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In the past few years obesity among children has increased and has now become a major issue in this nation. Over twelve million children in the United States are obese and seven percent of those children are at risk of having type 2 diabetes. Obesity has become a burden to the United States economy and it is costing America $147 billion dollars a year. Are parents to blame for obese and overweight children or is society at fault?
Obesity has been around for many years but has always been known to be an adult issue. Sadly obesity has now been discovered in children and has become one of the deadliest issues America faces. Childhood obesity has tripled within the past three decades and one in three children in the United States is considered to be obese. Overweight and obese children are at risk of developing high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression and type 2 diabetes. According to Ashford library studies reveals that “40% of obese children and 70% of obese adolescents will become obese adults”. Obese children are most likely to become obese adult and can suffer much more health issue than the ones previously named. Obesity found in adulthood increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, and a general poor health status. According to an online article located on ASPE.hhs.gov paragraphs [12] and [13] “In 2000, the total cost of obesity for children and adults in the United States was estimated to be $117 billion ($61 billion in direct medical costs)”.
American’s has label obesity as the terror within, it is perceived to be the cause of over “300,000 deaths in America alone each year”. A child’s excess weight at a young age has been linked to h...
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Judy A Rollins. (2004). Kaiser Family Foundation Releases Report on Role of Media in Childhood Obesity. Pediatric Nursing, 30(2), 165. Retrieved March 22, 2011, from Career and Technical Education. (Document ID: 639959761
Richard Kilgarriff. (2005, February 28). Who's really to blame for the problem of childhood obesity? You are ; Richard Kilgarriff, head of Cartoon Network, hits back at critics who always point the finger at television :[First Edition]. The Independent,p. 16,17. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 799851101).
Robinson, T. N. (2001). Television viewing and childhood obesity. Pediatric clinics of North America, 48(4), 1017-1025.
Shawn Bell. (2010, October 5). Parents to blame for fat kids: study. Slave River Journal,1. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from Canadian Newsstand Complete. (Document ID: 2156834801).
Obese Parents to Blame for Obese Children? (2011, November 4). Issues and Controversies. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.2facts.com.holyfamily.idm.oclc.org/icof_story.aspx?PIN=ib160612&term=child+obesity
Hype words like ‘epidemic’ have been used to stress the relevance of obesity in today’s generation. The situation has been mainly accredited to poor parenting as well as the accessibility of high sugar and low quality food in developmental stages. However, this issue is not limited to cost and upbringing. It is crucial for parents to be aware of the media that exists encouraging children to partake in challenges similar to what is seen on Man v. Food.
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.
In order to impede the epidemic of childhood obesity, the actual causes of the problem need to be evaluated and dissected. Obesity in children is becoming a huge problem in American society. In the past three decades, the rate of overweight children has increased by 300%. This is an alarming rate that is only climbing higher. Every member in society should take steps to becoming healthier. This would help the present generations as well as future generations to come. The lifestyle of Americans keeps us too busy to be a healthy society.
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.
Over the last few decades the prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has been steadily increasing in the United States drawing immediate concern for the coming generations and the overall health and well-being for society. While addressing this concern, a matter of significance has to be reviewed to undoubtedly warrant the attention of the nation and propose factors of government, community, organizational, and individual involvement. According to the Society of Behavioral Medicine, “Since 1960, overweight prevalence rates among children and adolescents have increased more than threefold. In 2003-2006, 16.3% of children and adolescents aged 2 – 19 years were at or above the 95th percentile and 31.9% were at or above the 85th percentile for age and sex based on the 2000 CDC growth charts.” (SBM). Below in Figure 1 taken directly from the CDC, is a chart helping put into perspective the dramatic increase of child and adolescent obesity from 1963 – 2008.
The nation is suffering from a new epidemic from a program that had good intentions. The obesity rate for children has distantly increased over the past years and is continuing to grow. In the past thirty years, obesity has more than doubled in children and has tripled in young adults. This problem has both immediate and long-term effects in health and well-being in children and adolescents. The ...
