Over spring break, my niece and nephew stayed at my house. I thought it would be fun to have them for the whole week. I made plans to go to Manteca’s Street Fair, enjoy a picnic at the nearby park, and go for bike rides along the Bike Trail. I never thought it was going to be so difficult to set my plans into motion. My nephew planted himself on the couch in front of the TV with the Play Station controller practically super glued to his hands. He only got off the couch to use the restroom or to eat; when I say “to eat”, I mean to say that he gorged himself on snacks, sweets, processed and microwavable foods, because he refused to eat the homemade food I prepared, saying it “didn’t taste good.” My nephew is just one of the millions of children that suffer from the increase of childhood obesity in America today.
According to a June 2010 report from the Center for Disease Control, childhood obesity has increased by more than 300 percent in the past 30 years (Obesity). What is to blame for this obscene increase? Possible factors that contribute to this trend include changes to the food market, the up rise in single and/or dual career parents, the increase and range of technology use, as well as economic struggles that cause schools to cut their funding for lunches and extracurricular activities. An underlying, not so obvious cause is the overall safety of children in today’s world.
The biggest and most obvious cause is that the country’s food market is more than ever, geared towards children. As stated by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, approximately 80% of advertisements that appear during children’s television broadcasts are fast food related (Food). These advertisements use popular cartoon characters, hip music, ...
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...y, and child safety all play a role. If our children continue to go down their current sedentary paths, their lifespans will be considerably less than ours.
Works Cited
"Childhood Obesity Fact Sheets (PDF) - DASH/HealthyYouth." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
"Food Marketing to Children." Www.cspinet.org. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
"Healthy Kids." Www.cdc.org. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
"Obesity Childhood Trends." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web. 25 Apr. 2011. .
"Unhealthy Marketing to Kids." Www.eatbettermovemore.org. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .
Obesity in the United States, which the media has labeled a national crisis, has also been connected to poverty rates. Big fast food industry’s target poor communities, and spend millions of dollars each year to create advertising that appeals to these specific areas. These industry’s also target naïve children when advertising because they know that eating habits developed in childhood are usually carried into adulthood. Children who are exposed to television advertisements for unhealthy food and who are not educated well enough on good nutrition will grow up and feed their families the same unhealthy foods they ate as kids. A big way fast food giants are able to make certain young people have access to unhealthy food is by strategically placing franchises in close proximity to schools. They will often place three times as many outlets within walking distance of schools than in areas where there are no schools nearby. The way fast food advertising is targeted towards children is very alarming considering how important good nutrition is for young people and how a child’s eating habits can affect their growth and
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.
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...
Today, approximately 25 percent of children and teenagers are obese and the number is on the rise. Since the 1960’s childhood obesity has increased by 54 percent in children ages six to eleven. In children twelve to seventeen it has increased by 39 percent. (Silberstein, 1) Childhood obesity is so prevalent among these age groups that it has reached epidemic proportions.
Forty years ago in America childhood obesity was rarely a topic of conversation. A survey done in the early 1970s showed that 6.1% of children between the ages 12 and 19 were overweight. Eight years later the same survey was done and 17.4% were considered overweight (Iannelli). “Childhood obesity epidemic in America is now a confirmed fact since the number of overweight or obese children has more than tripled during the last 30 years” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic). “Over the last 20 years, the prevalence of obesity in children aged 6 to 11 years has tripled from 6.5% to 19.6%” (Childhood Obesity Epidemic). As a nation statistics should be alarming. Why are American children today so obese?
Childhood obesity is an increasing problem here in the United States. According to Schuab and Marian (2011) “Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions” (P.553). The prevalence of child obesity and overweight has increased over the last 30 years all over the United States, becoming one of the biggest public health challenges (Moreno, Johnson-Shelton, & Boles, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to give a background of the obesity epidemic, a review of current policy, and make a policy recommendation.
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).
Commercials make the viewer think about the product being advertised. Because of the amount of television children watch throughout the week, it allows the children to be exposed to the information over and over again. Per year, children are known to view thousands of fast food commercials. On a daily basis, a teen will usually view five advertisements and a child aged six to eleven will see around four advertisements (Burger Battles 4). Businesses use this strategy to “speak directly to children” (Ruskin 3). Although the big businesses in the fast ...
One way that fast food effects obesity is by advertising their products to children (Miller). In her article Food Advertising Contributes to Obesity, Patti Miller explains that the fast food companies are targeting kids and teenagers by advertising on television. The fast food advertisements are promoting unhealthy products as acceptable food which influences children to choose those meals. The American Psychological Association, an organization focused on improving the lives of individuals, expressed that with the exposure of different fast food commercials, children request to purchase these unhealthy products and cause the parents to be influenced by these requests. This concludes the idea that once children are encouraged by the commercials, they opt to consume the fast food advertised on television. Today, fast food companies are even advertising through schools by offering pizzas and burgers as school lunches, which consequently becomes a daily meal for children and teenagers to consume (Wadden, Brownell,
Worcester Polytechnic Institution. "Fast Food Marketing to Children." Public Health Communication. (2007). http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-project-082107-231740/unrestricted/Appendix_1.pdf (accessed February 17, 2014).
Dietz, William H. "The Obesity Epidemic in Young Children." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 10 Feb. 2001. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
In the 20th century children played sports more often, walked to school and more. The children of the 21st century make choices that are completely opposite. The sports children play these days include watching television, playing games and eating junk food. Watching television and playing millions of videos games are excuses to help children avoid exercising.
Parents are not teaching children how to eat healthy. They feed them cheeseburgers, chicken fingers, and fries. Kids are not being exposed to a regular diet of health fruits and vegetables. Now some people are just naturally overweight, but being “overweight” is not the same as being “obese.” Someone who is overweight has reached a maximum weight limit for their height. When someone goes beyond this maximum limit, then they are considered “obese” (Kiess 1). Research shows that “obesity is generally defined as the abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat in adipose tissue” (Kiess 1). The increase in childhood obesity today is mainly the fault of the parent because they are unable to tell their children “no” when it comes to junk food (Kiess 104). Parents are the one buying all the food that comes into the house. They are the ones buying the sugary drinks and chips. They are the ones allowing the children to “have what they want.” Because parents are not teaching their children how to eat healthy, we will continue to see childhood obesity increase. Unfortunately, overweight children will be the ones who suffer because statistics show children who are overweight are more likely to become obes...