Fast food, or junk food as some call it, is becoming more popular than ever; it's convenient, predictable and fast. It has become a part of the busy American lifestyle. Eating at McDonalds once every day and spending the rest of the day in a school bench or in front of the computer or television is making today's children fatter and fatter. Overweight is today a bigger problem in the world than starvation. In 1999 13% of the children aged 6 to 11 and 14% of adolescents aged 12 to 19 in the United States were overweight . A recent study, carried out in Sacramento measuring aerobic capacity, body composition, muscular strength, endurance and flexibility in students in the fifth, seventh and ninth grade showed that merely a quarter of the 1.3 …show more content…
BMI (Body Mass Index, kg/m2) is a measure of how much body fat one has. To prevent adult-onset obesity one could calculate and plot BMI once a year in all children and adolescents, use change in BMI to determine excessive weight gain in comparison to normal weight gain. This would help to recognize children with overweight problems early. If overweight is recognized early, it is easier to provide help and maybe change patients eating habits as well as their leisure time physical activity. Since a lot of a child's time is spent in school and a lot of food is consumed there, school plays a very important role. There are a few but important points of how to ensure that school provides healthful foods and beverages. To start with there should be a policy that specifies that all foods and beverages available at school should be in line with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. This means getting rid of all vending machines and selling fruit in cafeterias instead of chocolate bars. Schools should also provide more food options that are low in fat, calories, and added sugars. Also, physical classes were everyone participate, should be extended, including education of how to live and eat healthy. These points, if followed would really help enforcing a healthier lifestyle. However, it is still the parents who have the greatest responsibility. They have a huge impact on their children's development of lifelong habits of nutritious eating and physical activity. Parents must
The first half of this chapter is a story of Vivian Goodman and her love affair with Emmanuel. Vivian was a forty two year old woman who had two children from a previous marriage, that ended because her husband had had an affair with another woman. She met Emmanuel who was a coworker at Amerco and who also had a child from a previous relationship. Vivian and Emmanuel found that they both had little time to spend together because of their shift differences, and Vivian always picked up overtime shifts whenever she could. Emmanuel had recently moved out of Vivians trailer because Tim, Vivian’s nineteen year old son, still struggled to accept that his parents, Vivian and her ex husband, were done.
The American colonists gained their independence in many ways. The documents that were written at the time were key to gaining independence. The battles were very important parts of achieving self-government because it gave strength and confidence to the colonists. Strong leaders helped the colonist and had great confidence for the entirety of the Revolutionary War. Alliances with other countries helped greatly in gaining victory and independence.
In the world of literature today, American essayists continuously influence America’s modern society, whether it’s through their style, their experiences, or their overall message that is portrayed in their writing. The purpose of essay writing is for the author to determine their goal, through the stylistic manner of persuasion, entertainment, or factual information. Among many of the famous American essayists like; Frederick Douglas, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Thomas Paine, their goals in writing have been inspired by a variety of contextual influences. One of these now-famous American essayists, Sherman Alexie, a Native American author who’s work in the realm of Native American culture has been labeled as remarkable, yet controversial. Through
A tool known as BMI (body mass index) is used by medical providers to calculate an individual 's body mass index. It calculated by measuring a child’s weight and height and the found value is then compared to percentiles relative to other children of the same age and sex. For example, if a child aged anywhere from 2-19 is “more than 85% and less than 95%” they are considered overweight. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). This tool is not a method used to diagnosis childhood obesity but it 's a valuable way to measure the prevalence of obesity worldwide.
Obesity and being overweight are very common worldwide issues around the world, especially in the U.S. There are more than 3 million cases per year. By changing your lifestyle such as diet and exercise, losing weight can seem effortless. Desirable junk/fast food or even irresistible fast food commercials can tempt you to do the unthinkable. We are all victims of this advertising war. Quick-service restaurants (QSR) generate these advertisements in hope to attract more consumers or to increase their popularity rates around town. These commercials bombard our state of mind only to convince us to buy unhealthy food for worthless money. The increase in fast food commercials in the U.S. has led to an increase in both QSR revenues and the obesity rates. Regulating commercial frequencies will lead to a decline in the obesity rate. Our country has more than enough issues that frequently affect our population. Despite these alarming cautions, the food industries with their advertiser use every available media outlet to promote and sell their products. Pushing food and drinks high in sugar is unethical and unjust. We learn to
The Walt Disney production “Wall-E” is a portrayed image of what our world could soon become. If you aren’t familiar with what the film is about, it is about obese humans relying on technology to do everything and anything for them. They weren’t concerned with their health at all, ordering jumbo soda and super-sized meals of fast food, for every meal. As Wall-E broads the ship and knocks some humans out of their delusional life style, they begin to realize something is seriously wrong with their health. Maybe it was because they couldn’t walk or maybe it was the realization that they couldn’t do anything for themselves. To make sure this doesn’t happen to the people of our world today, there is
Childhood obesity is a rather new reality in the United States due to intake of sugary snacks and beverages, childhood obesity is the result of a sustained energy imbalance. Most youth never eat the required daily servings of fruits and vegetables; its noted only one in five eat the required servings (21%) (Moore, Wilke, & Desrochers, 2017). The availability of sugary snacks and beverages in schools are what one would call “junk food”. According to a study conducted by Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia (2012) students could purchase more than one single food and beverage items either
Parents should shape their children eating habit, by giving them healthy food such as vegetable, and fruit. Parents should prevent their children to have access to junk food, and decrease kids’ food preference. Parents can also encourage their kids to walk to and from school if the school is not too far. Parents should cut off TV time for their kids to two hours a day. Moderate physical activity is very important for children to maintain healthy weight. Kids should be encourage to exercise at 30 minutes a day. This should be done at school since children spend most of their day time at school. Another action that needs to be taken to reduce childhood obesity is food regulation at elementary schools. Government should remove vending machines from all elementary school because these foods contain high calories. The price of low calories food should be reduced to encourage children to eat healthy.
