Obesity

Obesity is a problem all across America. Everyday young kids choose to stay in their room and play video games or watch TV instead of going outside to play or participate in athletics at school. The benefits of exercising greatly outweigh the benefits of watching TV or playing video games, but yet most children would still rather be inactive. Being active keeps you healthy in many ways and can be as fun as you make it. There are many benefits of being an active person. Being active helps you control your weight. "You gain weight when the calories you burn, including those burned during physical activity, are less than the calories you eat or drink(physical)." Even if a kid eats healthy food he or she is still taking in calories, so exercise is very important to burn a lot of those calories to balance out the calories taken in to the calories burnt. Exercising can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. "Heart disease and stroke are two of the leading causes of death in the United States(physical)." Exercising can reduce your risk of dying from the two leading causes of death in America. The more you exercise, the less at risk you are. Exercising can also reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. "Metabolic syndrome is a condition in which you have some combination of too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, or high blood sugar(physical)." Even if you already have type 2 diabetes exercising can help control it. Being active can even lower your risk of obtaining some cancers. "Physically active people have a lower risk of colon cancer than do people who are not active. Physically active women have a lower risk of breast cancer than do people who are not active(physical)." Some discoveries suggest that regular exercise also lowers your risks of lung cancer and endometrial cancer. If children learned at a young age that being active is so important, it would stick with them

Cited: Physical Activity and Health. 16 February 2011. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 17 March 2011 < http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/health/index.html>. When Being Overweight Is a Health Problem. Mary L. Gavin. October 2010. Teens Health. 17 March 2011 <http://kidshealth.org/teen/food_fitness/dieting/obesity.html#>.