Writing class Essay

Submitted By kaikai8983
Words: 1900
Pages: 8

FCWR 302 - Health Communication
NYIT

December 17, 2013

Grant Proposal
Food and Fitness to Prevent Obesity

Objective
Prevent obesity on children through fitness and nutrition.

Specific Aims
Health eating: reducing the sugar sweetened beverages and high fat food in childhood
Stay activity: Encourage parents to put more emphasis on physical activity to their children during out of school time.

Background and Significance
Today’s modern entertainment, activity, social connection, and some educational programs are all using technology such as computers and video games that kept our children indoors, preventing them to do physical activities and promoting unhealthy eating. In addition, The Surgeon General’s 2001 Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity: Overweight in Children and Adolescents reported that in 1999, 13 percent of children age 6 to 11 and 14 percent of adolescents’ age 12 to 19 years old in the United States were overweight. The National Center for Health Statistics 2002 showed us the percent of school-age children with overweight problems continued to increase even more in one year with 15 percent of children 6 to 11 being overweight and adolescents 12 to 19 at 16 percent overweight. This prevalence has nearly tripled for adolescents in the past two decades. Two major contributing factors to children being likely to die prematurely from preventable cardiovascular disease or preventable cancer are sedentary lifestyle and excess weight. In addition, technology is partly to blame in the increase of inactivity in adults. In New York for 2000, the New York Department of Health found that only 27 percent of New York adults meet the recommendation for physical activity. The activity habits that children develop influence their adult activity (Malina). The earlier children begin to practice healthy lifestyle habits, the longer they are likely to practice them. It was found that hospitalization among children and adolescents for diseases associated with obesity increased sharply and costs are at $127 million (Wang and Dietz). The consequences of childhood obesity can be broadly classified into medical and psychosocial consequences. Medical consequences include metabolic complications such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and mechanical problems such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and orthopaedic disorders. Psychological and social consequences are prevalent but often overlooked. Local data on these complications were also discussed (Yung Seng Lee). Our proposal of FFPO is very educational and important for children because we don't want them to suffer from all these life threatening diseases. Our goal is to help children with their eating habits in a fun way and also make physical activity fun too. We don't just want to teach children healthy eating habits and physical activities, we also want to teach them how to make smart choices in life and notions of leadership, teamwork, decision making and self esteem. According to (Gleason and Suitor, 2001) they found that only 2% of children are eating the right amount of servings for their height and weight, and only 2% of children are eating the recommended 5 major food groups from the food pyramid.

A Harvard study linked children’s literacy and school success with daily talks at the dinner table with their family. Brookfield and Ziesz (1997) found that if children sat down at the dinner table with their parents for at least 5 times a week really helped teenagers with acquiring bad behaviors. Studies show that teenagers who eat at the dinner table with their family do better in school and acquire better eating habits. This is why parents have to be more involved in their children and adolescents eating habits, so that they can continue with good eating habits as