Taylor Quintero Professor Massey ENC1101 11/6/13 Problem Report: Child Obesity in America As a growing society, Americas obesity

rate in children is overwhelming. Children across the nation are at risk of getting diseases such as diabetes when they grow older because of being overweight. Some children already have diabetes and are stuck with it for the rest of their lives because of their unhealthy lifestyle. The cause of obesity or disease as some may call it range from a variety of reasons that can be put to a stop with the right precautions. The causes are lack of exercise, poverty, schools, the environment, and lack of parent education. In order to put an end to it, people must join together and bring more awareness to obe sitys causes and what can be done to prevent it. Fortunately there are people and agencies doing just that. They are bringing awareness and going out and helping communities with anything they might need to reduce the amount of overweight children and promote healthy habits. Lack of exercise is a big deal when it comes to obesity. Many kids are not motivated enough to go out and play or do some type of physical activity. This may be because their parents are not pushing them enough to exercise or they don t have a place to exercise at or they do not have enough physical education at school or even things such as viewing television in their room can potentially cause children to be overweight. The article Bedroom TV viewing

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increases risk of obesity in children, written by an unknown reporter, shows a correlation between viewing television and obesity in children. Statistics, facts, and previous studies show that children who watch television in their rooms tend to be overweight. Not only does it affect children at the moment of their lives, but TV viewing time during childhood and adolescence continues into adulthood, resulting in overweight and elevated total cholesterol. So the habit of watching television usually sticks with the individual and can cause health issues in the future. Statistics in the article show that children who have a television in their bedrooms, tend to watch more television than those who dont which causes them to become overweight because of their lack of exercise. Not only does having a television in the room affect a childs weight, but both short sleep and lack of regular family meals have been related to weight gain and obesity, says notes study co-author Amanda Staiano, PhD. Like exercise, eating healthy plays a vital role in preventing childhood obesity. In Sabrina Tavernises periodical Obesity in Young Is Seen as Falling in Several Cities, shows the impact that school lunches have on childrens weight. In cities such as New York and Philidalphia, changes have been made to their schools cafeterias and the results have been well worth it. There was a small decrease in the amount of obese children in certain cities, and even though

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they were not large decreases, they were noteworthy because any type of decrease is a good decrease. In order to achieve this decrease, sugary drinks such as ice tea, fruitpunch, and more have been eleminated from the schools vending machines. Also, things such as potato chips were sold in smaller portions in vending machines. The school board also made schools in Philidalphia remove their beloved deep fryers which were used to make french fries. Even though the schools might have lost some money because of those changes, it is well worth it for the well being of children. Poverty is one of the factors that contributes to obesity. Lisa Blancos documentary Tipping the Scales- A Documentary on Childhood Obesity shows how this is so. It showed not only the kids perspective, but the adults, and the professionals perspective on this i mportant matter of obesity. In the documentary they speak with kids and ask them why they seem to be overweight or obese and most of the kids will respond with the answer that they are obese or overweight because their parents are too. The reason for this is not only genetics, but the facts that they cannot afford to eat healthier. For example, in the documentary they showed a little girls family who was overweight. The little girls mother said that she only has time to cook on the weekends because she has to work on the weekdays; therefore, the little girl has to eat food that is easy and cheap to acquire, such as fast food. Fast food tends to be very unhealthy because of the large amount of calories found in most fast food meals. The mother of the little girl blames herself for her daughter being overweight because she can provide her with healthy foods and cook for her often. Then the documentary showed another family, in which the two siblings are not overweight. This family was healthier and fit, but they were financially stable, and the mother of the two kids is a stay at home mom that can take the kids to play their sports

