Persuasive Essay On Childhood Obesity

2309 Words5 Pages

Obesity is the condition of being grossly overweight. For the past decade, child obesity had been stable 17%, affecting 12.7 million children ages 2-19 years old. An unhealthy lifestyle starts at home Green, Gregory, and Shirley A. Reese. “Childhood Obesity: a growing phenomenon for physical education.” That is where children adopt food choices and portion size taught by their parents. Starting children on fast food at a young age is teaching them that it’s okay to have processed food over fresh food. Parents are not taking responsibility for children’s unhealthy eating habits. The research of Mary Ebierstadt ” Mary Eberstadt Obesity in Children Is a Serious Problem, 2006 argues that while adult obesity can be seen simply as a result of free choice, children’s obesity cannot. Parents need to take responsibility for not only their children’s obesity, but also the health problems that result from it such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Children are being taught to live unhealthy lives. Obesity in children comes with many consequences. Obesity can now be considered a form of child abuse. Parents look for someone else to blame for their actions, school meal programs and activities are taking the hit. A child’s diet is a big part of teaching children how to maintain …show more content…

Schools are taking action to fight against obesity and the other issues the cause it, by taking some steps to help the cause. Such as taking out unhealthy snacks in vending machines, schools are creating programs where kids can learn about healthy nutrition and fitness. When children go home there are also many things parents can do to help out, avoid eating large amounts of fast food and spending more time encouraging outside activities, getting involved with sports. With the help of the school and parents getting involved, parents and schools might be able to solve this

