Combating Childhood Obesity

Obesity is a disease in which a person is at increased risk of unfavorable health outcomes as a result of excess body fat. (Reilly, 2005 P 19, para 3). As society goes about its daily life doing things such as grocery shopping, going out to dinner, walking around the mall or something as simple as dropping adolescence at school. It is impossible to ignore the growing number of obese adolescence present. Some may turn and shake their heads at the sight of this growing epidemic, why others may think, "oh it is cute," no big deal they will grow out of it. However, the opposite is true. What most people fail to realize is that the eating habits that are established by the parents when children are young almost certainly will follow them into adolescence. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that from 2009- 2010, 16.9% of the United States children and adolescents were obese. Coincidently, that same survey showed that there was a higher propensity for obesity in boys at 18.6% and girls 15%. These are startling figures for the youth of the United States, and so we have to ask ourselves, "is this why are our adolescent boys are falling unconscious and dying during routine athletic practices and activities"? These types of findings make it imperative to educate children from a young age on the importance of a well-balanced diet combined with proper exercise to combat these staggering numbers. The questions should be whose job is it in the fight to combat childhood obesity? Is it the Governments responsibility to insure that the youth of America are getting the right amount of exercise and the proper nutrition to maintain a healthy weight? Or is the Government being too intrusive in the personal and overall well-being of the lives of United States citizens and the habits they raise their children with?

The responsibility for combating childhood obesity ultimately falls on the shoulder of the parents or guardians. Children learn from their surroundings, therefore, the example adults set for them will be the ones that follow them into adolescence and ultimately adulthood. In today's fast paced life, more activities are being thrust upon our youth, such as dance, karate, soccer and other sports of this nature. Although the kids are active with such activities, it takes away from the time available parents have to prepare a healthy meal for their children. These circumstances make it easier to indulge in and the ease of pulling through the drive thru at the local fast food location and restaurant dining with catchy things such as "kids eat free". Research suggests that families are eating out much more today than they did in the late 1970s (Ebbeling CB, Pawlak DB, Ludwig DS 2002). For most citizens, they would choose to keep the Government out of their personal affairs, especially something that some would categorize as a private. However, ultimately it is the responsibility of the parent to insure the health of "their child," not the governments. Parents should help children to develop and maintain healthy eating habits and physical activity by setting the example. Furthermore, there has been talk on numerous television shows where the state has stepped in and taken custody of a three year old girl weighing ninety pounds and placed in foster care, ABC Good Morning America "Should parents lose custody of obese children?" (Harris & Conley 2011).

Times have changed and dinner is not the same. In the past dinner was when the family got together to have a nice well-balanced, home-cooked meal. Today, a home cooked meal will typically consist of take-out eaten at the dinner table together. Families are too busy to spend the time in the grocery store and prepare a well-balanced home-cooked meal. Instead this ritual has been replaced with fast food because it is the fastest but not necessarily the cheapest route. One would think with the economy being what it is today, that people would opt to cook at home. However, Fast food menus do not help in the situation either. According to the McDonald's menu, a Big Mac cost $3.49 while a small chicken salad is $4.79. The price difference is only $1.30, but to feed a family of five it is a difference of $6.50. If the family goes out at least twice a week for a month, they have already spent an extra $52.00 a month. When Super-Size Me first premiered, it opened the eyes of everyone who watched it. Morgan Sprulock decided to run an experiment on the effects fast food has on a human body by eating McDonald's food three times a day for a month. The results were that he gained 24 ½ pounds and ended up with health and mental issues. The affects fast food had on a fully develop man were very drastic. However, many parents are still feeding their children these types of food and don't seem to realize the affects they may be having on the mental and physical development

In conducting research and attempting to justify the importance of determining whose job it is in combating childhood obesity, both qualitative and quantitative research will be gathered and analyzed to present an objective claim on the facts that are being presented. Overall, who is overall responsible for combating childhood obesity in the United States, as childhood obesity affects approximately 12.5 million children and teens (Bell, 988). It is also important to show that on is childhood obesity predisposes adolescence to be insulin resistance and type II diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, liver and renal disease, and reproductive dysfunction (Schwarz 2012). Helping to give people an understanding of how dangerous obesity is and how it contributes to psychosocial problems such as discrimination and poor self-esteem discrimination and heart disease. We must help people to realize that obesity is not something that most kids will grow out of and the long term affects that it can have on them emotionally, physically and financially. How between the ages of 6-19 years of age obesity is already taking years off of their adult lives.

In preliminary research findings, we see