On a smaller scale, a change ought to occur in communities in which the children live and attend school in order to provide an environment that makes healthy choices readily available. Parents as well as schools largely contribute to this epidemic. Schools contribute to obesity, and need to approach this matter face first. (1) Physical education programs are limited, which is distributing considering only 3.8% of elementary schools, 7.9% of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools actually provide their students with physical education. Curriculum needs to be utilized in order to educate and empower students of the importance of nutrition and physical activity. For change to occur everyone has to be on board, particularly parents. Parents cannot just tell children what and whatnot to do; they need to allow children to participate in planning and of activities, in order to be successful. Children like to feel as if they are an active participant and to take part in the decision-making process, thus the parent ought to provide them with instrumental support. Parents and school systems are strong advocates and need to implement change to receive positive results; there are various effective methods of doing this. Children spend most of their time in school and at home, subsequently education should occur about of nutrition’s and
Parents are one of the biggest role models to their children. If parents don't buy healthy food their children are going to have unhealthy diets from eating high-calorie food. How much the parents work also affects the children according to Patricia Anderson. Anderson states, “an increase in dual-career or single-parent working families, may also have increased demand for food away from home” (Anderson par. ). When parents work they don’t have time to prepare dinner. Instead, they go to fast food for a quick and easy meal for their family, but the meal is not healthy. The parents are contributing to their children's bad eating habits. Another factor can be genes or ethnicity, some children are at a higher risk for being obese. According to Michael J Wieting, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, genes and ethnicity can play a role in childhood obesity. Children who are of Native American, African American and Mexican descent are more likely to be overweight than youth who are white or of Asian descent (Wieting par. 9). Certain ethnic groups are at a higher risk due to the foods associated with the culture and other hereditary genes. Childhood obesity comes with multiple medical
According to an article, “Obesity in Children”, published through the medicine health website, the issue on childhood obesity in the United States has increased within recent years. “Today, nearly a third of youths are overweight or obese. That’s more than 23 million children and teenagers,” (Childhood Obesity in the United States). Obesity can eventually lead to different and more serious health issues. Fast food restaurants attract the attention of our younger generation and are some of the main causes of obesity today. This has become a huge issue to Americans, but especially to the youth. With that being said, my goal in this paper is to show how rapidly obesity is increasing in children in the United States.
The problem of obesity is widespread. One in four American children under the age of five have a body mass index (BMS) that shows that children are either overweight or obese (Natale, et al., 2013).
Described as the epidemic of the twenty and twenty-one centuries, obesity has reach alarming levels in the United States in the last three decades. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared that the prevalence of obesity was 36.5% (crude estimate) among U.S. adults during 2011–2014 (Cynthia L. Ogden, Margaret D. Carroll, & Cheryl D. Fryar, 2015). Obesity results from a combination of causes and contributing factors, including individual factors such as behavior and genetics. Behaviors can include dietary patterns, physical activity, inactivity, medication use, and other exposures. Two of the most important factors in our society include the increase in the consumption of fast food, which contains high quantities of trans fatty acids (TFAs) and fructose, and a marked decrease in physical activity. Both of them combined have resulted in the development of the serious widespread across the country. Likewise, it is extremely important to point that “obesity is associated with poorer mental health outcomes, reduced quality of life, and the leading causes of death in the U.S. and worldwide, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer” (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Which guides us to the necessity of expanding our health initiatives in order to increase the education, prevention and better alternatives for future generations.
To me obesity is a major concern throughout America and has driven our country to become the second most obese country (behind Mexico) in the world. It really didn’t dawn onto me on how big our country is pertaining to obesity until I started my Agronomy class this semester. On the first day of class my teacher informed us on how Louisiana has been ranked the most obese state for the first time in eight years in our nation, and as he went on I started to ask myself, “How could this happen?” Of course I started to ponder about Louisiana’s seafood and other delicate cuisine that people can’t get enough of which might cause an over indulgence of eating but that couldn’t be enough to cause obesity in Louisiana or even the nation. Well my
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