Fighting Obesity in Public Schools - Essay Example

November Assignment Obesity is defined as an excess of body fat that frequently results in a significant impairment of health. It results when the size or number of fat cells in a person's body increases. Obesity is a huge issue in schools in America. A lot of children are facing obesity at a very early age due to wrong eating methods and lack of exercise in schools resulting in becoming excessively fat. According to a research by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania of health figures, “About 16 percent of urban students qualified as obese, according to the study, which is in line with national average for children ages 6-19. In rural school districts, however, 20 percent of students were considered obese. More alarmingly, researchers found that during the years of the survey, between 1999 and 2001, the number of obese students in rural school districts rose about 5 percent, more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts.” (Paxson, Christina) This paper thus helps to provide an insight into the rapidly growing rate of obesity that children suffer in schools and helps to provide solutions regarding how to counter this alarming issue. Most children all around the world spend their maximum time in school and therefore it is pertinent for the schools administration and authorities to understand the problem of obesity and address the issues as fast as possible in order to risk the complexity which comes along with obesity in old age. Around 9 million school children in the age group of above six years to fifteen years have been distinguished to be obese in USA as given in many statistical reports. Obesity among school children may be attributed to poor quality of life in school, as the children do not give enough attention to a healthy life. Childhood obesity is extremely dangerous in young children because it might lead to parental obesity in their older ages. Obesity is often associated with a number of other chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and fatty liver. This can even lead to death in the near future because obesity has been known as one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The main problem related to this is that once a child has obesity, his life expectancy also tends to go down for about six or seven years. It causes high blood pressure, as well as high blood cholesterol levels and decreases the ability of the child to be able to come out of this trap. (Barness LA, Opitz JM, Gilbert-Barness E) A child may also be prone to breathing problems and this reduces his ability to be able to carry out any physical activity whatsoever. Various other problems that are associated with the risk of obesity are gout, cancer and gallbladder problems. A number of children have also been known to suffer from gall stones and osteoarthritis because it tends to weaken the bones due to accumulation of fat in the body. Thus, these aspects need to be looked into in order to let the child live a happy life and not let him be prone to such diseases in his future. So what is causing such alarming rate of obesity among school students in USA? More and more children are now prone to obesity and the problem never ceases to go down with time, with parents getting tensed and worried for their children and looking for solution which could cater to the problem in the most effective and efficient manner. To highlight the solution to the problem, one of the main acts which needs to be initiated by schools is to foster an exercise module which shall incorporate physical fitness among the students of the school inside the school premises at regular intervals and throughout the week so that the students do not fall prone to ill health during their academic calendar. One of the primary problems which exist in schools is the availability of vendor machines in schools which cater to the needs of the students at any time. The vending machines consist of low nutrient fast food which is easily consumable by the children. The vending machines have been selling high fatty foods and more than three fourths of high schools in the country sell high sugar fruit drinks and allow most of their students to simply purchase food and beverages from their vending machines. Thus it has become imperative for school teachers to make physical exercise a must in schools for children since they spend most of their adolescence in these institutions. The need is to have a basic mechanism which shall allow them to take part in physical training drills and play sports on a regular basis, thus compensating for the fatty foods and low quality food they consume in schools which is freely available. Children should be made to walk everyday and have a vital period dedicated simply to physical exercises in order to keep fit. Furthermore, schools should also do away with vending machines designed to offer fatty foods to the students since these foods are the cause of ill health. Instead, schools should offer healthy meals that provide nutrition to children in order to safeguard the children from the perils of obesity. Students in the school canteen have been consuming low energy foods which are high on fats therefore causing high levels of obesity. Therefore in the light of all these developments and observations it has been argued that the food quality levels in schools have to be improved otherwise the students will keep on eating high fatty foods which are low on nutrition and getting obese on such diet. (Shamlian Janet) Students should thus not be allowed to bring any lunch packs from home that contains high sugar and fatty foods and instead be served lunches at the cafeteria which are healthy in nature. Coupled with this, they must undergo physical exercises every day. They may have a gym period or a games period dedicated to playing and exercising which will help to burn the fat muscles in their body and keep them healthy and fit. Most parents should agree to these terms in order to keep their children fit as well. (Story, Mary, Marilyn S. Nanney, and Marlene B. Schwartz) However, there are a number of parents who might argue against all these solutions to this problem. Parents have a very big issue with whatever new things their children might need to adapt into their lifestyle. Some parents might not be comfortable with the idea of their children being served school lunches because they might not trust anyone else’s cooking being fed to their kids. Furthermore, some children might not have a capacity to work out or undergo physical exercises and thus their parents might be averse to the entire idea of the same. They might say that their children go to school in order to learn and do well at academics and not work out. Physical exercise may prove to be very strenuous for some children. It needs to be done in a very controlled manner and unless there are proper trainers to ensure the same, the entire exercise will not be fruitful. This is because if a child exercises too much after eating, then he might fall sick and the parents might blame the school for not providing enough carbohydrates, which the school is trying to do away with because of the problem of obesity. Children might also feel sleepy during class hours if they exercise too much and might not be able to concentrate well which will cause problems in their academic schedule. After exercising, parents might say that the school must provide extra time and shower rooms so that their children can at least get fresh before they begin to attend class hours again. Otherwise, their concentration might be hampered and no child can study in a sweaty manner. All this might make the school incur a large amount of extra expenses which further; some parents might not be willing to pay. Some parents might even state that their child is not healthy enough to work out and their children play every day in the evening, so there is no point in wasting time during class hours making them undergo physical exercises. Some children might even throw a fit with respect to the doing away of vending machines and fatty foods and complain to their parents and parents might even state that such freedom should not be taken away from their children. Parents might not be comfortable with their child eating out and might want them to only take lunches from home. Some children might even fall sick because of the sudden change in their food regime and this might cause the parents to blame the school for their eating habits. Thus, obesity is a very dangerous problem even though prima facie it might not appear to be so. This is because fat cells accumulate in the body of a child and when he or she grows older, they refuse to burn, causing the child other problems like heart diseases and various body problems. Teachers must talk to the children in school and explain to them the growing problem of obesity and how children must cooperate with them in order to work things out because after all it is for the good of children. Teachers can even ask the children for some solutions that they deem fit and would be willing to cooperate with. The above mentioned solutions to this problem are only a few suggestions which the school may incorporate within its daily routine. Parents also need to understand that since their child spends the maximum time at school; he or she needs to comply with the above mentioned in order to be fit. Eating healthy should become a daily part of every child’s living so that they are able to lead a proper lifestyle. In such a manner, all schools across the country need to introduce various activities and campaigns in order to fight this problem and help children to lead a fit and healthy lifestyle and prepare them for the future as well. Physical exercises and healthy eating are merely one part of taking care of obesity. The school can always think of more suggestions and implement them, with regard to having on campus health checkups and regular obesity fighting programs. Works Cited Barness LA, Opitz JM, Gilbert-Barness E (December 2007). "Obesity: genetic, molecular, and environmental aspects". Am. J. Med. Genet.  Story, Mary, Marilyn S. Nanney, and Marlene B. Schwartz. "Schools And Obesity Prevention: Creating School Environments And Policies To Promote Healthy Eating And Physical Activity." Milbank Quarterly 87.1 (2009): 71-100. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. Paxson, Christina. (2011) “Fighting Obesity in Public Schools.” Future of Children Policy Brief, Brookings. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. Shamlian, Janet. (2006) “Schools help parents fight childhood obesity.” MSNBC Nightly News. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. Read More