Essay On Obesity Among Children

Becoming increasingly more active is vital to combating and reducing obesity in children. Healthful, fitness habits, then, must be jumpstarted at institutions where all American children spend mandatory time, such as in a child’s school; evidently, “normal weight children get 16 more minutes of

viii. Fast foods are high in calories, provide less fruits and vegetables, and are packed with sugar, fat, and sodium

Childhood obesity is rapidly becoming an epidemic in America. Children are becoming overweight from lack of exercise and overeating. A average US child eats fast food daily without exercise. More than 15 million US children live in “food insecure” homes which means they have limited access to the foods they need to stay healthy due to the cost of the items according to the Trust for America’s Health and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Children are consuming much more than they burn off from exercise daily. Due to children eating more than they burn off, they are suffering from different types of diseases. Researchers are still studying these epidemics. So far, statistics have shown that children are in fact becoming obese from not exercising

Observational studies were done on school children in kindergarten through third grade. The article explains that the children’s BMIs (body mass index) were measured at the beginning of the school year, end of the school year, and then again at the beginning of the following school year. It was seen that the BMI increase of the children increased twice as much during the three summer months than during the nine-month school frame. This infers that children gain more weight and are more incline to become overweight in their own home environment than their school environment. Sloviter makes a point that this increase in BMI at such a young age will lead to an increased risk for adult obesity. She concludes the article by briefly reminding the reader to remember that there are other factors that contribute to childhood obesity and the largest factor may not be the school lunch environment after all.

This literature review is being conducted to evaluate an intervention, which has been taken for its successes and failures. Having a key understanding of the positives and negatives in this intervention will be beneficial when planning for our own group project. In this specific article, “Get Fit With the Grizzlies: A Community-School-Home Initiative to Fight Childhood Obesity,” written by Carol C. Irwin, Richard L. Irwin, Maureen E. Miller, Grant W. Somes, and Phyllis A. Richey, put into action a get fit program to motivate children to obtain knowledge of living a healthy life through physical activity and diet. Analyzing the strengths and weakness throughout this article would be helpful in creating a successful outcome

Childhood obesity is a major problem in the United States. There are multiple reasons for this problem including the child’s school system, the access to technology in young children and the child’s genes. It is sometimes inevitable for a child to be obese due to their genes. There are some precautions being made to help this problem. Some might work but others might fail. Childhood obesity is a major problem and needs to be fixed because it causes major health issues for the child in the future.

This study analyzed the physical activity levels (PA), moderate-vigorous physical activity levels (MVPA), BMI, and waist circumferences (WC) in 202 (53% male; 47% female) children annually from ages seven to ten. These figures were kept track of in the subjects because “The aim of the present study was to use

All of humankind knows that obesity is a real damaging part of our children’s lives; therefore, programs that address obesity are being created. These programs take into account different variables depending on how much they want to address. “Rather than trying to zero in on any single factor, a dynamic-systems approach is needed: Many factors, over time, make a child overweight”(Berger 2014, pg. 250). In the article “Young Kids, Old Bodies” by Alice Park, Park talks about some programs designed for childhood obesity.

In contrast to the adults in the study, the children showed quite opposite results. According to their monitoring, they experienced more changes in their physiological variables when looking at exercise benefits than diet benefits. Although both groups were lower overall in monitoring their exercise, the percentage was higher in children, which was not seen in the monitoring of the diet. The study showed that 84.1% of adults monitored their exercise, while 85% of children did the same. Although this is not a large margin, the difference can be seen as a greater importance being placed on exercise for the children. This could be because the results showed a more significant physiological difference in the children due to exercise than in the adults. During the self-monitoring of the healthy diet, the

Until the early 1960’s childhood obesity had never been a problem. Between 1963-1970 the rate of obesity for children of both genders through the ages of 6-11 years old was 4.2 percent and for those between the ages of 12-19 the rate was 4.6 percent. From their the rates of children and adolescents who were obese would only increase. In the year of 1971-1974 the rate of 6-11 years old was 4.0 percent, and adolescents between the ages of 12-19 were 6.1 percent. Between the year 1976-1980 the rate of obesity in

obesity is okay and that it is not that big of a deal, they are wrong. There

After learning healthy habits in the program, students tend to go home and share what they have learned with their parents and family. The knowledge that is taught to the youth goes well beyond their own minds and bodies, but benefits the people around them as well. The 4-H Afterschool programs seek to not only help the individuals, but their lives as they “increase knowledge and skills necessary for improving physical activity practices and to improve the habits and behaviors of children, youth, and families” (Downey, et al., 2014, p. 14). The goals that have been set forth should ultimately reduce the health risks that are seen in communities such as obesity and illnesses (Downey, et al., 2014, p.

Childhood obesity is a disease where excess body fat affects a child's health or wellbeing. With the number of children affected by the disease increasing, it is important to understand the consequences. Not only will obesity influence a child’s physical heath, but it can also affect their emotional and social health as well. Acknowledging that obesity is a preventable disease should help lower the number of children affected by it. It is not about dieting; it is a lifestyle change that should be adopted and practiced by the whole family. Being obese increases a child's risk of being an obese adult. I will argue that parent education regarding the physical and emotional effects of childhood obesity can protect the lives of children.

Childhood obesity has increased drastically over the past years and has become a high health risk to children. In fact, childhood obesity has doubled in numbers in the past thirty years (Childhood Obesity Facts). Obesity occurs when an individual becomes overweight and doctor’s diagnose a patient by using the body mass index or BMI scale. Obesity causes many diseases in children which cannot be cured without a doctor, in result, childhood obesity drives high health care costs. Since little effort has been put forward to prevent childhood obesity the existence of this disease has begun to skyrocket in numbers. The number of children who suffer from obesity have greatly increased over the years so, people have to come up with a solution to prevent obesity. However, it will take more than just one solution to prevent childhood obesity, it will take many. Without the prevention of obesity future generations could be in serious trouble with health issues. Childhood obesity should be prevented by showing the youth that healthy will benefit them in life, therefore, parents start by guiding children in the correct direction with their eating habits, limit their fast food intake, and fight the market for unhealthy foods so that children are not exposed to unhealthy options.

Obesity is the condition of being seriously overweight. It is now considered a global health epidemic by the World Health Organization (2000) (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010). Physical activity is important to children in the middle childhood age group because a staggering amount of children have become overweight in the last few decades and teachers play a role in preventing obesity by becoming a positive role model,