across racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Obesity among African American children has become a major point of concern in the modern society. It is evident that there are four times fewer supermarkets and lack of affordable food in the African American predominant areas compared to white neighborhoods (Whitsel, 2015). Increase the availability of healthier foods by opening more Supermarkets in the

The obesity epidemic is at an all-time high as evidenced by the fact that there are more overweight and obese people than those of healthy weight in the U.S. today. Many political, medical and surgical interventions have proven to be largely unsuccessful. There has only been marginal success with government led nutritional initiatives such as First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign. The key to ending this obesity epidemic lies within health promotion. Nurses possess the essential skills and training developed from nursing practice to use health promotion and preventative health care to target at risk clients and communities before obesity develops. Through teaching, especially children what foods they should eat and the right portion size we can save the next generation from an obesity epidemic.

In light of the concerns for the future of health in the United States, there have been movements, which in turn ignited sparks to jumpstart campaigns to fight against junk food and obesity. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, kickstarted a campaign called “Let’s Move” which is dedicated to help solve and reverse the rising childhood obesity rates (Learnthefacts). This movement is all about preserving the health for the future generations. The main goals for this movement is to give parents helpful information and fostering environments that support healthy choices, provide healthier food choices in schools, and to make sure healthy food alternatives are affordable for any family(Learnthefacts). In my junior year of high school,

The national program branches out to individual cities who are eager to carry out the program. Two Let’s Move initiatives that can thoroughly represent our target population are Let’s Move Long Beach and Let’s Move West Los Angeles, which operates out of California State University, Long Beach. The program calls all people to take part in the pursuit of health for children-- all levels of government, health facilities, schools, community organization, and family members (Let’s Move, n.d.). Most of all, Let’s Move focuses on empowering children to control their health with the choices they make. The program carries out their goals by using already existing tools, such as MyPlate, to teach kids about current nutritional goals and portion sizes. Furthermore emphasizing a healthy diet, the program also provides a low-budget shopping list and sample meal plan so that the child can create a healthy, balanced meal with the supervision of an adult. Physical activity is another key point; the program states that the goal for our target population is at least sixty minutes of activity. The website goes as far to provide local hikes, pools, safe bike paths, and other creative ways to stay active as well as facilities that provide these

Nutrition and weight status is a vitally important issue as obesity is on the rise in the United States. One third of children in this country ages 2-19 are either overweight or obese and this potentially sets them up to develop diabetes and other comorbidities during their lifetime (U.S. Task Force, 2010). It is important to promote health by way of consumption of healthy foods, getting adequate exercise and maintaining a healthy body weight and body image. The Let’s Move initiative, founded by First Lady Michelle Obama, approaches the obesity epidemic at a grassroots level and encourages children to eat healthy, get active and take actions towards a healthy lifestyle ("Let’s Move," n.d.).

The issue that I chose to research about was obesity in children and why it is becoming more relevant and time continues. I chose a recent article from San Francisco Chronicle that explains a recent survey that was conducted and what their plan is to try to fix it. In this article, a national report was done comparing children and adult body mass indexes. “The 2016 National Survey of Children's Health found that 30 percent of Wisconsin children ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese, while the state's adult rate of obesity is 31 percent” (2017). Because of these results, health officials are very concerned and are trying to fix the problem. Because of this concern, health prfessionals are trying to teach parents to start to fix the problem from home.by having parents provide a better diet and exercise routine for their children.