Child Obesity

Outline.

I. Introduction

Thesis Statement: Due to the negative health and psychological consequences of the child obesity the urgent measures such as healthy eating habits, snacks limit and physical exercises should be conducted in order to prevent and struggle with this widespread world problem.

II. Background

A. Causes

1. Poor eating habits

2. Outside eating in restaurants and cafes

3. Fast food, snacks and sweets

4. Lack of physical exercises

5. Lack of sleeping time

6. Genes and different hormone illnesses

B. Effect

1. Death of children

2. Different diseases: heart problems, diabetes, strokes, cancer,and etc.

3. psychological problems: lost self-esteem and dissatisfaction by appearance

III. Solution one

Solution one - The first possible solution for this problem is to control eating habits, mostly increase consumption of healthy food.

Advantages: 1. Family as a role model for the healthy lifestyle

2. Control of the food intakes and regime

3. The supply of required nutrition and vitamins

Disadvantages: 1. Time and money cost

2. Busyness of parents.

IV. Solution two - The second possible solution is to avoid fast food and to cut the amount of consumed sugar from the ration of children

Advantages: 1. Consumption of vitamins and exclusion of junk food would increase energy

2. Decreased consumption of sugar

Disadvantage: 1. Inability to control food intakes outside of the home

V. Solution three – The last solution against child obesity is to increase in physical activities through cutting time spent near computers and TVs.

Advantages: 1. Physical exercise improve well-being and psychology of child.

2. To cut sitting time near TVs and computers.

Disadvantages: 1. financial constraints and disabilities

IV. Conclusion-Recommendation.

To sum up, nowadays obesity is one of the most important problems in the world. To tackle this problems several solutions must be taken. The first solution is the control of eating habits. Solution such as this has three advantages and two disadvantages. The second solutions is to avoid fast food and to cut the amount of consumed sugar from the ration of children. This kind of solution has one advantage and two disadvantages. The third solution is to increase in physical activities through cutting time spent near computers and TVs. However, the best solution to problem of child obesity is physical activities. It’s suggested to involve children in active physical life, to follow good regime of food intakes and to consume only healthy food because these measures will be useful and beneficial in protection of children from the physical and psychological problems which they can face in their future life.

Nowadays there is huge number of scientists and professionals who investigate and research such untreatable diseases as cancer, HIV, hepatitis and variety of others trying to find a cure and struggle with these illnesses. Although most of the world population is well informed and concerned about these diseases the fact that there is a huge variety of other threatens to the human health should not be ignored. One of such important issues is obesity the definition of which according to the World Health Organization is ''abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health'' (2005). Despite the fact that obesity can be considered as a treatable disease it can be states that it’s very difficult, time and money-taking process especially if it starts from the early age. That’s why childhood obesity that affects the whole life of the child and later his adulthood can he considered as a very crucial issue for the whole society. The statistics for the child obesity nowadays shows very disappointing results. According to the Encyclopedia of the Early Childhood Development 42 million children in the world were estimated overweight and more than one third of the children were obese in 2010 (2010). There is not only a set of numbers of obese children behind the shocking statistics but also lifelong health and psychological problems in both childhood and adulthood. Heart problems, diabetes and strokes are only the introduction to such serious diseases as different types of cancer, pancreas, and a prostate that expect them in future (Center for Disease and Control Prevention, 2013). Psychological problems that children will face due to their additional weight are social exclusion and dissatisfaction by their appearance while making comparison with other peers (Center for Disease and Control Prevention, 2013). Children are excluded from the team activities and this has a negative influence on the development of their self-esteem. Considering these destroying effects it’s necessary to struggle with the child obesity because the cost of treatment is very high and its known fact that it’s easier to prevent than to treat obesity. It can be stated that due to the negative health and psychological consequences of the child obesity the urgent measures such as healthy eating habits, snacks limit and physical exercises should be conducted in order to prevent and struggle with this widespread world problem.

