Childhood Obesity: A Growing Epidemic Obesity continues to become an increasing cause for death worldwide, none as true as in the United States. Obesity is a “lifestyle risk resulting from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure”. Internationally, at least 10% of school age children are considered obese. In the United States, this number is near 32%. Childhood obesity is so important to tackle at an early age, because studies have shown that it leads to long term health risk such as diabetes, heart disease, and cardiovascular disease.
Nutrition and eating habits a. Eating Habits b. Daily Activities B. Causes of Obesity 1. Risk Factors to obesity 2.
Running Head: CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN AMERICA 1 Childhood Obesity in America Kilah Bryan-Lawson Liberty University Online CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN AMERICA 2 Abstract Childhood obesity has become quite a problem in America. This paper describes the obesity problem as a nationwide epidemic. It defines what it is to be medically obese and addresses the issues that adolescents face when they encounter this issue. This paper also discusses the reasons that childhood obesity has become an epidemic. It also discusses ways in which schools enable childhood obesity and gives ideas on what schools can do help prevent childhood obesity.
We can now see obesity is the second killer behind tobacco that could have been prevented with the proper lifestyle changes. Kiess states that obesity risks are even higher when the child has an obese parent (Kiess 220). Obesity is caused by unhealthy lifestyles, and lifestyles are passed on from parents to their kids.
Some neighborhoods are not safe and parents feel that it is unsafe for their children to be outside without some parent supervision, which sometimes causes the children to refrain from playing outdoor games, which may lead to obesity. Socioeconomic status also plays a major role in the obesity epidemic. With today’s economy, more families are struggling to make money, and their settling for foods that are filled with bad nutrients and are high in sugar, fat, and calories. Lowerincome children cannot always afford to participate in extracurricular activities, which results in a decrease in physical activity in a child’s life, which may contribute to obesity. Parents that don’t make enough money are living in areas that aren’t particularly safe, which leads to the children being scared to go outside and play.
Obesity is causing children to develop diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and strokes. If nothing is done to prevent childhood obesity, the rate will continue to rise. Overweight and obesity and their related diseases are largely preventable. Prevention of childhood obesity therefore needs high priority. Prevention is the key strategy for controlling childhood obesity and should begin immediately after a child is born.
To begin with, it is important that childhood obesity is properly defined? Childhood obesity is more than average amount of body weight in a child. The meaning of low income communities is a community that has an average income of below poverty. This research will determine how does a low income community greatly contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. There are several factors that can cause the childhood obesity in the low income community.
This makes them directly correlated to the current trends in the prevalence of obesity. According to Friel (2009) inequity which results to social profiles has resulted to increased prevalence in obesity. The affluent, with good income spend much eating junk foods and doing less exercise. The underprivileged on the other hand are bound by illiteracy, poor social amenities, retrogressive cultures and unemployment. This makes both groups vulnerable to obesity as they indulge in unplanned and bad eating habits.
Overweight and obesity has become a national epidemic problem. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity has affected a third of the adults in the United States and a third of the Americans seem to be getting fatter. (Freedman, 2011) It has created many problems, such as an increase in health insurance premiums, health related diseases and unhappy lives. These factors are affecting Americans of all ages and the problem is not going away unless drastic interventions are implemented. In the present paper, overweight and obesity is being investigated.
Obesity is a phenomenon that reached an epidemic level among children in developed countries. Many factors are behind that; and obesity, of course, has tremendous effects on children’s health as well as on their psychological state. Some of the consequences of obesity are used to be frequent among adults, but nowadays, children have it. In a journal article reporting a study done by Stephen R and Daniels, in addition that now children are having their parents’ diseases, the phenomenon is increasing in high frequency, and the types of diseases include high blood pressure, early symptoms of hardening of the arteries, type 2 diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, polycystic ovary disorder, and disordered breathing during sleep, another point made by Daniels and Stephen is that the obesity destroys the human body, but if it starts from the childhood, it actually accelerate its effects which in his turn causes the heart attack, or stroke, to start in childhood. Another point made by Daniels is that the effect of obesity doesn’t stop at this point, but it may go to the extent to reverse the stable increase in life expectancy which makes of obesity one of the most public concerns; thus efforts are being made to determine what causes obesity among children(Stephen, & Daniels, 2006, p 47-67).