Childhood Obesity Essay

Childhood obesity is at an all-time high in the United States and should be a major concern for the nation. With childhood obesity steadily rising, it is imperative that actions be implemented to offset this trend. Childhood obesity places children at a significantly higher risk for a multitude of physical and psychological health concerns. It is important to understand the actions that have been set in motion that attempt to resolve this issue. Additionally, it should be determined if these actions are adequate or if further action need to be proposed.

Numerous children are victims of a variety of health problems inflicted by the deficiency of good nutrition and physical activity. Childhood obesity is a national epidemic and is continuously growing rapidly. Obesity is an excessive amount of body fat in relation to body mass, being overweight is your body weight in relation to your height (L. Marcus Ph. D and A. Baron M.S.W.). Obesity is the most distinct medical condition but the most difficult condition to treat. Obesity is the result of calorie imbalance. Obesity is commonly caused by overeating and lack of exercise although there are genetic diseases and hormonal disorders that can cause obesity. When children eat more than they need, the extra calories are stored in

Childhood onset overweight and obesity and its’ associated health consequences are quickly becoming major significant public health issues facing America today. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define overweight as a body mass index (BMI) between the 85th and 95th percentile while obese is defined as BMI above the 95th percentile for children of the same age and sex . The prevalence of overweight children, defined based on 2009 CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics data, has more than tripled in the past 30 years. Between 1980 and 2006, the incidence of overweight among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% to 17.0% while overweight levels for adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 17.6% .

Childhood obesity has increased dramatically over the last three decades, and conditions in many communities continue to act as barriers to healthy eating and adequate physical activity. Childhood obesity is a serious health problem that has adverse and potentially long-lasting consequences for individuals, families, and communities. Perhaps most shocking, life expectancy for today’s children may be shortened in the United States because of the impact of childhood obesity (Olshansky and Ludwig, 2005).

Since 1980 the rates of child obesity have more than tripled which has caused a growing pandemic of childhood obesity in the United States. Out of all the young children and adolescents within the age group of two through nineteen about 12.7 million are obese. That is the equivalent of about 17% of America’s population that is suffering from childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is too prevalent in all American households. Childhood obesity is detrimental on a national scale, since it has been growing at a steady rate in the United States of children not reaching the daily-recommended physical activity, the absence of a balanced diet with overconsumption of eating, and more critically the increase of type 2 diabetes.

According to “Childhood Obesity Facts”, the percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s. Today about one in five school-aged children (ages 6-19) is obese.” Also, “The State of Obesity” reported that childhood obesity rates have remained at around 17 percent for the past decade. Approximately 14 percent of children (ages 2 to 5) enrolled in WIC are obese. Nearly one-third (31.3 percent) of children ages 10 to 17 are overweight or obese, and 13.9 percent of high school students are obese. These statistics support that childhood obesity is a problem in our country.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). The monumental question that researchers seem to be asking is why the increase now? Childhood obesity has become a paramount problem in the United States in recent years due to various social, biological and technological factors that ultimately requires immediate assistance in order to promote a healthier lifestyle for children as they transition into adulthood.

Over one-half of all Americans are overweight or obese. If you are overweight or obese, carrying this extra weight puts you at risk for developing many diseases. Women generally have more subcutaneous fat than men, but appear to suffer a greater cardiovascular risk from a given degree of fat than women.

Have you ever imagined yourself stuck in the bottom of a well trying to figure out how to get out? Your first instinct is attempting to climb your way out but as much as you try you can’t climb up at this point you feel frustrated and overwhelmed. At the same time you have people peering down the well giving you directions on how to climb your way up while there's others that are yelling at you telling you that it's your fault you’re stuck in the well without them even asking how it happened or then rant about how they know someone who got out successfully without any problems or any help. At this point you may feel defeated and convinced that even if someone threw a ladder down the well that you would be hesitant to use it because of the