According to the statistics provided by the American Academy of the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry obesity is responsible for 300, 000 lives taken away each year and it caused by many factors (2011) . The first reason of the weight gain is poor eating habits when a child consumes more calories than the amount that organism is able to burn. Dynamic and busy lifestyle of the parents decrease the amount of the time spent with their children consequently the control of their child’s eating is worsened. These families usually spend less time for eating together and tend to eat in restaurants and cafes where the size of the offered portion is much more than at home (Australian Parenting Web-Site, 2011). Because of the cheap price of the fast food children enjoy eating hamburgers, French fries and beverages that help them to gain unhealthy weights. In addition to outside eating a freedom to choose what to consume allows children to prefer snacks and products with excessive amount of the sugar to the healthy vitamin food and fruits. Nowadays the shelves of the supermarkets and shops and filled in with a variety of temptations for children such as cakes , soft drinks, ice-creams, chewing gums, chocolate and other products where the amount of the added sugar exceeds the norm . Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends consuming no more than 5% of the total calories but nowadays the statistics shows that the average amount is exceeded to 16% of the total calories required for child ( 2012). Although sugar and junk food makes it’s “contribution” to the obesity of children but one of the main problems that children and adults face is the lack of physical exercises because of spending more time at home close to their TVs, computers and Internet cutting the time that they could have spend outside walking and playing with their peers. The opportunities offered for children nowadays allows them to spend more time at home because instead of riding to school by bikes they are quickly took to the place by cars. Because of the lack of physical exercises the additional amount of calories added by overeating, fast food and sugar products is not burned. In addition to it the time spent for sitting close to the TV and computers cuts the sleeping time which can be also considered as one of the reason of the obesity. Lack of the sleeping time leads to depression and overweigh caused by the additional stress. Except the reasons that depend from the lifestyle of children there are some causes of obesity in which children themselves can’t be blamed, for example genetics, parents’ obesity and health problems. Genes are a rare cause of the obesity and it can be noticed only in a case when some medical disorders occur in child’s organism (GE Healthcare Lifestyle Sciences Journal, 2012). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated “the genetic characteristic of the human population is not changed in the last three decades, but the prevalence of obesity has tripled among school-aged children during that time”. However the parent’s obesity has a valid contribution to the child obesity because 5 out of 10 children who have one parent are more likely to have an unhealthy lifestyle and weight (GE Healthcare Lifestyle Sciences Journal, 2012). Except family it’s important to remember that obesity can be cause by such medical illnesses for example endocrine and neurological problems (American Academy of the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011). So, there are a lot of factors that cause child unhealthy weight gaining that has to be solved in order to struggle with this world issue.

The first possible solution for this problem is to control eating habits, mostly increase consumption of healthy food. The family in this case is a key factor because it’s possible to follow the healthy lifestyle if parents and other members would become role models for children because in most cases if a mother has an overweight problem than there is a 35% probability that a child would suffer from the same illness (Institute of Medicine Committee on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Youth, 2004). It’s is necessary for the family to start the management of food intakes in order to “strive toward lower carbohydrate diet to decrease the amount of hormones such as insulin, glucose, leptin that lead to many health problem including diabetes” ( Obesity Prevention Foundation, 2010) . The food choice should satisfy the whole family members because if parents would stop their choice on healthy but untasty food then certain misunderstandings can occur between them. In order to realize that parents should spend more time with their children and discuss their preferences or to find alternatives in case if children will not be satisfied by parent’s choice. Nowadays the development of certain production technologies and wide food choice allows people to buy products which are tasty and healthy at the same time. The alternative of such a long process for busy parents is a purchase of prepared meals that include the required nutrition and vitamins ( Obesity Prevention Foundation, 2010). Not only the choice of products but also the regime of the food intakes plays a very significant role in obesity prevention. If child’s organism receives the required amount of food at one and the same time then the metabolism would be very fast and all additional calories will be burnt. However , it’s very important to make changes gradually otherwise it can cause eating disorder in child’s organism and lead to more serious problems that just obesity. The most important thing for parents is to don’t let a kid to skip breakfast because the variable researches showed the evidence that children who don’t eat breakfast have poor performance, tend to consume more snacks and have a weak immune system. ( Human Health and Animal Ethics, 2011). Another effective method of preventing overeating is a control of the plate size and portion for the lunch and dinner. In order to don’t disappoint a child it’s recommended to put the portion on a big plate so that it would seem big and satisfy the hunger of a kid. It’s also required to don’t force a child to “clean the plate” because if they are full it can be concluded that additional amount of food is an extra weight to their body (Childhood obesity in the United States: facts and figures, 2004) . Moreover, some parents use a food as a reward for a good behavior or achievements of their children that needs to be stopped because future achievements of children will be always associated with food. Finally, the last effort for parents is to spend more time with their children eating together. This will help parents to teach children to eat slowly, control the amount of calories, spend less time in fast food restaurants and prevent themselves and their children from obesity. This solution seems to be very effective on the practice. However, it can be hard take this solution to solve this problem because there can be some difficulties with time managing and financial expenses. Moreover, It is expensive to buy natural food and fruits that contain vitamins and required nutrition because the cost for suppliers of these products is very high. That’s why fast food that is much cheaper seems as a good and attractive option for busy parents. In addition to price can be added a time constraint due to the busyness of parents and inability to control what do their children eat and do.

