Is your income affecting your children's weight? Jacklyn A. Rigsby English 122 Instructor Brian Davis 05/07/2012 Childhood obesity is a growing problem for the youth of today. There are many factors that contribute to obesity in children including bad eating habits and lack of physical stimulation. But, the biggest problem today is the affect of the child's eating habit due to the fact that they are in a lower income family. Many may not believe it, but the economy is to blame for some of the children being over weight and unhealthy.
Whether if the government decided to take action related to fast food for the cause of child obesity. Therefore, many families should start to cook meals, stop eating fast foods in front of children, and start reducing fast food consumption in moderation it can help improve the unhealthy eating that the children
Childhood Obesity Jamie Blake ENG 122 Jennifer Williams October 15 2012 Child obesity is a huge problem in the United States and a lot more citizens need to be aware and educated on the steps that can be taken to assist children struggling with obesity. How does Childhood Obesity happen, how many does it affect, what can be done to prevent this problem and what are the long terms affects. There are facts that show and lead others to believe that childhood obesity is the fault of the parents because children are watching too much Television, playing too many video games, they are not getting enough exercise, and most importantly they have an unhealthy diet. Well what is childhood obesity; it is defined as a serious medical condition
According to the American Academy of pediatrics states that children are getting less playtime, because of the no child left behind act. Research has shown that children engage in less physical activity in the summer and gain weight two to three times faster. Watching television can cause a big issue with childhood obesity. When children are viewing TV different commercials advertise unhealthy foods. When they see that it makes them want high and fatty foods.
Most families turn to technology to keep their children occupied without realizing that excessive consumption may harm their health. For example, when kids spend late night hours sitting in front of the TV screen, they get an inadequate amount of sleep which leads to obesity overtime. Childhood Obesity & Technology – What’s the Connection,
This awareness appears to be generalized from studies using stereotypes with similar negative responses regardless of gender, age, or own body status. Children can become aware of being obese at relatively low levels of fatness through mechanisms such as reference to photographs and name calling. The physical effects that obesity has on our children can lead to serious health issues both in childhood and continue through their adult years. Many studies have shown that children who are overweight before the age of eight years are at a much higher risk of serious illness such as diabetes, sleep apnea, respiratory diseases, and other serious disease. As parents, we need to take responsibility for our children’s health and lead by example.
Not only are we doing this to ourselves, now we are doing this to our children. (1 in 3 American children is obese). 30.6 percent obesity in America. This number is sobering when comparing it to other countries. What is more alarming, is that if people don’t start paying more attention to what they are eating this number is only going to grow.
Sue Palmer is another sociologist that believes the increasing impact of technology and the media over the past 50 years is causing childhood to deteriorate. Palmer argues that in modern society there is a ‘toxic childhood’ due to an excessively screen-based culture which she feels is why there has been an increase in developmental conditions in children. She has reasons for some of these conditions, for example ADHD could be caused to screen saturation as the rapid changes of images on TV can make an immature brain go into overdrive resulting in the child seeing real life as boring. Palmer also believes the increase in screen-based activities has made it more difficult for children to develop literacy skills. Also Palmer
With many children experiencing obesity, the economy markets are affected because the way children are forced to change the way they eat. Some companies will benefit from the change whereas others will suffer a loss. When the demand for a certain product rises because obese children have to change his or her way of eating it affects the market of supply. Affecting the market of supply lowers the consumption of certain products and raises the demand for healthier food items. This also causes a change in the sales of clothes as children losses more weight, affecting more than one demand and supply
(Trahms, C.M., & Pipes, P.L., (ed). (1997) Nutrition in Infancy and Childhood. United States: WCB/McGraw-Hill) however, media can have its negative impact and cause obesity. For instant, When the family goes shopping, they tend to buy the food that they have seen on T.V that is most probably low in nutrition and high in calories. Commercials usually show the use of food as a measure of entertainment and not to satisfy hunger.