Why Children Need To Be Changed

In David Zinczenko’s article “Don’t Blame the Eater” he focuses on the fast food industry and their role in the increasing health and obesity issues of our nation’s children, as well as these issues potentially becoming a serious problem that we will all have to deal with if we collectively don’t do something about it now. When it comes to the topic of fast food, most of us can agree that it is not the best source of nutrition. It is unhealthy and can be the cause of many serious health issues with our children such as obesity related Type 2 diabetes, stomach ulcers and even heart disease, high cholesterol, sleep apnea or even cancer. We can even agree that fast-food diets are a major contributing factor to

Modern food culture is a major factor that drives childhood obesity. Childhood Obesity occurs when children have excess body fat in relation to their body index as a result of unhealthy eating habits at an early age, which makes children clinically unhealthy. The national childhood obesity rate currently in the U.S is 18.5%. There are several factors that go into this present issue in our country. The problem begins with adults not being attentive enough to notice bad food habits, sometimes parents add to the bad habits. When a child is at home with maybe one or even both parents and the child has full access to roam through the fridge or pantry, this may be a problem. Children will often pick their favorite foods, which more than usual is the junk food. These ‘junk’ foods are foods that have been processed with most of the nutrients taken out of the food leaving calories that will add to excess calories. Junk foods can consist of chips, tasty cakes, cookies, ice cream, and many more. These types of foods contain high amounts of sugar and calories with low amounts of nutrients. Fast food is one of the primary factors that contribute to the ongoing problem of childhood obesity in the U.S. “Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eat fastfood, which likely packs on about six extra pounds per child per year and increases the risk of obesity, a study of 6,212 youngsters found” . Fast food restaurants are advertised all over the place including billboards,

Wouldn’t you rather pay less for meals at restaurants you already go to and enjoy, while eating healthier? The standard way of thinking about kids’ meals is, well, childish, but they could be better for your wallet, cravings, and health. But not all restaurants and eateries allow adult patrons to order off this menu, sometimes even “looking around for your imaginary child,” writes a Yahoo! food editor (Paley). Restaurants shouldn’t impose age limits on kids’ meals.

One of the most controversial issues today is the question of how to address childhood obesity. Because of the large proportion of meals that children, particularly low-income children, consume in schools, cafeteria food has been targeted by dietary reformers as in need of a major overhaul. However, while many different types of new school menus have been proposed, the extent to which healthier foods can be offered remains controversial. Opponents to reform state that children will not eat healthier lunches, and that changing the food that children eat will have minimal impact, since the children will either bring food from home or eat food at home that is more 'kid friendly.'

This article shows that fast food today is convenient because people have a lot of work to do in a very short time, so so thinking about driving through the fast food restaurant is easier and better than cooking. Therefore, one thing parents don't know is that fats, sugars, and salts are engaging their children primordial tastes. The most widely recognized disease that impacts children is obesity. Studies show that 15-20% of children aged 12-18 are overweight. In addition, obese children can affect emotional and

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

Fast-food industries may try to “target children in their ads”, but it ultimately comes down to the adults-the parents- choosing to dine at these places and pork up their kids on the high-sugar sodas, salty French fries, and greasy burgers. If they would just take the time to look out the window, they would see the healthy alternatives to fast-food, and how the alternatives are literally right in front of

Should changes be made to the regulations for the foods that are served in public schools? This can be a very controversial question to most people; children with obesity, parents who do not care and for who does care about the health of the children and teachers who only wants what is best for the benefit of the children. This paper will attempt to explain and convince the unknown of why it is very important for our public schools to have a healthy eating curriculum for the children that attends there. If society can find a way to come together for the children of the community to fight to have healthier foods in the community, come together and provide counsel to the children of what healthy eating is all about. This paper will

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) more than one third (34.96%) of U.S adults are obese. This proves that people are not taking care of their bodies and being aware of the types of foods that go in their mouths. The issue is that many people are disagreeing with the government regulating what we eat, however if this law is not enforced people will be free to buy excessive amounts of unhealthy sugary foods, leading them to a chronic disease. Even though sugary drinks and foods can have a good taste and be satisfying to many, the government should regulate what we eat because there will be less people with chronic illness, it will be less money wasted on health care for obese people, and there will be less individuals consuming trans fats.

