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Parents causing childhood obesity
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Obesity is defined as increase body weight due to unnecessary buildup of body fat by Webster’s dictionary. It is a situation or syndrome in which the “the natural energy reserve of humans or mammals, which is stored in fat tissue, is expanded far beyond usual levels to the point where it impairs health.” Obesity is most often restrained by using the BMI (body mass index). BMI is calculated by distributing the weight in kilograms by the height formed in meters. A desirable BMI for children to sustain a healthy life is between 18.5 and 25. A child with a BMI over 25.0 kg/m 2 is measured as overweight (Survey on Childhood Obesity, 2014). A BMI over 30.0kg/m 2 is reflected obese, and a BMI over 40 is gloomy obesity (Survey on Childhood Obesity, 2014). “An estimated 80% of overweight teenagers continue to be obese into parenthood, so the consequences of childhood obesity on the population’s health are huge” (Survey on childhood obesity, 2014). Obesity is a long-lasting condition that grows as a result of inherited, behavior and environmental factors.
Social problems are the cause for many other problems. Being obese is not anymore an individual problem. It is developed into an enormous social problem. Let’s count up on the problems triggered due to Obesity in today’s present world. This is an age of up-to-date living, greater technology, and well-appointed day-to-day, embellished money and last but not the least trending obesity. Growing number of cases of obesity has made it into a fully grown social problem. Child obesity is a much talked about topic in today’s era. What could be the source of this? The transformation of our living has took us to the top of the ranking on one side and it floods us in a heavy pit called obesity.
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...ese adults in America now is because they were not educated properly prior in becoming obese (10 Links between childhood and adult obesity, 2004).
Lastly, the state that American families are in, is ruthlessly dangerous to their well-being, and solutions to improve the problem should be sought. Avoidance and control of child obesity has become the attention of American society. It has to be a widespread effort between parents, schools, the administration, and the doctors. The focus of these groups should be to in the end get children eating healthier and becoming more active. There is no grand solution to this problem but if everyone makes minor guidelines to improve the comfort of children encouraging results can be seen in the level of obesity in this country. Getting children in good physical shape enough to lead long lives is critical to the form of our society.
Studies have linked obesity to many things from ear infections, to pollution, to air-conditioning, to socializing with obese people. The reason Americans are obese is because of the increasing luxury available to them. Obesity is a rising problem in the United States, and with all the privileges given to its citizens, the country has become increasingly lazy. With portion sizes rising and physical activity decreasing, it is easy to see how obesity rates have skyrocketed.
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.
In order to take a sociological viewpoint into account when one examines obesity, first it is important to understand how obesity is recognized in current society. According to today’s news articles and magazines and advertisements and other mass media about health and healthy life, one can easily realize that a great number of people have an eagerness to be healthy. Also, one can assume through these mass media about health that everyone wants to be attractive, and they are even prone to transform their own behaviors to gain attractiveness. This is because most people live a life where social interaction is frequently required and must engage themselves into social interaction every day of their life. Therefore, based on these ideas and proofs throughout this mass media, obesity is regarded as one of the characteristics that is disgraceful and undesirable in society.
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.
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.
Understanding how obesity is affecting American adults and American children, will help prevent future problems with obesity.
Since the 1960?s obesity in America has more than tripled regardless of sex or race. Today 30.5 percent, or 69 million, American Adults are considered obese (?AOA Fact Sheets? np). In addition, 13 percent of children aged 6-11 years old are considered overweight, and well on their way to becoming obese. Obesity causes over 300,000 deaths a year and costs the country $117 billion dollars, prompting health care providers and the government to label it an epidemic (?Overweight and Obesity?? np).
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?
Amongst one of the bigger health issues in United States children is obesity. Obesity is a condition in which a person has accumulated an excess amount of body fat that it has become detrimental to their health. To track this health professionals use the term “obese” when a person has a body mass index (BMI) of over 30. Although BMI should not be the only determining factor of whether or not you child is obese as it only takes into account of height and weight, it is one of the better known systems of telling whether or not a person is overweight or obese (Nichols). Obesity comes with a range of other health conditions that can include but are not limited to cancer, diabetes, and depression. Not only do children and teens who suffer from obesity acquire many health diseases, they also tend to get failing grades and are bullied amongst peers. Most Americans correlate being obese with having an unhealthy lifestyle, but according to a 2006 Fox News article there may be other factors that attribute to obesity that include smoking, medicine, pollution, technology and lack of sleep. (“10 Causes of Obesity Other Than Overeating”). One part that does although indeed play a role in to child obesity rates is economics.
This essay will discuss obesity in America and the statistical data found surrounding the subject. This is an interesting and personal topic and something very interesting to learn about. The essay will cover different vantage points of obesity including obesity’s relationship to poverty in the U.S., parents’ fight for more physical activity in schools to combat childhood obesity, statistical data about America’s obese population and even a spurious correlation between obesity and sleep duration in children.
This chapter gives various social and biological reasons for the growing world-wide health concern of obesity. Name them and views - why is the reality of weight for most people so far from the cultural or societal ideal?
Parents have always known about obesity and what the affects obesity has on people. Although parents have known about this preventable disease, they are just now becoming more aware about what is happening to their own children. Now they want to start pointing fingers as to why these young children are becoming obese; nobody wants to take the blame for putting these young lives at risk. “Greenbalt states in his article that obesity is becoming an epidemic that there is about 300,000 children each year that die because they are overweight....
Some would say that obesity is a social problem and others would say it is a governmental concern. Child obesity is a major issue and has increased throughout many generations with the economic growth and the wrong information of dietary guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). There are many causes of obesity that play numerous roles from childhood to adulthood. Obesity starts at home and is a result of parents not being properly informed about the correct nutritional values that their children need. Some fault is from the USDA and their lack of informing parents with correct nutritional dietary guidelines. Another concern is what is placed into all foods nowadays and with too much consumption
Society should consider the physical and emotional problems of obesity in our nation. “Obesity is defined as an excess proportion of total body fat (Mayo Clinic).” American society has become increasingly obese, “characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, unhealthy foods, and physical inactivity (cdcinfo@cdc.gov).” Our nation increasingly has become consumers of a fast food diet. It is so simple to just pick up food on the go and not deal with the hassle of cooking and cleaning up afterwards. What are nation needs to acknowledge is the health risks they will obtain if they do not acquire a healthy life style.
Obesity occurs in all countries and it is one of the gravest problems in modern society. Obesity problems have become one matter of concern for individuals all around the world. What is more is that Obesity rates continue to rise all around the world. One of the chief causes is unhealthy diets. Obesity is also due to lack of exercise and lack of education and awareness. Therefore obesity has various effects including the risk of suffering from a range of health conditions, increased expenditure on health care and lack of self-esteem.