How fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity - Research Paper Example

How Fast-Food Has A Significant Impact In Childhood Obesity? Introduction Childhood obesity is a serious/major public health concern and it currently getting a great amount of attention because of its wider economic impacts, as well as the long term consequences on children’s overall health, quality of life, academic achievements and productivity as they turn into adults (Currie et al. 2). Fortunately, latest findings point out that the growth in the proportion of children categorized as obese or overweight has finally leveled off. Nevertheless, rates of obesity and overweight still remain high. “Almost 35% of children aged 6 to 19 years are overweight and roughly 19% are obese” (Currie et al. 2). Taking health into consideration, the effects of obesity among children include coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, orthopedic abnormalities and respiratory problems. One of the fields of the food industry, which is being held responsible for the prevalence of childhood obesity, is the FAFH – food-away-from-home – sector, in essence, the fast food industry (Currie et al. 3). From the late 70’s till the mid 90’s, the volume of foods consumed away from home went up considerably from 16% to 29% (Alviola et al. 14). The eating patterns of children, particularly those in school, have echoed the fast growth of the FAFH industry. In the late 70’s, children obtained roughly 20% of their caloric intake from food FAFH sources. The data obesity surveys conducted from 2003 to 2006 show that food-away-from-home was liable for 35% of children’s caloric intake (Currie et al. 3). A number of surveys have argued that children who take more fast-food have much lower dietary quality are also expected to be obese or overweight. This paper will discuss how fast-food has a significant impact in Childhood obesity. Background Whereas the main motivation of centering on children is the accessibility of geographically explicit information on weight measures for an extremely big sample, children are a significant group to research in their own right. “Among school aged children, 6-19 rates of overweight have soared from about 5% in the early 1970s to 16%, in 1999-2002” (Currie et al. 5). These rates are of significant concern provided that children who are obese are most expected to be obese or overweight as grownups and are gradually suffering from illnesses related to overweight when still young. Critics of the fast food sector point to a number of features, which might make fast food less healthy compared to other types of FAFH. These comprise of low time and monetary costs, high calorie levels of signature menu items and large portions. For sure, energy densities for personal food items are normally too high that it would be hard for people consuming them not to go past their normally recommended dietary intakes (Currie et al. 6). A number of consumers might be specifically defenseless. In two randomized practical trials concerning 26 overweight and 28 normal-weight children, Sinclair et al. (2833) contrasted caloric intakes on “unrestricted fast-food days,” as well as “no fast-food days.” The researchers found out that overweight children had much higher caloric intakes on “fast-food days” compared to “none fast-food days. The main fast food chains are also concerned in aggressive advertising to children. One particular experimental study of children aged three to five years provided them identical pairs of beverages and foods, the only distinction being that some foods were packaged by McDonalds (Robinson et al. 792). Data Sources and Summary Statistics Data for this paper came from three sources: school data and restaurant data. School Data The data on children from this study came from Californian schools from the late 90 and early 2000s up to 2007. The study of mostly 9th graders, which the paper centers on, represents 3.6 million student-year observations. In California, during spring, 9th graders are normally given fitness assessment test, also known as the FITNESSPROGRAM® (Currie et al. 7). The data is presented as the class in form of the percentage of learners who are overweight and who have tolerable levels of aerobic capacity, abdominal strength, trunk strength, as well as upper body strength. Obesity is gauged by actual body fat measures, which are significantly more accurate compared to normal BMI measures (Currie et al. 7). Since 9th grade is the initial year of high school and the fitness assessment occurs in the Spring, this affects corresponds to roughly 30 weeks of FAFH exposure. Restaurant Data Restaurant information with geo-coding information was adapted from the National Time Series Database (Sinclair et al. 2830). These data are utilized by all lending institutions, major banks, finance and insurance companies, as the main system for creditworthiness assessment of organizations. As such, it is arguably more comprehensive and precise compared to business directories and yellow pages (Berkowitz 97). In this article, the benchmark definition of fast-food restaurants comprise of only the top-10 fast-food chains, which are, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell, Little Caesars, Pizza Hut, KFC, Dominos Pizza, Wendy’s and Jack In The Box (Sinclair et al. 2830). Summary Statistics Just 10% of public schools have fast-food hotels within a mile, while 70% of all public schools have fast-food hotels within half of a mile (Sinclair et al. 2830). Schools within a mile of a fast food hotel have more Hispanic learners, a fairly higher fraction of learners eligible for free lunch, as well as lower test scores. Findings Cross-sectional studies have found out that children taking fast-food meals have greater caloric intake with slightly lower nutritional value compared to those not taking fast food. Such a revelation, nevertheless, does not pledge that eating more fast food makes children become more obese (Sinclair et al. 2833). Another frequently researched source of energy is sweetened drinks, mainly soft drinks such as soda and juice (Berkowitz 97). Similar to fast foods, it has been acknowledged that drinking such beverages lead to a higher overall energy intake. A number of studies have also discovered a constructive correlation between soft drink consumption and obesity. For children, consumption of sugary drinks means small increases in body mass index in a number of years to come. Another three-year study of 1600 4th grade students, which offered two healthy meals a day together with a fitness program and counseling, did not show a considerable drop in “body fat percentage” when contrasted to a control group (Sinclair et al. 2833). This was partially because even if the children knew that they were consuming less their actual calorie level, consumption did not cut with the study (Berkowitz 98). Also, observed energy costs remained the same between the groups. The fast-food industry uses almost $4.2 billion on marketing intended for young children (Berkowitz 98). McDonald's, in particular, has over 13 websites, which are visited by nearly 365,000 children and 294,000 youths every month. Furthermore, fast food hotels offer toys in children's meal packages, which aid in enticing children in order for them to be loyal customers. 40% of children beg their parents and guardians to take them to fast-food joints on a daily basis. “To further worsen this matter, out of the 3000 combinations formed from usual foods on children's menus at these joints, only 13 of them meet the recommended dietary guidelines for children” (Currie et al. 35). Conclusion The major objective of this discussion was to ascertain the effects of fast-food consumption on children obesity rates. Obesity has enhanced quickly in the United States since the 70s. Also, the size of fast-food joints more than doubled in the same period. Revelations such as Currie et al. and (23) Alviola et al. (45) stress the popular view that these two tendencies might be related—the accessibility of fast food might have led to at least some of the enhancement in overweight. Obesity has been connected hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, as well as certain cancers, so that the increase in obesity has turned into a serious public concern. However, most of the present evidence on the fundamental connection between fast-food supply and occurrence of obesity is hard to interpret due to their correlations. The worry is that fast-food joints open in places where the urge for fast-food is high. Since customers have access to unhealthful food from numerous sources, it is likely that the rate obesity would be greater in these regions. Works Cited Currie, Janet et al. The Effect of Fast Food Restaurants on Obesity. N.p, 2009. Web Alviola, Pedro et al. The Effect of Fast-Food Restaurants on School-Level Obesity. N.p, 2011. Web. Sinclair, Ebbeling et al. “Compensation for Energy Intake from Last Fast Food among Overweight and Lean,” JAMA 291.5 (2004): 2828-2833. Print. Robinson, Matheson et al. “Effects of Fast Food Branding on Young Children’s Taste Preferences,” Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 161.5 (2007): 792-797. Print. Berkowitz, Stunkard. Development of Childhood Obesity. New York: Guilford Press, 2002. Print. Read More