Child Obesity Persuasive Essay

Obesity is the condition of being grossly fat or overweight. Many have seen obese people out in large crowds. These people are overweight, and a large portion of these people are children. There are many reasons why children suffer from obesity. The effects due to adolescent obesity are horrifying. Child obesity has many fixes, if the child is willing to cooperate. Child obesity needs to be settled because children living life in this way should not acceptable.

Obesity is a problem for adolescents of all ages for reasons that vary. There are 23.5 million children and and teeneagers that are overweight (May). This makes about one out of every three children overweight (“Should Soda and”). Outside play is not seen as much in juveniles for safety

An outbreak in obesity is also due to less playgrounds and after school activities. As a result of budget cuts many schools do not have the money to build an outdoor playground or to provide after school activities. Since there are less playgrounds, there are less opportunities to get exercise. Some schools also have to cut their gym classes because their budgets are so low. Video games are also another excuse for children to not go outside and play. They think that they can just play video games and not play outside, but soon a time will come when they gain weight from lack of exercise. The number one contributor to child obesity is the television. The average adolescent watches television for 1-2 hours per day, however some children watch it for longer (SerVaas). “Television literally is an obesity machine.” The television is filled with commercials that market to a younger audience. Most of the advertisements are almost always for junk food, such as sugary drinks, high calorie snacks, and candy. There are barely any advertisements for healthy food. A large portion of schools have vending machines that are filled with soda,

The children nowadays are heavier than the children from a generation ago (Bashir). The side effects of obesity are numerous. Children that suffer from obesity are more likely to have diabetes, heart disease, asthma, and high blood pressure. Heart disease has the highest risk factors when someone is overweight. Extra weight on the body can also cause strain on the heart (“Should Soda and”). Obesity also leads to signs of strokes (Ruskin). Fatty liver and sleep apnea are other effects of obesity too. If the sleep apnea gets too bad then it can lead to severe symptoms, such as high blood pressure, stroke, or heart attack. These symptoms have been known to lead to death. Obese children are more likely to live in poverty (Ludwig). Due to these severe medical issues, obese children have great chances of a shorter life expectancy (“Should Soda and”). Studies have shown that children who are overweight are less likely to finish school or marry (Ludwig). Mostly all of these medical issues will carry through with an obese child to their advancement in life. Once the obesity outbreak is cured, the statistics of these medical conditions will surely decrease. For today’s children the effects of obesity are just more concerns that they can pile on top of their other problems that life