Obesity And Over Eating Habits

“In 2001, the Surgeon General 's ‘Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity’ identified obesity as a key public health priority for the United States. Obesity rates were higher than ever, with 61% of adults nationwide overweight or obese (Brownell and Novak).” “ At present, approximately nine million children over 6 years of age are considered obese”(Koplan and Liverman). With the gravity of this situation well known, according to the public’s acknowledgement in these surveys, it is apparent and an accepted notion that things must be changed. Presumably one might think that it is as simple as that; that just like that things will change. In 2008 childhood obesity ranked number one of the biggest issues for problems concerning children in numerous states including New York. In conclusion ideas came about such as financing special menus and labels that publicize the health factors of food, but later polls show that “although 83 percent of New York State residents agree that childhood obesity is a major problem, more than a third refuse to pay even $10 a year in higher taxes to cut childhood obesity in half” (Cawley). These programs and new policies require excessive funding not even including publicizing them and enforcing them. This will inevitably lead to a tax increase or in addition money being drawn from other pressing issues. Money will be coming out of the pocket of each citizen from taxes along with an expected decrease in fast food and other

Obesity has become an epidemic in adults and children in the United States. Moreover, children are at risk of obesity because they do not eat enough fruits and vegetables and do not obtain enough physical activity. Also, children have a higher chance of developing health diseases related to obesity such as hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and pulmonary disease. In addition, obesity in children from ages one to seventeen is an issue in Texas, since children are not aware of the serious consequences of being obese. Therefore, Texas should find ways to prevent obesity by authorizing healthier school lunches and allowing a school program to help obese children lose weight. Also, television advertisements are

Childhood obesity is an epidemic in the United States, nearly twenty percent of children between the ages of 6 and 11 are clinically obese; however the government has no place trying to control this. (CDC, 2008) The current administration over steps its authority moving beyond the control of federally funded school lunches and into oversight of privately owned vending machines in public schools. Major corporations are being bullied into censoring their advertisement exposure to younger children so that the government won’t impose their own regulations. It is a parent’s responsibility and right to educate their children and control what they eat. The Federal government should not try to control what children eat by imposing regulations

There is a significant dramatic rise in obesity in the United States, and something needs to be done to resolve the problem, for the reason that if something is not done quickly, the majority of our country will be obese citizens. “Childhood obesity in the United States presents major health challenges” (Kersh et al, 2011). Which has developed serious health problems with major economic and social concerns. In view of that, obesity has become a topic of economic investigation. “Whose job is it to ensure that children have a healthy life: parents and caregivers, schools, communities, the state?” (Kersh et

Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health crises facing the nation as evidenced by one out of every three children in the U.S. being overweight. It should come as no surprise then that children today are less active and have less healthy diets than preceding generations. The combination of decreased activity and increased consumption of processed foods is contributing to the alarming rise of childhood obesity and ongoing attempts to decrease the obesity rate have made little impact because they fail to address the root cause. Environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic factors are the true barriers to a reduction in the childhood obesity rates. It is simply too narrow minded to think that merely focusing on reducing processed foods, increasing activity levels in children, and role-modeling expected behavior is enough to reduce obesity rates. Improved transportation systems, increased access to affordable healthy whole foods, development of an education program that is both culturally sensitive and focuses on changing the current food culture are the proper strategies that will reduce the childhood obesity rates in the United States.

The obesity epidemic is rapidly advancing in the U.S., leading to physical and mental health problems as well as having financial impacts. Although there are existing federal programs and policies that address the obesity problem, these policies do not seem to account for the urgency of the current situation. It is essential to examine new policy strategies to combat the growing threat of obesity. Policy strategies explored in this paper include implementation of federal subsidization of healthy meals and taxation on fast food.

Deadly epidemics have taken many forms throughout history, but a new condition has begun threaten children’s lives recently. In America, obesity is becoming an increasingly widespread problem, affecting people of all ages, races, and backgrounds. Due to the prevalence of the problem, many people have begun to form opinions on government intervention to prevent and help obliterate obesity within the country. Children who are obese have a particularly high risk of developing medical conditions because of their weight, making childhood obesity a priority to many advocates for government intervention. Those who oppose government intervention as a solution to childhood obesity feel that it is a personal matter and that the government

As a result of the constant marketing of unhealthy, saturated fatty foods towards a younger demographic, America’s youth is rapidly becoming obese as they are left defenseless against these multi-billion dollar companies. According to the Annual Review of Public Health, about “35% of American children are overweight or obese” (Harris, 212). Children who are obese are more susceptible to an entire life full of medical problems and complications. Reports also indicate that the numbers of obesity have been on the rise for the past couple of years. In addition to that, “in the next 25 years” the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes “is expected to rise by 36.5% in the United States” (Harris, 212). This is a staggering number that should not be taken lightly. Measures need to be taken in order to prevent numbers from reaching critical levels such as this. There are many ways that food marketing effects the health levels

