Jermie Oxendine
November 15, 2008
Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity is a very serious medical condition affecting children and adolescents. It occurs when the child’s body mass index (BMI) is greater than 95 percent for their age/height. The extra pounds usually start children on the path to many serious health problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. (nih).
Obesity in children is now a worldwide epidemic. Kids today are eating too much and moving around too little. “Almost half of children aged 8-16 years watch three to five hours of television a day.” (nih). This kind of activity means the children are getting no exercise, and most likely eating unhealthy foods while sitting around all day on the couch. We can help our children by getting them involved and staying active rather than doing nothing all day. Encourage them to get out and exercise. You can also make sure your child’s school has healthy meal options and provide Physical Education classes. (nih).
Also, obesity is a result of behavior, environment, culture, and socioeconomic status. Behavior and environment play a major role in obesity; therefore they are the greatest areas for prevention and treatment actions. For example, if you have a child whose family is into eating big meals all the time, that child is more likely to become obese. This means that the family needs to take preventative measures such as family exercise dates, or setting guidelines on how much food can be eaten. Calories are mainly what contribute to weight gain. A calorie is defined as a unit of energy supplied by food. A calorie is a calorie regardless of its source. Whether you’re eating carbohydrates, fats, sugars, or proteins, all of them contain calories. (Contributing factors)
Caloric balance is like a scale. To maintain the balance and a normal body weight, you should balance the calories consumed with the calories used.
Childhood obesity can be genetically...