Obesity Is A Major Public Health Crisis Among Children And Adults

“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

In today’s society obesity has become a nationwide epidemic that is affecting children and adults daily. Dietitians have an essential role in the health field to treat patients with nutrition problems such as obesity, but every patient is different and how the dietician decides the course of treatment is as well. For example, there are many ways the dietician can treat the patient like goal setting, self-monitoring, meal preparation, and other strategic plans that lead to the best health of the patient. When making a plan to treat the patient many detailed factors come into play. For example, patients age, occupation, family history, and most importantly social environment.

Becoming increasingly more active is vital to combating and reducing obesity in children. Healthful, fitness habits, then, must be jumpstarted at institutions where all American children spend mandatory time, such as in a child’s school; evidently, “normal weight children get 16 more minutes of

Schools are required to have at least an hour of physical activity daily. This is enough time as long as the children are actually doing something that is going to help burn some calories. If they don’t do anything that will make them break a little sweat then the whole physical education class is useless. The PE classes don’t only make the children run but they also teach them what they need to do to stay in some kind of shape for later on in their life. Less than 10% of public schools and private schools provide daily PE (Boyse). Another thing that schools can do to promote physical activity is having the children walk or bike to school. The way they would bike would be monitored by the local government and school programs. The parents of the children could walk them to school so not only do the children get exercise but the parents can also workout. By doing this the parents won’t have to sit in traffic and can save gas. After a time the child will get use to walking and will want to walk instead of taking a car. To start this the child needs someone to walk them and keep them doing it.

First of all, students do not have much knowledge about the different fitness components; they do not understand the relation between the fitness components and health. If students acquire the background knowledge about fitness, it could improve the class engagement and motivation, and increase the independent drive to exercise. Second barrier to students’ achievement is the lack of motivation to be active, and even more difficult, to specific fitness activities, such as sit-ups and push-ups. In today’s society, students spend more time sitting in front a screen and less time moving. Parent and school today have more responsibility making sure the children get enough physical activity. According to the New York Times (2016), “early school physical education (PE) programs can make a significant difference, and the earlier these routines are learned the more likely they will be carried forth into a healthy adulthood”. Another barrier that prevents students’ success is the loss of instructional time due to discipline problems. The classes are too big, with many diverse students with individual problems, which are difficult to address when these issues are from very different backgrounds. Finally, there is not enough support from home affecting not only physical education, but

This essay aims to discover and analyse adult obesity as a challenging public health issue in England as it has a detrimental effect on the society. The rationale for choosing adult obesity as a public health issue is to comprehend and develop the knowledge of obesity and its impact on individual’s health and wellbeing to better meet the needs of an obese adult in clinical practice. Obesity will be defined, its trends and the biopsychosocial factors that contribute to an individual’s health and wellbeing will be discussed along with the health inequalities. Furthermore, this assignment will highlight relevant policies and legislation aimed at addressing the health risk and needs of an obese adult. Lastly, this essay will explain the role of a nurse in both promoting and assessing of the health requirements of obese adult and then the conclusion will be drawn summarising the key points of the essay.

The obesity epidemic here in the United States affects a mass portion of all children and adolescents. The rapid growth in childhood obesity has become a prevalent health concern that is overlooked due to its’ normality. The main focus of this issue has always been fixated on how to help those facing current problems with obesity. Instead, attention needs to be brought to the prevention of our country’s #1 leading health concern, which has yet to be compromised. This ignorance has led millions of children ill-educated on the importance of lifestyle and the simple concept that “we are what we eat”. The reality of this issue is not one many want to take responsibility for, but the significant impact education has on what children consume is greater than we may think. The lack of effort in our education system and the simple changes in the education we provide can significantly help reduce the obesity crisis we face. Our education career is one of the most influential aspects of all of our lives and though most of children’s time is spent in school, it lacks teaching the importance of food, the consequences of unhealthy diets and its’ little value on health as being part of our future success.

