Persuasive Essay On Obesity

Obesity numbers has reached enormous levels in the United States. Over two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese, and one in three Americans are obese. The number of children has increased dramatically over the past decade. It is so prevalent that it affects seventeen percent of children and adolescents. The fact is this issue will not go away unless we do something about it, and we need to do something now, because being overweight or obese has major consequences. It leads to many health risk in life such as: insulin resistance, type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, heart attack, congestive heart failure, cancer, osteoarthritis (degenerative arthritis), and sleep apnea (“Obesity.” CDC). Proposing

Parents are those who choose what their kids eat, how active they are, and how much health matters. A child learns early in life bad health habits, because what their parents do. To change theses bad things they learn/do, first the parents need to change their lifestyle to a healthier lifestyle. Whether that means they need to eat healthier, be more active, or change their mind set of health. The best way to live a healthy life is to achieve daily physical exercise, like walking, hiking, running, or maybe playing a sport. Experts say an average person needs 150-300 minutes of moderate intensity activities a week (“Obesity.” Prevention). While that seems like a lot, maybe start smaller and increase from that, because any physical exercise is better than living a sedentary lifestyle. Though exercise is the best way to be healthy, not all can be physically active routinely. So maybe eating habits need to change. Introduce more low-calorie, nutrient-dense foods, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains; avoid saturated fats, sweets, liquid calories such as soda and alcohol (“Obesity.” Prevention). By changing to these exercise and eating habits as a family, it will not only make you healthier, but most importantly your kids will live a healthier lifestyle, because children who live healthier are more likely to continue their healthy life into adulthood and their

Education of the young/adolescent population is the second step needed for childhood obesity to be a thing of the past. Not only is education about health in our children, important in our schools, but in our community, city, neighborhood, and etc. Yes, we need a change in our school systems, on how we educate children on health, but first we need education of health to go beyond schools. Experts say a child/ adolescent needs sixty minutes a day of physical activity. Every city has an activities center, park, playground, gyms, and outdoor courts; so there is no excuse for not having a place to be physically active, but we need to have educated/trained adults educating/coaching children. Sports such as Pee-Wee and Little League have been our only form of childhood physical activity, not saying that is a bad thing, but we need to use that as not only a time to be active, but time to teach the kids the importance of being active/healthy. Not only use the practice time of sports to educate and get physical activity, but implement a community fitness/education program for the local children. Plus, the government has created financial assistance to not only schools, but communities for physical fitness and nutrition programs for adolescents (Physical Activity). Education outside the school is important, along with fitness too, but the