The Problem of Childhood Obesity

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

Childhood obesity is not just an issue in United States- it is an growing epidemic. Obesity epidemic in kids has increased by alarming rate just in last few decades. Nearly one in every five child is obese in the United States. If the pattern of obesity continued on most of America’s children will be living with diabetes, heart disease, and dying young due to obesity. The American Heart Association reported this year that childhood obesity is the top health concern among parents in the United States, beating out smoking and drug abuse. My own younger siblings suffer with child obesity. Their craving for fast food and very limited physical activity has made them overweight and currently they suffer from health problems. Is this the future of our young generation? How much contribution should a parent have in their child’s diet? Fast food has taken over American diet and it has lead to poor nutritional diet among American youth. Fast food companies spend billion of dollars every year on commercials, convincing youth to love and eat their product. It’s just not our eating habits that has lead our young generation into obesity, lack of physical workout has also played a major role in obesity epidemic. TV, computer, video games and other technology entertainment has contributed to children getting no exercise. Obesity in children can put them in high risks of developing chronic and serious illness. Unhealthy weight leads to having weaker lungs, poor blood quality, heart

The “Cooking Matter” program will be responsible for three interventions to help alleviate child hunger by recruiting college student participants. (See appendix J for group work VII on intervention development). The first intervention was “Read It before You Eat It!” this intervention will demonstrate the correct way to read nutrition and food labels. Each participant will examine the actual food packaging labels of different food items such as whole wheat pasta, regular pasta, bread, cheese, and

Children should learn and respect where their food comes from, one of the best ways to do this is to have a life lab installed. Life lab would be a sound and interesting addition to our middle school because it would help kids learn about where their food comes from and show them how to cook a few things, how to garden and how to work as a team to achieve the desired result.

Being fat takes the fun out of being a kid. Paul Campos in his article “There is no Childhood Obesity Epidemic” discussed the there is a “stunning” drop in childhood obesity rate. He claims that obesity rates among two to five year olds have plunged over the past decade, and that the so called “obesity epidemic” had ended. I strongly disagree with Campos view that there is no childhood obesity epidemic, this is due to the researches that was done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which shows that childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescent in the past years.

It does this by using interactive activities to teach basic nutrition principles, utilises pictorial resources that can be used by a variety of groups in the WA community and doing hands-on cooking workshops.

With the success of many farms to school programs across the nations, I believe this to be a sure way to get this nation back on the right track to healthy eating. It is important to begin teaching kids about the healthy option so they will know how and why

To touch on poor nutrition, research shows that almost one-third of U.S. children between the ages of four and nineteen eat fast food every day; this results in weight gain of approximately 6 extra pounds on a growing child each year (NACHRI, 2007). Fast food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970. Not only is fast food an issue, but when parents reward their children with sugary foods and/or use fruits and vegetables as a punishment, this may cause children’s views toward nutritious food to be negative. Some great educational tools that can be shared both in and out of the classroom are “The Food Guide Pyramid” and “My Plate.” Both show that appropriate number of serving of each food category. “My Plate” does a great job of even providing games, activity sheets, kid-friendly recipes, and physical activity tips to elementary aged children (My Plate, 2015). They also provide great resources for adults so parents and educators can practice what they preach and set good examples for children. Educating children on an what a healthy diet consists of and why it is important is probably the greatest preventative tool we can use to prevent obesity. As the famous saying goes, “knowledge is

A study by the USDA found that placing incentives on healthy purchases had a great effect on how much fruits and vegetables families purchased per month. For every $1.00 spent on fruits and vegetables families received $0.30, and after a year the USDA noticed these families were purchasing nutritious foods more often. The USDA has also updated the standards for meals prepared by schools, making serving nourishing foods a requirement. As a result of this update, the consumption of vegetables and fruits by students increased by 16% and 23%, respectively. The implantation of these programs did not a very long time and their cost was very affordable and reasonable. Food education is especially important when preventing obesity in food deserts because knowing is half the battle. Interventions such as school gardens allow kids to have a hands-on education while learning about nutrition. These garden are a cheap way to both feed and educate

Childhood obesity has become a prevalent disease in America. The Center for Disease Control says that obesity in children aged 6-19 has more than tripled since 1970. Obesity is a gateway disease; a disease that leads to many other diseases, type 2 diabetes and heart disease are just a couple of examples. The problem is children in America are not learning how to live healthy balanced lifestyles. The goal at One Step at a Time is to change how fitness and health are viewed today. One Step at a Time teaches children new and creative ways to possess healthier and happier lives. One Step developed a program to help these children because they are the future of America, they deserve to be aware of how to make healthier choices, and they deserve

With such a widening gap between rural and suburban environments due to suburban expansion, it little wonder that the majority of children believe that their food comes from the grocery store. Some individuals created programs in school in order to shrink the gap in the child's lack of knowledge and try and promote agriculture in suburban schools. The National FFA Organization and 4H are some examples of programs that try to get children more interested in the rapidly diminishing agricultural

In last week’s activity, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of a parent with a nine year old child, who relies on food stamps in order to eat every week. We had forty two dollars to spend on groceries from the food stamps and had to make it last a week. Our strategy consisted of picking the cheapest types of food we could find that had a lot of servings, while also making sure the nutrition was somewhat sufficient to keep us healthy. We used Walmart to shop for groceries since it had the cheapest prices compared to local grocery stores like Publix. Planning out the meals, we realized that living on only forty two dollars a week for food really limited the variety of our diet. We realized that having a child to support with this low variety

Operators from all over were reporting large amounts of foods going to waste and participation decreased from the students. “We lost 15 percent of our revenue when we started putting the Healthy, Hunger­Free Kids Act into place,” said Chris Burkardt, director of child nutrition and wellness at the Lokota Local School District. Students are gradually beginning to bring their own lunches or leave campus for fast food, and to reduce waste and reel students back in for lunch, many cafeterias have created their own methods of serving food to their students. In Ohio at the Lokota Local School District, stir­fry stations with various vegetables are offered for students to have meals made to order. Schools in Minnesota are weeding out processed foods in favor of foods made from scratch in full­size kitchens.

In 2014, I proposed a cooking class in partnership with Penn Charter and the St. James School, a nearby middle school that educates underprivileged students in a rigorous, nurturing environment. I designed the program to address food access and nutrition. After fundraising and friendraising, it was successfully

Childhood obesity is a growing problem that needs to be resolved. Many people may say it is the Child’s fault, he is weak willed. This is just a common misconception; there are hundreds of different reasons for childhood obesity. I will just be scratching the surface of this paper. By the same token childhood obesity is a growing problem that needs to be resolved. We can achieve this by understanding some common misconceptions, understanding health problems, and understanding fitness.