Fruits, vegetables, unprocessed foods, organic, and lean meats are all expensive. When you don’t have much money to spend to feed yourself and your family, you are looking at ways to buy the most money for your dollar, not the healthiest foods for your dollar. Unfortunately a bag of carrots doesn’t look as appealing as a bag of chips, most children would rather eat chips as well, and when you can’t buy much food you don’t want to have your children waste any, so you’re going to buy something they will eat. Foods that are highly processed, foods that don’t expire quickly, and most foods that are bought in bulk for a low price, are poor choices of food, and these are the foods that will lead to unhealthy bodies. Sugars, starches, sodium, everything that is in a processed food, just helps fat accumulate on the body, and in the arteries.
Children who live in a low income home are at a higher risk of obesity. The shortage of money that these families experience pushes them to engage activities like buying convenience foods, which usually contain high amount of sugar (AOC). Children with low income families do not have the money to play sports at schools, which is a problem because school sports have an enrollment fee. Another way the family’s economic status can affect childhood obesity is that parents with low incomes usually do not have much education; this makes them less likely to know about childhood obesity and so they ignore
The economic cost of supporting and increasingly overweight population with more diseases is another concern (U.S. obesity). Childhood obesity has not only prominent immediate effects but dangerous long-terms effects on children’s health and wellbeing. The effected children can more likely to have risk factor, cardiovascular disease, such a high cholesterol and high blood pressure. In a population based sample of 5 to 17 years old, 70% of obese youth had one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. (Journal of Pediatrics,
(2009) Effect of school-based physical activity interventions on body mass index in children: A meta-analysis. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 180(7), 719-726. Retrieved from http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report Files/2011/Early-Childhood-Obesity- Prevention-Policies/Young Child Obesity 2011 Recommendations.pdf Lavizzo-Mourey, R., & Levi, J. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, (2012). F as in fat 2012: How obesity threatens America. Retrieved from website: http://www.rejf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/reports/2012/frjf401318 Karnik, S., & Kanekar, A.
Those without transportation are subjected to shopping at convenience and corner stores. Residents with better access to supermarkets and reliable transportation are less likely to develop obesity and more likely to have a healthy diet. But, where healthy food is more costly, sugars and fats are inexpensive and abundant. Families that are low-income try to stretch the dollar by buying cheap foods that are filling. These foods are of low quality, and have been the leading cause of obesity.
The poor in this country are not able to afford healthy food, nor are they in the position to spend time exercising, both of which could help reduce their chances of obesity; lowering the cost of healthy foods through government subsides, and creating programs that support healthy living and exercise in poor neighborhoods could be two solutions to this growing problem. The poor are at greater risk for obesity due to their inability to afford healthy food. Healthy foods are more expensive than unhealthy foods and are not as available in low income neighborhoods where the poor often live. Conversely, unhealthy foods are readily available in close proximity to many low income neighborhoods. In a study by Sharkey, Johnson, Dean, and Horal (2011) proximity to fast food was related to the amount of fast food meals consumed by women.
Childhood Obesity Kristy Unkel Walden University Childhood obesity is a serious chronic medical condition that affects millions of children in our country. It is a rapidly growing public health concern in the United States. As obese children grow into adulthood, their risk for health problems such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes and hypertension also grows (“Overweight and obesity”, n.d.). Obesity is a difficult disease to manage since obese children are “predisposed to obesity for the rest of their lives” (“Overweight and obesity”, n.d.). According to the surgeon general, in the year 2000, “the total annual cost of obesity and complications in the United States was $117 billion and more than 300,000 Americans died from illnesses related to obesity” (“Overweight and obesity”, n.d.).
2005,1999–2002.) Overweight in children and adolescents: pathophysiology, consequences, prevention, and treatment. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/obesity/ SEARCH- Childhood Obesity J Bell, V W Rogers, W H Dietz, C L Ogden, et al. (2011) MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Childhood Obesity Parents are very much in denial when it comes to childhood obesity and how it relates to parent child relationships. There are many theories and reason why there is an increase in childhood obesity. One of those reasons is poor diets. More children have more access to unhealthy food with the increase in fast food restaurants. Also the lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle are causes for this epidemic.
Not only does it put them at risk when they are younger, obese children also tend to become obese when they are adults, causing them to have the same, if not more serious health problems. I think that eating healthy and a lot of physical activity is important for children to help them stay healthy. But one large factor that I feel gets over looked when it comes to childhood obesity is how unhealthy food is advertised, and how big of an effect what everyday children watch on the television really does have in the rising of obesity rates. I think that the fast food and advertising are at huge fault for childhood obesity. The fast food industry knows that putting a toy in their kids meals will make young children want to go to their restaurants, rather than restaurants where they go in and sit down and get no toys.