It is a typical Thursday afternoon for me. Each week I volunteer one day to watch my best friends 16 month old son. He is usually very well behaved for being so young, but there is always that one time in the day when he decides to scream and cry. So what do I do? I get fries from McDonalds or a shake to quiet him up. This isn’t the healthiest way to stop him from crying, but for me it is the easiest. Could this be a reason why so many young children are being considered obese? Now I’m not saying because I give him some fries once a week he’s going to be over weight when he grows up. But imagine how many times a day he does cry, and if every time I decided to give him food to keep him quiet, what kind of eating habits’ he would develop! “Factors that influence child obesity are not only environmental, but its lifestyle preferences, and cultural environments that play a major role” according to an article titled “Childhood Obesity, prevalence and prevention” at www.nutritionjournal.com (p.3).
Furthermore it is considered epidemic how may children have become obese in different countries. For a society that has diet Doritos and fat free ice cream, and many companies finding new ways to make their products healthier, it is shocking for me to find out that 25% of children are overweight in America and 11% are considered obese. “One in three or 58 million American adults aged 20 through 74 are overweight. According to data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III), the number of overweight Americans increased from 25 to 33 percent between 1980 and 1991” (www.healthgoods.com, P.1). It is harder for someone to loose weight once they are already obese. Breaking eating habits and getting into a routine work out schedule is difficult for an adult opposed to a child. Good eating habits and exercise should start at a young age to help prevent the growing problem of obesity in America.
Doctors and scientists state that...