There is an alarming rise in childhood obesity throughout the United States, making it an epidemic in our country. Obesity has become a threat to the health of many children. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.(Childhood Obesity Facts, 2015)
About nine million children are obese among those who are more than six years of age. (Alderman, Jess, et al.) In order to diagnose a child with obesity, one must calculate the child’s body mass index(BMI). The child’s BMI, which is factored by weight and height, is compared with children of the same sex and age across the country on a specific chart. A child is considered obese if they have a BMI higher than 95% of the population. Since 1980, the amount of overweight children has multiplied, and among adolescents, the number has nearly tripled which will most surely increase the likelihood of health problems leading in adolescents and into adulthood. Children are "gaining weight to a dangerous degree and at an alarming rate" regardless of gender, race, socioeconomic status, or geographic location...
“In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.” (CDC) Childhood obesity is a problem that has inundated society for many decades. Almost anywhere that you go, you’ll see a magazine article or some sort of poster regarding childhood obesity. Childhood obesity can be defined as a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child’s health or well-being. Majority of adults care about their weight because self-image is a very important factor in their lives, but when it comes down to children, many pay their weight a very minimal amount of attention. Due to the superfluous rise in the number of obese children over the past couple of decades, doctors and physicians have become concerned about this trend. This concern is raised by the various diseases and health issues accompanying childhood obesity. Childhood obesity puts children at a greater risk for developing health issues and diseases of the heart.
...clude, obesity epidemic in America has become a real threat for the American children and first who can stop it are the parents” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic)
Did you know that 35% of the United States population is considered obese? Also, 66% of the population is considered overweight or more? (Saint Onge 2014) Even more frightening, in 2012 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than one third of children and adolescents in America were overweight or obese (CDC 2014). The media sources used investigates the political, scientific, historical, and cultural reasons behind the childhood obesity epidemic in America. Obesity is a rapid growing epidemic in America and these sources present the facts causing this epidemic. As well as how the children of the American society are being wrongly influenced by the media, especially advertisments. (Greenstreet 2008).
Most government officials see obesity as a public health issue and provide a quick fix. However, obesity is a personal issue which can be improved through education and the incorporation of personal responsibility. Radley Balko, a policy analyst and a columnist for Fox News, wrote the article, “Are You Responsible for Your Own Weight?” This article supports the argument for a change in the government’s involvement combating obesity. “Instead of intervening in the array of food options available to Americans, our government ought to be working to foster a personal sense of responsibility for our health and well-being (Balko 113). In other words, the government needs to be focusing on an individuals personal responsibility for their own weight, rather than creating proposals. The proposals enforced by the government restricts our choice to pick what we eat when instead they could come at the issue through educating a personal responsibility aspect. In addition, many people blame fast food corporation for rising obesity rates, but it is more a collective issue. Pierce Hollingsworth, vice president of Custom Media at Stagnito Media a publishing company focusing on the food and packing industry, wrote the article “The Food Industry Is Not to Blame for Obesity.” Hollingsworth said, “Making the food industry into villains over-simplifies a very complicated problem and deflects blame from parents and schools, who should be teaching children the values of physical activity and personal responsibility”(Hollingsworth 28). This means that both parents and schools are needed to foster this personal responsibility into students. Just as parents and schools are implementing this idea the government should support this sense of responsibility to combat obesity. Personal responsibility
Childhood obesity is a serious problem among American children. Some doctors are even calling childhood obesity an epidemic because of the large percentage of children being diagnosed each year as either overweight or obese. “According to DASH sixteen to thirty-three percent of American children each year is being told they are obese.” (Childhood Obesity) There is only a small percentage, approximately one percent, of those children who are obese due to physical or health related issues; although, a condition that is this serious, like obesity, could have been prevented. With close monitoring and choosing a healthier lifestyle there would be no reason to have such a high obesity rate in the United States (Caryn). Unfortunately, for these children that are now considered to be obese, they could possibly be facing some serious health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some types of cancers. All of these diseases have been linked to obesity through research. These children never asked for this to happen to them; however, it has happened, and now they will either live their entire life being obese, or they will be forced to reverse what has already been done (Childhood Obesity).
According to the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination survey says that, 16 percent of children around the ages of 6-19 years old are at risk of being obese. Obesity has increased in the last twenty years now. Obesity is like other disease, it impairs the normal body functioning. Children who are overweight have excess fat tissue that caus...