Brown, Rogan Kersh, David S. Ludwig, Robert C. Post, Rebecca M. Puhl, Marlene B. Schwartz and Walter C. Willett, research on government effort to resolve the issue of obesity has shown “profound effects”. For instance, a nationally representative poll, that has 1,326 United States citizens and residents, were carried out where participants were asked to identify the “high prevalence of obesity” (Bronell. Kersh. Post. Puhl. Schwartz. Willett. 2010). Surprisingly, personal behaviours, such as laziness and gluttony has the least amount of votes in contributing to the increasing rate of obesity over the past decade. Most people agreed that the cause lies with food environment. The presentation of junk food on television are negatively impacting the lives of adults and children alike. Where snack commercials are evidently more appealing and have unclear messages regarding the nutrition factor of their products are being legally presented to the consumers. In regard to the ban of junk food advertising, along with the removal of junk food in schools and replacing them with meals with better standard nutritional values, a correlation between the decline in childhood obesity exposure and the improvement on children’s performance and health is

Childhood obesity is a serious threat to the health of our nation. Currently, the obesity rates among children of every age are greatly higher than they were a generation ago. In the article “Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity: Strategies and Solutions for Schools and Parents” Green, Riley, and Hargrove state that “Today, more than 23 million U.S. children and adolescents are either obese or overweight” (915). The authors explain that overweight during childhood and adolescent years will greatly increase in cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and many other health concerns (915). As a nation, we need to reduce theses health issues in the future to prevent millions of young people from being affected. In addition, a generation ago, fast food was not a great concern for people’s health. Green, Riley, and Hargrove explain that today “the numbers of [obesity] has more than tripled since 1981” (915). Before 1981, fast food companies were not a social norm. So, since fast food has become a social norm, this has led to obesity and many other concerning health problems. I believe that obesity is the consequence of Americans eating too much unhealthy food and consuming portions that are too large. Following this further, obesity is creating more complex problems that are affecting the health of the next generation. In his article “Obesity- Is It a Disease or a Lifestyle Problem?” Kiener states “Each year, the obesity-related diseases kill an

“Despite limited empirical evidence, there is growing concern that junk food availability in schools has contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic” (datar). Considerable attention has been focused on schools in an attempt to identify policy levers that will help reverse the obesity epidemic. Junk food is very dangerous towards people’s health and can lead to many harmful effects. One in three children in this country is still overweight or obese. Students sometimes don’t have time to eat breakfast home so they tend to come to school and use vending machine filled with junk food. Junk food is making students lazy and not active.

In today’s society it is easy to get caught up into living a sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle. With new technologies, social media, etc, people are choosing to opt out of doing much active work and are choosing to do things from the comfort of their own bed or couch. Many people choose to enjoy the luxuries of online shopping, banking, mail, socializing, ordering food, games, and even dating! Additionally, United States citizens have fully embraced the fast food industry for some of the same reasons. It’s much easier and cheaper than buying groceries all of the time, so many families have adapted fast food to be the default choice for their everyday meals. Much of fast food is very unhealthy; full of saturated fat and sugars that can induce fatal diseases and illnesses. So although we are advancing as a nation when it comes to conventional living and technology, we are also seeing a dramatic decline in the amount of people who are living and leading healthy lifestyles and thus an increase in obesity. Diseases such as obesity can be prevented by simply making the right health choices. But what about those who don’t have a choice? What about the children? Today I’m going to go in to depth about childhood obesity, what it is, why it is concerning and what is being done about it.

The first food policy goal is to prevent human health problems such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and more other disease caused by unhealthy diet. A first step to achieve this goal is to make our children healthier eating habits. Providing and enabling environment (in schools, in families, in mass-media) for learning of healthy preferences are necessary to ensure a future generation less exposed to disease risk. According to the article, the food industry supports this approach for healthier foods, especially those marketed to children. It “has begun offering hundreds of organic products as well as new processed food with less fat, sugar, salt, and additives” (819). In additional, a new federal school lunch dietary guidelines add major

The American government is doing everything in its power to help reduce this national epidemic. Supporters have backed the government’s claim the food industry is responsible for promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. According to Infobase Learning’s article “Diet and Obesity” “Only strong government action, supporters maintain, can neutralize the bad influence of the food industry and improve Americans' food choices.” Advocates of government intervention believe the food industry is to blame for the massive rate in which obesity is progressing. The factors that lead to obesity, we know are the lack of exercise and an eating an unhealthy diet, some Americans believe that the decisions people make are influenced by food industry in their advertisements to get consumers to purchase their product. By manipulating the consumer food business can prosper at the cost of their customer’s health.For example Obama’s administration formed a program that helps with “developing a set of principles to guide industry efforts to improve the nutritional profile of foods marketed directly to children ages 2–17 and to tap into the power of advertising and marketing to support healthful food choices."(Janet Adamy). Citizens who are promoting the passing of laws that allows the government to have access to the diet and advertising children receive in school are confident the changes will decrease obesity and promote business to local farms

Jamie Oliver’s Ted Talk “Teaching every child about food,” captures his great passion and investment in fighting childhood obesity, improving children’s health, and lengthening their life expectancy. Obesity affects not just those that are obese, but family, friends, community, and country. The healthcare expense for obesity in the United States per year is two hundred and ten billion per year and growing, this expense is then passed down to Americans who have to pay more money in health insurance premiums as well as tax dollars to help cover this massive expense. (Oliver, J., 2010)