The Importance Of Childhood Obesity

Submitted By nanooshy96
Words: 1844
Pages: 8

Nothing happens without the reason... The world nowadays has become so busy and selfish that even the human values, which were important in the 20th century, have changed dramatically and departed to the backburner in 21st century. This happens because parents don't have enough time for their children; they have new priorities in their lives, such as money, career, and business. That's why today children are placed under the responsibility of schools, kindergartens, and daycares instead of the responsibilities of their own parents. It is one of the reason why the diseases like obesity are so common in this days. Lack of taking care in general, and the lack of care, including diet particularly, lead to the diseases like obesity. To be obese means to be above one's normal weight. A person has traditionally been considered as obese if he or she has more than 20% over their ideal weight. According to Green, Hargrove, and Riley, in recent years the percentage of obesity in elementary school students grew exponentially and reached epidemic proportion over the past three decades with rates tripling. We can't change the parents priorities in a short period of time, but instead we can change kids habits, which are related to eating processes, particularly in schools, because children are getting a lot of habits in schools. We all agree that childhood obesity needs to be stopped. I believe that by replacing the products from unhealthy with healthy items inside of vending machines, and by changing the hours of availability to these machines, we can come a little closer to resolving the problem of childhood obesity.
The problem of obesity had become a serious problem for the U.S. by the late 1970s. Scott Barbour reported that in those years the overall percentage of obese children aged 6-11 years was only 6.5, as reported by National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). That was the lowest rate of this disease which increased in recent years. Since that time the U.S. Department of Agriculture was more concentrated on reducing children's sugar intake than on the problem of obesity. That's why this particular organization didn't pay attention to the level of calories, saturated fat, and sodium content when they changed breakfast and lunch programs in the schools based on to the problems with the high sugar level in children. Later, in 1983 the problem of obesity manifested itself.
In the 21st century, by the beginning of 2000s NHANES did the same analysis, and the results were worse. The prevalence of obesity increased from 6.5% to 17.0%. This studies in 2000s also showed that children who have a predisposition to obesity in 80% of cases will be overweight and obese at age 25 years. According to Green, Hargrove, and Riley, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 16 percent of children from 5 to 10 years of age are overweight or/and obese. Also, very interesting research, conducted by NHANES in 2010, found that the percentage depended on the race of kids. These results shocked everybody. The study found in children from 6 to 11 years old, 22 percent of Hispanic children, 14 percent of non-Hispanic, and 20 percent of African American children were overweight. By 2012, as Green, Hargrove, and Riley reported, more than 23 million U.S. children are either obese or overweight, and the medical costs that are associated with childhood obesity in 2008-2009 were around 71 billion dollars. It is clear that the problem of obesity and has increased over the last years from the problem of individual families to a national problem.
The problem of obesity became so serious and dangerous problem for the whole nation, so everybody should at least try to think about some solutions. It was the first reason why I am concerned about this problem. The second reason is about the future. I'm 26 years old; I'm thinking about my future, and about the kids that I want to have. My grandmother told me the gold phrase