Not only do schools offer unhealthy foods for children, but most do not offer the required amount of physical activity. Most adolescents fall short of the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommendation of at least one hour of aerobic activity every day. Only 18% of students in high school met that recommendation in 2007. All schools need to require some sort of a physical activity class. In 2009 only 33% took daily physical education classes. (CDC 2) Needless to say, schools play a very crucial role in the problem of childhood obesity. Physical Activity in schools could be a huge key in helping fix this problem.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) note that when children participate in the recommended level of physical activity of at least 60 minutes per day multiple health benefits ensue. Nevertheless, since the creation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) increasing focus has been dedicated to bridging the achievement gap among students and less emphasis has been placed on non-academic curriculum such as physical education. Research has shown that approximately 3.8% of elementary schools provide formal physical education with this percentage steadily declining as children continue onto middle and high school. This decrease in physical activity is in line with reports from the CDC which estimate that one third of children in the United States are overweight and, within those cases, the CDC has documented that children who are overweight have higher absentee rates, have poorer health and experience early signs of mental illness all of which have an impact on academic performance.

Childhood obesity is a public health crisis in Canada. Research shows that childhood obesity is related to morbidity and mortality in adulthood (Tremblay, 2010). According to one study about 31% of Canadian youth between the ages of 2-17 years are obese and overweight, which put them on a greater risk for developing chronic conditions in their early adulthood years (Vine & Elliot, 2014). Children spend most of their time during the day in the schools, hence, it is very important that schools needs to implement interventions related to healthy diet and meals. Furthermore, eating patterns in childhood determines the eating habits in adulthood, so implementation of healthy eating policies in secondary schools is very essential as

Over the period of this course there has been a few topics that I have really learned about and either it has influenced me to change my lifestyle, and/or attribute to develop healthier patterns for myself whether it be in my marriage, for my child, or for my health. I will discuss the topics that mattered the most to me, that we covered throughout the duration of the semester. Which includes; The Common Challenges to a Healthy Lifestyle, Marital Expectations, and Income.

Childhood obesity is an epidemic that has been spreading around the United States like a wild fire in a dry field, increasing more and more without much resistance to stop it from spreading. The SPARK PE program was created in 1989, and aims to be that resistance against childhood obesity, with carefully planned programs in hopes of showing the youths of America that exercise and proper nutrition can lead to a successful, healthy life (SPARK). SPARK aims at achieving this goal by carefully planning out different physically beneficial activities, while also making sure that they are popular with the students in hopes of the students continuing the activities outside the classroom. SPARK, or “Sports, Play, Active, Recreation for, Kids”, isn’t only aimed to improve solely physical attributes for children, but also aims to improve environmental and behavioral change at the same time (SPARK). These planned programs include a classroom & recess program, an after school program, along with the Coordinated School Health Initiative (SPARK). The SPARK PE program is an elite organization who’s goal is to ensure that today’s youth grow up healthy, while at the same time making sure they’re having fun doing it with their classroom & recess activities, after school activities, and the Coordinated School Health Initiative.

Obesity is a deadly and horrible disease; however, it can be prevented. Physical activity is the “cure” to the obesity epidemic. Obesity is the result of “‘caloric imbalance’ -- too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed” according to Childhood Obesity Facts. Physical activity burns off a majority of the excess calories one may have. PE classes do an efficient job of getting students physically active without overworking them, or taking away from freetime after school. Therefore HCSD should keep the current physical education requirements and not replace it with sports.

Obesity is the condition of being seriously overweight. It is now considered a global health epidemic by the World Health Organization (2000) (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010). Physical activity is important to children in the middle childhood age group because a staggering amount of children have become overweight in the last few decades and teachers play a role in preventing obesity by becoming a positive role model,

There is nothing more important than health, especially in this day and age. It’s concerning that only 29 percent of high school students surveyed by the CDC (2011) had participated in at least 60 minutes of physical activity on all seven days before the survey. The CDC also noted that only 31 percent of these high school students attended physical education class daily. Only 8 percent of elementary schools, 6.4 percent of middle schools, and 5.8 percent of high schools provide daily physical education to all of its students (SHPPS, 2000). The government is missing the fact that physical education can actually improve test scores, not the opposite.