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Obesity in the United States has started to become a big problem particularly in children. One in every five children is obese. Almost everyday the news or newspaper report about obesity in children. Not only are children obese but they are also having problems such as: heart problems, high blood pressure, diabetes, breathing problems, and sleeping problems. More and more kids are becoming obese. Thirty percent of children ages 6 to 11 are over weight and 15.3 percent of children are obese. Over weight prevalence is higher is boys (32.7 percent) than girls (27.8 percent) (Smith, pg. 64). The three factors that cause obesity in children are lack of physical activity, environment, and poor nutrition.
Physical activity has been proven to reduce the accumulation of body fat. It is recommended that children exercise at least thirty minutes a day five days out of the week. It has been proven that children who exercise and keep their same eating habits stay at the same weight. Children who exercise have cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition. Children are spending most of their time on computers, video games and watching television which leads them into an inactive lifestyle. Reports show that children are spending six hours a day doing these things instead of being active (Hendersen, pg. 179. Only one third of children have physical education in school, and parents busy schedules prevent children from taking after school sport activities. In most cases children do not have at least one parent who exercises and who can serve as a role model for the child.
The second cause of obesity in children is the environment. If from an early age children grow up seeing that there family members eat pizza every Saturday and have a dessert after wards he/she will grow up with those same eating habits. Studies have shown that disadvantaged families that have low nutritional knowledge and poor interest...