Should Parents Lose Custody of Extremely Obese Kids?
1874 Words | 4 Pages
In the recent decades, obesity has grown into a major health issue in the United States within young people. With 31 percent of the United States of children being obese, the United States has become the country with the highest rate of obesity in the world. Obesity is not only found among adults, but it is also now found mainly among children and teenagers. The childhood is a very important period for the initiation of obesity especially in this time. Eating practices that children are taught or learn during childhood affects a person later in their life whether they know or not. Multiple studies have confirmed that childhood obesity in the U.S has been on a rise for years. One out of three children in the U.S are obese, most of them face a higher risk of having medical, social and academic problems. Childhood obesity also leads to many health problems among young people. Those problems include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many more others. These problems cause a rise in health care costs that their families might have to pay sooner or later. The influence of parents and the media play a big role in causing these problems to happen. Some people believe that a family with an obese child should not raise child protection concerns if obesity is the only cause for concern (Callaghan, 2010). However, doctors should always be mindful of the possible role of abuse or neglect in contributing to obesity. The result of some research that was done on the symptoms of neglect shows a clear correlation between childhood abuse and obesity in childhood. A study of American school children has found that after controlling for socioeconomic status, those who were physically abused were more likely to be obese (Callaghan, 201...
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Are Schools Making Children Obese?
1307 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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Persuasive Essay On Childhood Obesity
1327 Words | 3 Pages
A national epidemic is occurring, the war between food and people. In the United States, about “32% of children (from 2 to 19 years old) are obese” (Bernadac 1). As the years continue to go on the rate of obese children are increasing as well. In the past the problem did not have much consideration due to a low rate of affected children. Now families are suffering the long-term consequences of having an obese child. Some of those health effects are “Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and osteoarthritis” (CDC 1). A problem with this type of drastic effects may have a solution; method prevention for the future generations and correct treatment for those who are already obese can lower the rate.
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952 Words | 2 Pages
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The Pros And Cons Of Childhood Obesity
2413 Words | 5 Pages
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.
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Obesity in Children Across America
1344 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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Childhood Obesity in African American Children
1313 Words | 3 Pages
It is apparent that living an unhealthy lifestyle, as well as eating poorly, negatively affects one’s health. From a young age it is quickly learned which foods are considered healthful as opposed to junk food. It is a parents responsibility to supervise the intake of their child's food, however there is a higher risk than ever before of childhood obesity.
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Childhood Obesity: A Multifaceted American Crisis
1116 Words | 3 Pages
Childhood obesity is a chronic health problem in the United States. Today, "nearly a third of youths are overweight or obese" (National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research). Obesity affects children psychologically and physically. Obesity is a chronic imbalance of more calories consumed than expended each day. Childhood obesity is closely linked with housing and food securities, children without stable homes are more likely to suffer from hunger, chronic disease, and malnutrition. Demographic, socio-structural, and environmental variables also play a significant role in the childhood obesity prevalence and incidents. For instance, environments with lower than the average neighborhood, availability of healthy foods and higher than
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Argumentative Essay On Childhood Obesity
1239 Words | 3 Pages
All parents believe, or would like to believe, that their children are in a state of perfect health. In some cases, this is incorrect due to the parents and children 's lack of knowledge on what the actual state of optimal health is for children. For example, a hot topic around the world today is the issue of childhood obesity. This topic caught my eye because it is truly beginning to have a negative impact on today’s society and is something that needs to be addressed. Currently, my job at the Littleton YMCA provides me the with opportunity to work with children and teach a variety of fitness classes for kids. This has helped me to become passionate about promoting a healthy lifestyle, and showing younger generations ways in which to go about this. Gaining more information on this topic can help me to better
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Argumentative Essay On Childhood Obesity
1357 Words | 3 Pages
Obesity is a modern epidemic in America and is starting to become our society’s “norm.” According to an article in Progress in Health Sciences, childhood obesity is the most frequent eating disorder (Koukourikos). There are several factors that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. Should we solely shun the parents of obese children for this? No, we should not. There is not one single person to blame, but several people, along with our society. Family, friends, and schools all play a very important role in teaching children about healthy food choices and exercise. Children may have a greater risk for obesity due to genetic factors. We need to constantly remind our children how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that
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Childhood Obesity
1849 Words | 4 Pages
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).
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Persuasive Essay On Obesity
2078 Words | 5 Pages
America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Take a look around. Fast food chains on every block, more and more technology to make our lives easier, and high amount of stress are just a few factors to weight gain in our country. There are many different views on obesity and how the people think it should be resolved, whether it's government making the change or the people taking care of themselves. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Are we doing enough to bring these statistics down? No. In the last 40 years, there has been a growth to more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America (“Adolescent and School Health”). Restaurants (such as Wendy's, McDonald's etc.) serve more than 50 million people per day, generating about 65 million in sales annually. Only since obesity has become a national epidemic have fast food restaurants changed their ways. But we need to do more than just change the kind of oil the french fries are fried in. Better yet, why don't we remove, or intensely decrease the number of the unhealthy fast food chains, and spread more healthy fast food chains, such as Subway? Is it something government could take act in? Should the United States government take measures to fight the rise of obesity in the country, or are choices concerning diet and nutrition better left to the individuals, free of government interference?
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Persuasive Essay On Obesity
727 Words | 2 Pages
When promoting plus sizes and television shows, are self-esteem or heart disease also being promoted? People throughout the world struggle with being anorexic, bulimic, overweight, or obese. TLC’s now popular reality TV show, My 600 Pound Life, displays the daily struggles of morbidly obese people. While encouraging women to love their body is appealing, there are many dangers in the fondness of obesity. Glorifying obesity can lead to being morbidly unhealthy, as demonstrated by Dominique Lanoise, a woman who died from morbid obesity.
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Parents Are Mainly to Blame for Childhood Obesity
1038 Words | 3 Pages
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...
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Schools Can Reduce Childhood Obesity
2217 Words | 5 Pages
Childhood obesity is a health problem that is becoming increasingly prevalent in society’s youth. For a number of years, children across the nation have become accustomed to occasionally participating in physical activities and regularly snacking on sugary treats. In result of these tendencies, approximately one third of American children are currently overweight or obese (Goodwin). These grim statistics effectively represent all the lack of adult interference, in regards to health, has done to the youth of America. The habits of over consuming foods and under participating in physical activities are all too common in the children of today. Children cannot solve this issue alone, though. These young people need to essentially be given the opportunities to make positive health decisions and learn about good, nutritional values.
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Persuasive Essay On Childhood Obesity

Should Parents Lose Custody of Extremely Obese Kids?

Are Schools Making Children Obese?