Childhood Obesity
As of 2012, “more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese” (Childhood Obesity Facts). The amount of children that are obese in the US is greater than ever before, doubling in the last 30 years. Obesity in children can be caused by lack of exercise, lack of access to healthy foods, and lack of education about health and wellness. Obesity can cause a wide range of both physical and mental health complications. Childhood obesity is major issue leading to multiple health issues but education and access to resources can help reduce the problem. Obesity is a health condition categorized by having excess fat. Obesity in children is mainly caused by poor food choices and lack of exercise. Body mass index
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The dramatic increase in the United States is a direct result of the increase use of technology. Technology use has increased in homes, workplaces, and schools. There is a decrease of children that walk to school because cities are more dangerous than ever before. People run errands using cars, instead of riding a bike. Children drink more sweetened sugary drinks instead of water or lowfat milk than they did in the past. Children are also advertised to, using TV and social media, to buy and eat high caloric, good tasting, cheap foods. Social changes are responsible for the dramatic increase of childhood …show more content…
The First Lady, Michelle Obama, launched the “Let’s Move!” initiative to encourage physical activity and better food choice. “The goal of the action plan is to reduce the childhood obesity rate to just five percent by 2030 – the same rate before childhood obesity first began to rise in the late 1970s” (“letsmove”). When it comes to physical education, Let’s Move recommends schools hire qualified persons who are able to connect with children and adolescents even if they have great predisposed physical barriers. It also recommends having strong physical education classes where vigorous physical activity is present at least 50% of the time. “Unfortunately, some key aspects of current school meals, other foods at school, and environmental factors are contributing to obesity and failing to support good nutrition and physical activity behaviors” (“letsmove”). Let’s Move recommends schools to improve the quality and overall healthiness of it’s lunches and change the foods available to kids throughout the day. Those these seem like great ideas they’re just recommendations. I have my own ideas that might be able to
“Remarks to the NAACP National Convention” is a transcript of the speech Michelle Obama gave to the NAACP Convention. Mrs. Obama urges the members of the NAACP to take action and support the “Let’s Move” campaign to combat childhood obesity. In this speech, Mrs. Obama stresses the four main components of her “Let’s Move” campaign. The first goal of the campaign is to offer parents with the information that they need to make healthy choices for their families. The second goal of the movement is to put healthy food into schools.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discuss about childhood obesity. With CDC, this research is very useful in helping others understand what overweight and obesity is. Having excess body weight for a particular height from fat, bone, muscle, water, or a combination of all is being overweight. Obesity is just having excess body fat. It states about obesity occurring to children and adolescents that has passed since 30 years. The first stage of this phenomenon starts as a person being overweight which will lead to obesity. More than one-third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. The result for both of these terms is a caloric-imbalance which is an amount of too few calories that is consumed and is affected by many genetics, behavioral, and environmental factors. From this source CDC gives a specific estimate percentage of children aged 6–11 years that is more overly obese. In the United States in 1980 who were obese increased from 7% to nearly 18% in 2012. Furthermore over the same period, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21%. Additionally, there is a list of health effects of childhood obesity and inform immediate and long-term health effects. Tips are also included here to prevent any other health problems relating to obesity. It does not clearly teach every step of how to prevent it, but giving out ideas on how to solve the problem yourself.
The overall rate of obesity for children comes in at 17 percent, or about 12.5 million obese children in America today (Doheny 1). The number of children who are obese is growing at a fast rate. Most cases of childhood obesity are caused by eating too much and exercising too little. Extra weight puts children at a risk of serious health problems; such as, diabetes, heart disease, and asthma (Smith 1). Although obesity can be prevented, it has become a growing problem among children due to several factors that lead to health problems.
What is childhood obesity? Childhood obesity is a condition in which a child is significantly overweight for his or her age and height. In “What is childhood obesity,” the American Heart Association reports that obesity in children causes health problems (American Heart Association). A statistic is that today, about one in three American kids and teens are overweight or obese, which has tripled the rate since 1963 (American Heart Association). If the rate has increased over the past fifty-two years when will it decrease? It will never decrease if healthier lifestyles are not enforced. We need to improve childhood obesity by having classes to educate parents to keep their children healthy.
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.
“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.
On February 9, 2010 Michelle Obama announced the “Let’s move” campaign. The campaign encouraged schools to serve “healthier” food. The goal of “Let’s move,” is to decrease childhood obesity by 5% by the year 2030. They plan to make laws requiring schools serve fruits and vegetables in certain quantities. This sounds great on paper, right?
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).
As part of her Let’s Move! Initiative and as an honorary chair of the Partnership for a Healthier America, First Lady Michelle Obama will keynote the Building a Healthier Future Summit at the Renaissance down town Hotel. Each year PHA’s Summit brings together nonprofit, government, private sector, philanthropic, and academic leaders to generate innovative solutions that help families and kids lead healthier lives (Partnership). Let’s Move! Was Michelle Obama’s first lead role in an administrative-wide initiative to make progress in reversing the 21st century trend of childhood obesity. In 2010, the First Lady announced this initiative and President Barack Obama followed her lead by creating the Task Force on Childhood Obesity to review all
Founded on February 9, 2010 by First Lady Michelle Obama, the Let’s Move! campaign, seeks to be a driving force in solving the childhood obesity epidemic faced in the United States within a generation, by the year 2030 (United States, White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity [WHTFCO], 2010). As part of the Let’s Move! intervention there was a sub-intervention call the Let’s Move! Active schools that was implemented three years after the beginning of the original movement (SHAPE America, 2015). This sub-intervention sought to make changes specifically in schools, due to large amount of time children spend at school, an average of six to seven hours a day (SHAPE America, 2015). In America 17 percent of all youth, ages 2 – 19,
Obesity Is a very serious thing and we really need to take care of it right away. There is some things I'd like to talk about like Obese People’s Physical Activity. Obesity is hard because when you just eat junk starts to cause extra fat. That's why here I am going to explain the effects of obesity. What has all happened When someone has obesity themselves.
Childhood obesity is a serious medical problem that affects children. Obesity is a medical term, commonly defined as being extremely overweight, which is only half the case. (www.wikipedia.com) Many parent’s ask if their child is obese, or at risk of becoming overweight, and they ask what to do about it. MD, Dennis Clements tells parents: “Obesity is a family event, not an individual event”.
We want to solve the problem by helping kids and adults each healthier by making healthier lifestyle choices when it comes to eating. We also want to also increase physical activity of children and adolescents. I believe with the proper diet and exercise we can help decrease the obesity issue in this country that has grown so much in the past two decades. These steps are vital to helping prevent childhood obesity and even kids who currently suffer from childhood obesity. Since the 1970’s approximately 15 percent of children and adolescents are now overweight. "Prevent Childhood Obesity-Get Your Kids Moving!" Prevent Childhood Obesity-Get Your Kids Moving!
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...