Everyday thirty-one million kids eat lunch provided by the national school lunch program. Those lunches often consist of canned vegetables, processed meats and sugary drinks. It’s not just in the school cafeteria but in their homes as well. Parents are tired and will feed their children processed food from the freezer or freeze dried out of a box because it is convenient and cheaper than cooking fresh healthy foods. School lunches might not be a serious issue if kids were eating healthier foods at home. Most of the time meals or snacks are full of unnecessary calories, salts, and sugars. Good nutrition and exercise are a crucial component to healthy physical and brain development. Children who exercise and eat healthy are more likely to not have health issues, have a better self esteem, and excel academically. One way to change the way our children eat is to educate our children about healthy eating and the effects of proper nutrition, which should start where our children learn every day.…
Junk Food is a vast contributor to the increasing levels of diabetes, and other chronic conditions and diseases in America. In order to establish a healthy country, Americans must alter eating habits and establish knowledge within our nation’s children. The beverage and food industry spend billions of dollars annually to promote its products to children. Public institutions promote these products to increase revenue for school needed activities. This continuous, unhealthy cycle is in adversely affecting the nation. It’s time to raise the bar and set a higher standard for nutritional value in our nation, starting with in our school organization. Abolishing sugary snacks and inaugurating health eating habits will benefit children’s health,…
In today 's society, Americans are faced with many critical issues: issues on health, money, and drugs or alcohol problems. One of the biggest problems we face as a society is obesity. People all over the nation question why we are having this problem and who is responsible. Who do we turn to to educate our society so that we may address this problem the correct way? The answer: healthy eating habits and exercising should be taught early in a child 's life. An excellent place to build these fitness foundations is where children spend almost a third of their time: at school. Physical education should be available for all kindergarten through twelfth-grade students in order to tackle the problems of obesity.…
Childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years. These children are at risk for both immediate and long-term effects on their health and well-being. Children who are obese are more likely to be obese as adults (Centers for Disease Control, 2014). An advocacy program that has helped combat childhood obesity is Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH USA, 2013). It has helped schools and after-school centers become healthy environments. Its curriculum is designed to promote health for students and its core elements include physical activity, nutrition, health education, and healthier food choices. The CATCH program has received state, national, and international recognition for being one of the most comprehensive and ambitious approaches to targeting physical education, food services, and classroom curriculum through a coordinated school health program (CATCH USA, 2013).…
With the growing concern for obesity in the kids coming up today the government is calling for dramatic changes in school meals, including limiting french fries, sodium and calories and offering students more fruits and vegetables. About a third of children and adolescents — 25 million kids – are obese or overweight. Extra pounds put children at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other health problems (Hellmich, 2012).…
Approximately 17% of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese. This is caused by lack of knowledge and lack of access to correct nutrition in children and teens. 99% of public schools offer nutritional education somewhere in their curriculum. Obviously the information that these kids are receiving isn’t sticking in their heads. It is going in one ear and out the other and this needs to change. Healthy eating is associated with reduced risk for many diseases, including several of the leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes. Overweight and obese children are at a greater risk of developing serious health problems such as: high blood pressure, bone and joint problems, depression and low self-esteem, and restless or disordered sleep patterns. Since children are becoming…
In today 's society it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day duties of life; people often forget that their eating habits could be the death of them. The children of today are the children of the future, therefore raising them to make healthy eating choices in their childhood could prevent them from becoming part of the 20 percent of children that are obese. Over the past 30 years childhood obesity has more than tripled in the United States. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, obesity in children is one of the easiest medical conditions to recognize but most difficult to treat. Due to a poor diet and lack of exercise children can run the dangerous risk of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes which go hand and hand with severely overweight children. Kids who are unhappy with their weight may also be more likely to develop eating disorders. Diagnosing and treating overweight and obesity in children as early as possible may reduce the risk of developing serious medical conditions. In the United States alone, over 300,000 deaths each year can be attributed to this disease (American Academy of Child, 2008). In 2005 a study found that children today may lead shorter lives by two to five years than their parents due to obesity (USA Today, 2011). Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise both at home and in school. Schools are a major cause of child obesity becoming an epidemic and it is time to take a closer look at how childhood obesity and the school system can be directly related. Removing nutrition in school lunches, lack of education toward…
For many years, America has been considered an obese nation. Efforts to lower the obesity level have been made such as increasing pay on unhealthy foods and decreasing serving sizes nationwide. In a world where “obesity has increased by more than 50% among America’s children and teens since 1976,” rather than drastically change what is being eaten, children should be encouraged to…
Story, M., Kaphingst, K. M., & French, S. (2007). The role of Schools in Obesity Prevention. Childhood Obesity.…
Since kids spend a lot of their time in school, it is good medium to provide healthy weight education. Children are very impressionable and pick up their life long eating habits at a young age. That is why starting in elementary school positive eating habits and exercise should be encouraged. Ideas such as banning unhealthy foods from schools and increasing mandatory physical education sound good in theory, but are too costly and not feasible solutions for Baltimore. It is much more probable that children will learn to make better choices if good habits are reinforced in schools starting at a young age. The results of study conducted in Canada in 2005, which compared fifth grade students who had attended an elementary school with a nutritional education program to students who attended schools without nutritional programs, showed that students at schools with nutritional education program had significantly lower rates of obesity, higher fruit and vegetable intake, and lower fat consumption ( Veugelers & Fitzgerald, 2005, p. 234). Baltimore school should create healthy weight education programs targeted at elementary school children. Teachers should be required to incorporate basic lessons that teach kids about healthy foods and the importance of exercise. I propose that Baltimore City schools partner with Education in Elementary, a nutritional education program started by Dr.…
These past few decades have shown drastic changes in how health is perceived. With childhood obesity raising every year this is something that needs to be recognized with a change following it. The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period of time (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). These numbers shock me, and with recess and physical activities being removed from school in favor of increased academic studies, this needs to change. My first solution comes in the form of educating the kids in every opportunity possible. Another…
Pedregon 1Jeffrey PedregonMs. GeorgeEnglish 1A5 May 2016The Power of ObesityChildhood obesity has been a problem with children in the United States and the parents who take care of them for some time now. Through the inclining rates of childhood obesity, children have never been more at risk for such life threatening health issues. Lifestyle changes along with more physical activity in and outside of school will help the children move toward having a better quality of life.…
Pro: My opinion is that parents should be blamed for their child's obesity, whether it be partially or fully, they do influence their child's weight. The parents of children are the ones who provide food for them, so they have direct control of what their child is consuming, so they should be able to help their child maintain a healthy weight. Parents also have control over what their children do, resulting in the fact that parents could enroll their child in an excersize program or at least stop them from sitting around inside all day.…
Obesity is seen as a nation-wide health issue which affects mainly children and adolescents, which can result in problems such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and even depression causing these children to have very low self-esteem (Mayo Clinic 2014). There are a few ways in which this problem can be reduced including school based programs for the youth and community awareness. These school based programs should make a significant reduction and prevention of this issue by awareness from not only the community, as well as the school nurses. School nurses should integrate and influence these children to live healthier lifestyles with their profound knowledge and education of these factors because have a remarkable chance to make changes in the area of overweight as well as the childhood obesity. This paper focuses on the background of the study method, ethical…
Junk food has taken over many of the schools in the United States, the fattest country in the world, with very negative effects. Willow Glen, for example, is one of the schools that have turned over to the “Junk Food Dark Side.” In the United States, the youth, in general, are all plagued with obesity and health problems. Eliminating junk foods in schools can project a positive mentality for students to excel socially, academically, and healthfully.…