According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH) about one–third of children and adolescents ages 6 to 9 are considered to be overweight or obese. That means that 1 in 6 children and adolescents ages 9 to 19 are considered to be obese. That is a large number if you ask me and as a student between that age category, I ask myself what can be done to decrease those numbers.
School is the place where we students spend most of our time; teachers do not only teach us Math, English, Science, and History, they teach us valuable lessons about life. But the only thing that schools seem to be forgetting to teach us is how to eat healthy and how to take care of our bodies. As I see it schools have as much responsibility as parents have for children and adolescent obesity. There are so many things that our school can do to help decrease the number of overweight adolescents. I propose that our school offers us health classes, provides us with healthy lunches and offers us a way to get in shape and take care of our body’s.
Most if not all of Lynwood High’s students have no idea of how to take care of their body’s. That is why I propose that health classes are brought back to our schools. In these classes we
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Even though our school has a P.E period, most of the activity going on does not really do much for the student’s health. P.E is taken as a joke for most of the students, it is just a free period were you mostly do nothing. I propose that LHS invest in a gym or a pool and on an instructor that is actually willing to help us get in shape and learn the basics of
From Kindergarten to 12th grade, children spend most of their time at school. School, what we adults think, is supposed to be the teachers of our children while we are at work. They feed them lunch, and possibly breakfast, five days out the week, keep them active, and teach them all about their body and health in health class. But, are they really taking care of them enough? Some schools fail to serve healthy foods, teach health class, or even provide enough time to be physically active. One in three kids are obese, that is reason enough to care about these children’s lives at school. Schools are one of the reasons that the younger generation has a fast growing obese rate.
...). A future research idea piggybacks on this program by encouraging an initiation of state and/or national legislation, specifically for change moving towards healthier school nutrition and additional school nutrition education. This legislation would also mandate increases in the amount of time children are allowed for physical activity in their school day as a lack of physical activity is a huge risk factor for overweight and obesity. Another thought is to designate a school health coordinator who will be responsible for maintaining and continuing the positive work that this study began. Utilizing the success of this program and others like it in this regards will lead to action on all levels of the social ecological framework. Ultimately, a multilevel examination of determinants and interventions needs to be aimed at preventing child overweight and obesity.
Childhood obesity has been on the rise in the last couple of years. In the 1970’s childhood obesity was never a concern to the public until the number increased over the years. An alarming rate of 31% of all adults have been obese since they were children and the rates of childhood obesity don’t fall too behind with an 18% of children being obese. That makes almost half of obese adults and children. A child that is obese has a 70-80% higher chance of staying obese even through their adulthood if no action is taken. Childhood obesity is not something children are in control of, these children suffer from different outcomes since they can’t look after themselves and heavily rely on someone to aid them when they need it. These numbers can be drastically altered in a positive way by educating both children and parents about healthy, nutritious foods to consume, supplying schools with better lunch and healthier vending machines with healthy choices and promoting after school activities to keep children active and away from electronics.
Obesity in children across America has become an increasing public health concern. Obesity has been identified as an epidemic that is plaguing our children in the United States. In some countries around the world children are dying of starvation everyday. How can this happen when here in America the opposite is a major problem? This is not to say that in America there are no hungry or starving children. It has been proven that our children suffer from obesity, and “children who are overweight or obese as preschoolers are five times as likely as normal-weight children to be overweight or obese as adults” (“Hope”). Obesity not only can cause a child to become more prone to having health problems down the road, but it can also make them feel insecure about themselves. There needs to be action taken in schools as well as in homes to help prevent this growing epidemic.
For the first time in years, schools are considering imposing an extra mandatory class on students with the hopes of solving a deadly problem; however, it could be causing more problems rather than diminishing it. A statistic recently released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, has stated that in America, 31.3% of 10-17 year olds are either obese or overweight. To combat this issue, The President’s Council on Physical Fitness has introduced a proposal that would require every high school in the United States to have a daily and mandatory physical education class in order to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Very few states require P.E. daily for high school students; however, many states are considering adopting the proposal. Doing so seemed like a great way to combat the growing problem until I thoroughly researched the topic and found that the negatives outweighed the possible positives. Calvin Christian adopting the proposal created by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness regarding mandatory daily P.E. classes would be a huge mistake due to the negative effect on student’s physical and emotional health, the likelihood of an increased budget, and the possible cut of valued classes.
Many kids in America suffer from type 2 diabetes and obesity. Schools do not inform children enough on what they should know about to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Schools should give information about having a healthy lifestyle by what they offer kids for breakfast and lunch, offering health classes to children at young ages, and limiting the amount of unneeded material students are exposed to at school.