According to HBO’s article “Marketing food to Children “.The food industry spends well over 1.6 billion dollars per year marketing to children. The vast majority of these foods are high in calories, fat, sugar, sodium, and preservatives. Many of the preservatives are fillers, to stretch the companies’ profits, and have unknown long term consequences. The foods that are most heavily targeted to children are fast foods, carbonated beverages, sugar loaded breakfast cereals, salty snacks and baked goods. These tend to be high in calories and nutritionally poor.

The age old saying, “You are what you eat” still rings true today. Fresh fruit and vegetables have been replaced by french-fries and hamburgers. Children today do not know how to eat healthy. We, as a nation, spend hours and hours bombarding children with fast food commercials, sugary cereal commercials and cavity causing drink commercials. We than spend a fraction of that time telling kids these things are healthy only in moderation.

When a child eats a Happy Meal at McDonalds they’re eating 520 calories per meal with a cheeseburger clocking in at 700 calories. Fast foods are convenient, easy and affordable; so fewer families are preparing meals at home. Fast foods are lacking nutritional balance and there is not any control on how it’s cooked, which is usually with a lot of oil and butter. Fast foods tend to lack fresh fruits and vegetables. Children need to know the consequences in eating foods high in calories, fats, sugar and chemicals. Children should avoid cholesterol, saturated fat, high sodium which is harmful to the immune system and can lead to Type II diabetes.

The fast-paced lifestyle of Americans today results in unhealthy frozen T.V. dinners and take-out meals. In present day society, the role of woman and men are virtually equal. With this making both the mother and father of families busy, there is little time for home cooked meals. A hardy breakfast is replaced with sugary pop-tarts, hand packed lunches is replaced with money for fast food, and frozen T.V. trays take the place of a healthy dinner. These foods may all taste good, but they are not healthy. By giving children lunch money, the children are having the choice to buy whatever foods they please. It could be easily assumed that a child would choose a candy bar, chips, and a soda over a school lunch. Again, the children are not the only ones to be blamed here. The parents need to take time to guide their children towards what food is healthy and what food is unhealthy. By taking a little more time out of the day and making healthier food choices, the rate of childhood obesity could slow down, if not stop altogether.

Childhood obesity is becoming a concern more and more every year, so severe to the point where I have read and heard it be referred to as an epidemic among todays youth throughout the country. Causing a dramatic increase in long term heath risks, disease and associated health related problems and concerns in todays youth every year at an alarming rate. Be it due to the abundance and variety of fast food chains and ease of simply pulling into the drive through line asking the magical box for which ever combo meal your fatty and cholesterol lined heart desires, oh and don’t forget to super value size it while you 're at it. Maybe its the convenience of pulling a meal from the freezer, popping it into the microwave for a few minutes and dinner is served, maybe it’s more being financially frugal and pay less for a cheeseburger and soft drink, save yourself the time and effort or pay a heftier price for a healthier alternative like a grilled chicken salad and water, have to spend the time shopping, preparing and end up paying a higher price for a nutritious meal. Even then if you do make the effort to choose the healthier and more nutritious option, dousing it in a sugary artificially flavored and preservative filled dressing sauce kind of defeats the purpose.

Fast food tastes best when they are fresh out of the restaurant. No matter how big the portion is, fast food can be hardly eaten as leftovers. So children have gradually trained their stomachs-adults likewise-to hold fattier, oily, sugary foods that come in super sizes. The initial issue seemed to be just being overweight and obese, as these children who consume more fatty foods than necessary grew up to be a fat generation of adults. But now, the fast food monster has grown bigger and wilder that it brings children critical health issues at much younger ages.