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and cook healthy meals for them on a daily basis, unlike the other family. This shows that poverty has a large influence on childrens health in America. Although some children do not have financial issues in their families, and do have the opportunity to do exercise, there still is a chance that they are at risk of being obese or overweight. This is because healthy choices are not being presented to them at their homes. In Barbara Scott, Brie Moore, and William T. O'Donohues book, Handbook of Pediatric and Adolescent Obesity Treatment, the resolution to change a childs unhealthy habits is quite simple. They explain how to use the behavioral approach to make things such as eating healthy and doing exercise more accessible to children. The behavioral approach is the belief that the environment can be a cause of certain behaviors; in this case the behaviors are exercise and eating. Many kids tend to eat unhealthy foods because they are the easiest to get. In order to change this potentially unhealthy habit, parents must put healthy foods such as fruits in easy to reach places like in a bowl on top of the table or counter instead of junk food such as cookies. The same thing goes for physical activities. By having things such as bikes in accessible areas such as a garage, parents are motivating their children to go out and do exercise. Even removing televisions from rooms can help motivate exercise as explained before. These simple things can make a big difference in childrens lives and parents should definitely try them to help their children stay healthy and avoid being overweight if they are not already. There are currently different agencies and foundations working hard to keep children away from being obese. One of these great agencies is Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities. This agency is helping about 49 different communities in the United States stay healthy by building

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new playgrounds, making healthy foods accessible, and even building things such as cross walks and bike lanes. All of those things make an enormous difference for communities and helps them lower their obesity rates and stay healthy. Many communities in the United Stated do not have fresh vegetables and fruits because of their location, and the nearest places to get them are just too far away to get. Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities provides these communities with fruits and vegetables. They even help some communities build community gardens. Like Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association helps communities live a healthier life by promoting healthy things like exercise and healthy foods. An unknown reporter on Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week wrote about something great the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association did. Many cities do not have playgrounds and parks for children to play in and be active in, so the BCBSA selected Minneapolis, Minnesota; Savannah, Georgia; Durham, North Carolina; Buffalo, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Omaha, Nebraska; York, Pennsylvania; San Francisco, California; Chicago, Illinois; and Caguas, Puerto Rico to host 4 play streets each. This was intended to help promote physical exercise with a fun approach and help the children in these cities to avoid obesity or even recover from obesity. The play streets would be streets that are closed and transformed into a safe area where kids can partake in fun, physical activities. They set up things like skating rinks, skate parks, farmers markets, bike fittings, rentals, and lessons for children. The BCBSA also helped by providing the ten winning cities with funds, technical assistance, and communications and marketing support. This helps make a difference in these cities that most likely do not have any public parks nearby for children to play in and do exercise in. They give the children a safe

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place to partake in fun physical activities, keeping them away from watching television all day long and eating unhealthy foods throughout the day. Child obesity in the United States is something that truly needs to be brought to awareness more and many changes need to be made in order to end this harmful epidemic they takes over the lives of many innocent children on a daily basis. In order to put an end to this, people, parents, and children need to be educated on this matter so that they can know how to prevent it. Children must know the importance to do physical activities on a daily basis and eat healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables instead of junk food. They must also know that it is vital for them to end any unhealthy habits such as the most common one, watching too much television instead of being up and active. Parents need to learn how to prevent their children from being obese and be a role model for them. They also need to learn how to set up a healthy environment in their homes. Schools need to serve healthier lunches and sell less junk food. All of these things put together can reduce childhood obesity in the United States by a significant amount and prevent harmful diseases such as diabetes in the long run.

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Works Cited Bedroom TV viewing increases risk of obesity in children. Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week 29 Dec. 2012: 106. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. Blanco, Lisa, Lloyd, Samantha, Horsch, Arielle, Ortega Angela. Tipping the Scales- A Documentary on Childhood Obesity. YouTube. 2011. Web. 28 Oct. 2013 "Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and Partnership for a Healthier America Bring 40 'Play Streets' to 10 Cities to Combat Childhood Obesity." Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week 1 Dec. 2012: 70. Academic OneFile. Web. 31 Oct. 2013. Scott, Barbara J., Brie A. Moore, and William T. O'Donohue. Handbook Of Pediatric And Adolescent Obesity Treatment. New York: Routledge, 2008.eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 28 Oct. 2013. Tavernise, Sabrina. Obesity in Young Is Seen as Falling in Several Cities. New York Times 10 December, 2012. Web. 10 October, 2013.
northtexaskids.com (photograph #2)