Childhood Obesity in America - Essay Example

Childhood Obesity in America The number of children in the US society who are obese has been growing at an alarming rate.This increase has led to a concern in the public health care system as these children are predisposed to the danger of being overweight in their adulthood if their lifestyle is maintained. Having more overweight adults in future as a result of childhood obesity may increase the chances of having heart related complications in the US society as well as reducing the ages in which these complications are manifested. It is therefore necessary that the health risks are handled earlier by focusing on childhood obesity in order to have healthy adults in future. To encourage healthy lifestyles among the American children, there is a need to have collaboration between parents and the education system to encourage healthy lifestyle among children though physical education and healthy diets in addition to the government introducing regulations on marketing of food meant for children consumption. Parents are the greatest contributors in childhood obesity due to their failure to control their children’s eating habits and engagement in physical activities. According to Parizkova and Hills, parents in modern US society have a tendency to prefer eating fast food in restaurants to cooking food at home while also allowing too much television watching by encouraging practices such as having bedroom televisions (396). It is important that parents encourage a healthy lifestyle for their children by cooking for them healthy meals at home. Cooking at home will ensure parents serve their children a balanced diet in addition to having enough portions per sitting. Additionally, limiting the number of hours children spent watching television will encourage other pass time activities such as outdoor games that are more physically engaging. Some people argue that parents can still acquire healthy meals in the restaurants by asking for healthy portions. Although this is partly true, parents can exercise more control over what their children consume by taking part in choosing ingredients as well as the process of cooking meals when it is done at home as opposed to in a restaurant. Therefore, preparing food at home becomes the best option when parents want their children to have a balance diet. The high level of childhood obesity in the US is not only as a result of a failure by parents to control the lifestyle of their children, it is also a failure of the education system to teach them about healthy living. Wicks-Nelson and Israel (383) reports that childhood obesity problem cuts across all social, economic and racial classes with children from minority groups such as Native Americans, African-Americans and Hispanics also facing the problem. The widespread nature of childhood obesity warrants introduction of healthy living lifestyles in the curriculum with special and renewed interests directed at the teaching of physical education in schools. When schools increase the length of physical education for children, it will provide an opportunity for the children to increase the amount of time spent on exercises therefore improving their overall health. However, this might not be effective if parents continue to feed their children with unhealthy diets since the calories burnt during physical education at school will almost immediately, be replaced when the child gets home. As a result of this parents and teachers should collaborate such that physical education in school is complemented by eating a balanced diet at home. The government should introduce regulations that govern the way fast food meant for children are marketed. Since advertisements aired on television has been blamed for increased preference for unhealthy diets, the government should prevent manufactures from making advertisements that portray fast food, soft drinks as well as sugary sweets and cereals as the preferred food for the American children (Ebbeling, Pawlak, and Ludwig 475; Schwartz and Puhl 58). By showing that children love fast foods and other unhealthy diets, advertisements encourage more children to demand for the advertised food from their parents therefore resulting in obesity for a majority of them. Another reason why the government must regulate the way fast food meant for children is advertised is because they create misconceptions about the nutritional values of some food types where children confuse sweetness with nutrition. Advertisements makes the children confused on what should be considered nutritious since many advertisers present sweet foods as being high in nutrition. Children will therefore ask for these types of food thinking they are eating nutritious food yet it is the sugar and fat components that attracts them to the advertised food. Regulating the way manufactures advertise fast food meant for children may limit their rights to freely pass information about their products. However, it is a necessary step that will ensure the government prevents misleading information about the benefits of consuming fast food, soft drinks as well as sugary sweets and cereals from reaching the children. Such regulation will effectively reduce the number of overweight children in the US society. The problem of childhood obesity should be a concern of various stakeholders who are involved with different aspects of a child’s upbringing. Parents as caregivers should take the lead in the efforts to reduce childhood obesity in the American society. Given that parents are in control of many aspects of their children’s eating habits they should be in the forefront of introducing healthy eating habits through preparing healthy meals at home as opposed to preferring to eat fast food in restaurants. Further, parents should reduce television viewership time for their children to encourage them to engage in more physical activities outside the house. Schools should also take responsibility in the reduction of childhood obesity by involving children a more effective physical education that help them burn extra calories therefore ensuring they are physically fit. Putting in place a regulatory framework to govern the way food for children consumption is advertised could also play a big role in reducing childhood obesity. Given that manufactures through their advertisements create wrong perceptions among the children about nutritious food, there is a need for regulation that will force manufactures to concentrate on nutrition rather than sugar and fat in their products. Works Cited Ebbeling, Cara B., Pawlak,Dorota B. and Ludwig,David S. "Childhood obesity: public-health crisis, common sense cure." The Lancet 360.9331 (2002): 473-482. Print. Parizkova, Jana, and Hills,Andrew.Childhood obesity prevention and treatment.Florida: CRC press, 2005. Print. Schwartz, Marlene B., and Puhl,Rebecca. "Childhood obesity: a societal problem to solve." Obesity Reviews 4.1 (2003): 57-71. Print. Wicks-Nelson, Rita, and Allen C. Israel. Behavior disorders of childhood .New Jersey: Prentice Hall/Pearson Education, 2003. Print. Read More