Buddha once said, "To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." Students need a healthy body which leads to having a healthy mind. Once a child is in good health, they will feel better about themself which will make them succeed in everything else they do. A huge debate that is going on all throughout the United States is this- Should schools provide one healthy meal for students to help end the fight of childhood obesity? Schools are beginning to pick up the slack for the lost direction that children should receive at home. Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic all through our country. If we do not begin to take the initiative and stop this problem, then it may begin to spread worldwide. Americans need to realize the severity of the situation and begin to take in more seriously rather than brush it off as a light topic.
Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day and is consumed mostly in school cafeterias for children and adolescence. Wholesome lunches are vital in maintaining a healthy metabolism and give children energy for the rest of the school day. Children are advised to eat healthily but do not always do so because the choices of tastier, fatty foods offered in school cafeterias. The National School Lunch Program, NSLP, which is a federally assisted meal program operating in public and nonprofit private schools set nutritious guidelines for lunches served in school cafeterias (USDA). However, school campuses still offer foods high in fat as well as selling candy, chips, and soda in their vending machines, as well as their school shops. In order
Do you remember your favorite “School Lunch”? I do, I essentially had two favorites; pizza and hamburgers with fries. Think back, wasn’t there at least one school lunch that the lunch ladies made that everyone was so excited to eat. Kids that habitually brought their super hero lunch box with thermos would leave it at home and be in line for pizza or burgers and fries. We could also go back for “seconds”, it was the best meal of the week including what was served at home. The federal government has been involved in the NSLP (National School Lunch Program) since 1946 with the implementation of the National School Lunch Act. These initial programs developed the commodity distribution program for schools, institutions, needy households, summer
Imagine that you walk into a cafeteria and you see children in line to buy lunch. The lunch is burnt and cold. You see the kids who bought lunch sit down and start asking people for food, they say no. At the end of the lunch period the kids lunch trays still have all the food on them. The children are starving and a lot of food was wasted. You don’t want that right? I believe that our school should get a new lunch menu because many students do not like the food served, there are not many options, and there are many problems with the food.
If we educate the kids and teens of the long lasting effects obesity could potentially inflict on their bodies, there is the possibility that they will take charge and do something about it before they become victims of the many problems obesity can lead to. Also educating their parents could help identify the early signs of depression or other diseases connected to obesity and limit junk food that enters the home, helping their kids make better food choices. I also think that most kids today are overweight due to school and stress that comes with the high standards of having good grades. With this abundance of stress, most kids don’t know how to deal with it which results in overeating and other health problems. Researchers say that most stress from school comes from academics which can lead to irritability and tiredness. These side effects are damaging to the health of kids and young teens causing them to stress eat and become a couch potato because the majority of students are to tired to go outside and exercise after school, and some focus on homework and studying all evening after they get home. I plan on fixing this by establishing study halls for students to have time to study, do homework, and relax so they can enjoy time with their family and do things other than schoolwork once they get home. I also strive to make teachers give tests/quizzes on their own day. For example, one teacher gives all her tests on a Tuesday and another on a Thursday. This way, students don’t have to constantly be stressed out about their upcoming tests that happen to all be on the same day. The last thing I would do to help relieve school stress would be to create “fun days” where students learn through fun experiments and experience of the outside
The United States needs to do something to change the amount of childhood obesity in the nation. If the government requires children to take classes that require physical activity, abolishes school vending machines, and teaches children about healthy eating, then the amount of children that are obese in the United States will decrease significantly. Obesity is defined as the increase of body fat over time to the point where it can impact health in a negative manner and decrease life expectancy. Since the 1980’s, obesity has increased dramatically in the United States. Children have been greatly impacted in the increase of obesity. This is a major problem as someday these obese children could possibly turn into obese adults. If the population of obese adults and children keeps increasing, than not only will our country have a lot of severely unhealthy people but the cost of health care will increase dramatically.
Educational institutions have the potential to, first and foremost, educate and assist the young people of today with making the positive, healthful choices necessary to maintain good health. Over 4,500 students have been followed in recent research studies and these “thousands of sixth graders who participated in a school-based health program were less obese by eighth grade than a group of similar children who did not, according to a new study done for the National Institutes of Health” (Rabin). Schools need to create health programs focused on assisting all children suffering from being overweight or obese. Policies such as fitness programs, nutrition classes, and healthful meals can even impact every student by creating a strong foundation and awareness of the negative, long term effects associated with practicing unhealthy habits. Although the financial expenses would be necessary, the adaption of scho...
When talking about school, we think of children learning different subjects, history, math, science and etc. I think learning about health and healthy life choices is as important as any other subject, and that should not just be restricted to classrooms. Schools have a great opportunity to educate young people about the importance of being healthy. We all know it is no secret that junk food makes you fat, but studies have shown that over the past ten years, obesity has doubled to 8.5 percent among six year olds and trebled to an astonishing 15 percent among 15 year olds. If we do not do anything about it, then this generation of children could be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.
Patterson, Joan. “Many schools cutting back on physical education”. Review Journal. Stepens Media LLC, 2013. Web. 28 April 2014