Childhood Obesity
English 101
March 7th, 2013
Children’s Overweight There’s a popular and erroneous belief that children is obese because they consume big amounts of food; indeed it might be one of the reasons. According to Niamh Mullen “child are overweight because they don’t do any physical activity.” Obesity is a serious issue among children and there are complex reasons that can cause it, principally by poor eating habits, lack of any physical activity and family history of obesity. Overweight in children is not being a few pounds higher than normal, “obesity in childhood is when a kid is 10% higher than what their weight is supposed to be”(Facts for families). Being overweight during childhood is the easiest issue to recognize talking in medical terms, but the most difficult to treat due to the child’s preferences of food or because of the habits he has been learned during his lifetime. The first major cause of this broad issue is the poor diet and unhealthy habits child have. Children don’t know how to distinguish between a healthy food or a healthy habit, parents need to lead their children since they are born. During the first years of life, children need nutrients to structure themselves and get defenses; indeed one of the most common error parents commit is taking them to eat fast food or showing them that fast food has pretty good taste but no healthy benefits. Fast food is not the only food that causes children being obese, but also what type of food is prepared at home and how it is prepared. It is obvious that food prepared with a lot of oil will increase the probabilities of being overweight, or sometimes the snacks that people buy for their kids. One might think that just because they are young, they can eat everything they want without any consequences but the only result from this is making their child overweight. Childhood obesity is not only caused by the type of food eaten with their parents, or in home, but also in school. One needs to know that type
March 7th, 2013
Children’s Overweight There’s a popular and erroneous belief that children is obese because they consume big amounts of food; indeed it might be one of the reasons. According to Niamh Mullen “child are overweight because they don’t do any physical activity.” Obesity is a serious issue among children and there are complex reasons that can cause it, principally by poor eating habits, lack of any physical activity and family history of obesity. Overweight in children is not being a few pounds higher than normal, “obesity in childhood is when a kid is 10% higher than what their weight is supposed to be”(Facts for families). Being overweight during childhood is the easiest issue to recognize talking in medical terms, but the most difficult to treat due to the child’s preferences of food or because of the habits he has been learned during his lifetime. The first major cause of this broad issue is the poor diet and unhealthy habits child have. Children don’t know how to distinguish between a healthy food or a healthy habit, parents need to lead their children since they are born. During the first years of life, children need nutrients to structure themselves and get defenses; indeed one of the most common error parents commit is taking them to eat fast food or showing them that fast food has pretty good taste but no healthy benefits. Fast food is not the only food that causes children being obese, but also what type of food is prepared at home and how it is prepared. It is obvious that food prepared with a lot of oil will increase the probabilities of being overweight, or sometimes the snacks that people buy for their kids. One might think that just because they are young, they can eat everything they want without any consequences but the only result from this is making their child overweight. Childhood obesity is not only caused by the type of food eaten with their parents, or in home, but also in school. One needs to know that type
Citations: American Academy of Child and Adolescent. “Obesity in Children and Teens.” http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/obesity_in_children_and_teens. (March 2011). Benaroch, Roy. “Obesity in Children.” http://children.webmd.com/guide/obesity-children?page=2. (July 2012) Better Health Channel. “Obesity in Children – Causes.” http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Obesity_in_children. (February 2012) Mullen, Niamh. “Lack of Exercise Leading Cause of Childhood Obesity over poor diet.” http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/lack-of-exercise-leading-cause-of-childhood-obesity-over-poor-diet. (November 2012).