In article one Maia Szalavitz, wrote an article titled, “Viewpoint: Defining Obesity as a Disease May do More Harm Than Good.” She is a neuroscience journalist from Time Magazine, who talked about the harmful effect classifying obesity will have on one’s life, as well as others around them. In article two Dr. Keith Ablow’s article is called, “Obesity is not a Disease- and Neither is Alcoholism.” He is a psychiatrist and a member of the Fox Medical A-Team who talked about the solution to obesity, may be as simple as raising someone’s self-esteem. Both these articles talk why one should not classify obesity as a disease, but only one talks about the solution to solve the problem of obesity. Even though Szalavitz and Ablow are similarly matched rhetorically by taking a world-wide problem and discussing the issue of classifying it as a disease; Ablow is more rhetorically effective, because he uses more examples and evidence from different sources to back up his reasoning.

During the 1970’s, about 5% of American children between the ages of two and nineteen were considered to be “obese”. Over the past several decades, that percentage has risen to a whopping 17% - a change that is seemingly minute. It may only appear as a 12% increase, however, that 17% translates to 12.5 million children and teens burdened with the challenge of obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is defined as having a body mass index that exceeds the 95th percentile (U.S. Department of Health). In other words, the average between the mass and the height of an obese child is greater than that of 95% of all other children. As in any medical issue, the biggest concerns for childhood obesity stem from the potential risk factors that can result. Some of which include diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and even death. Thus, many have sought out the root cause of the issue as well as the most effective solutions. Childhood obesity, promoted by a processed diet, increasing portion sizes, and limited access to healthy, affordable foods, is an epidemic plaguing a vast number of children within the United States and will continue to do so if left to fester. Nonetheless, this ailment can be remedied through an extensive understanding of proper nutrition, dedication to maintaining dietary excellence, and emphasis on prevention.

“At present approximately 9 million children over 6 years of age are considered obese” (Mahshid Dehghan). Childhood obesity continues to increase every year. Childhood obesity has a lot of causes centering on an imbalance of energy taken in and the amount of energy used. Factors of childhood obesity include children having obese parents; low energy expenditure which is a low amount of physical activity is a factor and too much television which is a cause for low physical activity time. Another factor that influences childhood obesity is heredity. Infants born to overweight mothers are found to be less active than other infants. Parents are the primary contributors of childhood obesity based on statistics, obesity risks, and government

One of the greatest health risks that children face today is not an atrocious disease like cancer nor is it learning or behavioral problems—it is obesity! The Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, health education and research, defines child hood obesity as “a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents, that occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height” (Mayo). The Mayo Clinic goes on to say that childhood obesity is particularly troubling because it starts kids off on an early path to health complications that they could encounter later in life (Mayo). The Centers for Decease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recently started referring to obesity as an “epidemic” and new national statistics show that about 16.06% of American children, ages six years old to eleven years old, are considered to be overweigh (Childhood Obesity Facts). The California Department of Public Health Nutrition concluded that in California, 15.8% of children, ages six to eleven years old, are considered overweight (Obesity in California: The Weight of the State, 2000-2012). With these percentages in mind, Childhood Obesity must be viewed as an immediate serious concern that is impacting our children at the national, state, county, and local level.

Childhood obesity is a condition that affects children in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the rates of obesity in children have more than doubled in children in the past 30 years. There was increase of 18% from 1980 to 2012 in children 6 to 11 years of age, estimating that more than one third of children are overweight or obese. ("Childhood Obesity Facts," 2014) Obesity usually begins in children during the ages of 5 and 6. The most troublesome fact is that studies have shown that obese children between 10 and 13 have a predisposition of becoming an obese adult. ("Obesity in Children and Teens," 2011) Consequently, overweight teenagers have a 70 percent chance of becoming obese or overweight adults, and if at least one parent is obese the child’s predisposition rate increases to 80 percent. (Bishop et al., 2005)

Obesity is considered one of the major healthcare challenges in the 21st century. It has become a growing epidemic among men and women, especially children (Penney,2014). With the expanding population, there seem to be an increase in the number of children who are considered to be obese. There have been countless and numerous cases related to childhood obesity in healthcare in the recent years (Maggio, 2014). According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 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. In 2012, more than one third of children were overweight or obese.