The second possible solution is to avoid fast food and to cut the amount of consumed sugar from the ration of children. Fast food is affordable for all layers of the society due to the low price and cost of production, so for children who receive not a huge amount of pocket money from their parents it seems very attractive. According to the study published in Child: Care, Health and Development public health journal it was proved that junk food deplete the energy and ability to concentrate during some period of time (2008). In addition, increased sugar in blood after eating junk food makes children sleepy and irritable which cause a high risk of depression. On the opposite side the consumption of fish and fruits which are rich in antioxidants leads to positive energy and mood but due to the fast food children tend to eat fewer vitamins and have a lack of vitamin C. The main problem of eating junk food is not only lack of energy and vitamins but the excessive amount of sugar that adds excessive amount of fat to the child’s body. However parents should not strictly prohibit junk food for children otherwise it will be more attractive for them to hide it from parents. It’s possible to allow to buy junk food very rarely in order to allow them to make their own choice whether to consume fast food in a future or not. Not only snacks but soda and high-sugar drinks that contain carbohydrate contribute to the weight gain. However this is not a big issue nowadays because it’s possible to replace these beverages by zero-sugar containing drinks, flavored water and others. Although the best and beneficial solution in this situation is to drink fruit juices which contain required daily amount of minerals (Human Health and Animal Ethics, 2004). According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention Web site the glass of juice is equal to 5 portions of fruits and vegetables required daily. The amount of sweets, cakes, chocolate and other sugar containing products should be limited by parents but not banned likewise fast food otherwise it will be as a signal for craving for the children. As an alternative parents should provide their children with sweets that contain fruits and vegetables. The disadvantage of this solution is the full responsibility and control of parents which can be hardly implemented outside of home because children can buy junk food at school making the efforts of their parents useless. Nowadays there is a wide tendency among kids. For instance, pupils at school buy fast food as a lunch for parent's money. By this action, they worse their health or even put on weight. Consequently, the obesity in children incredibly increases worldwide.

The last solution against child obesity is increase in physical activities through cutting time spent near computers and TVs. Due to the development of high technologies the entertainment of children is limited by TV programs, computer games and chatting with friends instead of having active physical life such as walking, playing and going in for sport. There are lots of ways to struggle with this issue starting from the limitation of TV and computer time. Experts recommend spending near computers no more that 2 hours per day (Melinda Smith, 2013). In order to fill in the time taken from sitting activities it’s necessary to provide opportunities for outside activities, invent games and replace car driving by riding a bike or walking with children. It’s very important to enroll children in some sport activities such as football, volleyball, basketball, swimming, gymnastics and lots of others. By taking up physical activities in early ages children decrease the possibility of obesity and train a strong figure (National Center of Health Statistics, 2008) . Physical exercises make stronger not only a body of a child but also improve psychological state and make him more stable to stress and different unhealthy food temptations. The American Health Association recommends spending minimum one hour outside of home making physical exercises. It positively affects not only their weight but also helps to increase overall performance at school and during the tests. According to Michael Wieting parents should encourage their children to make exercises by rewarding with gifts, horseback, trips and with other activities which will be enjoyable not only for children but for parents as well (2007) . Not only family members but schools have to provide physical education classes to encourage children to make exercises after sitting many hours in their classes and to create conveniences such as gyms, football fields and etc. It is a well known fact that physical exercises are very important for the support and healthiness of adults, as well as children. For children it is much more important than for adults because their health in future depends from their lifestyle in their early ages. The minuses of this solution can be hardly found expect the exclusive cases when children can’t afford to go in for sport because of financial problems or serious illnesses and disabilities. At present time, the whole world suffers from financial crisis and most families value money. Due to this fact, parents do not let children go in for sport as they want to save money for other purposes. Also, there are a most widespread reason, like children because of illnesses and disabilities do not take up sport. This happens mostly because of injuries.

To sum up, nowadays obesity is one of the most important problems in the world. To tackle this problems several solutions must be taken. The first solution is the control of eating habits. Solution such as this has three advantages and two disadvantages. The second solutions is to avoid fast food and to cut the amount of consumed sugar from the ration of children. This kind of solution has one advantage and two disadvantages. The third solution is to increase in physical activities through cutting time spent near computers and TVs. However, the best solution to problem of child obesity is physical activities. It is suggested to involve children in active physical life, to follow good regime of food intakes and to consume only healthy food because these measures will be useful and beneficial in protection of children from the physical and psychological problems which they can face in their future life.

Date: 2015-04-20; view: 502