Childhood Obesity
The most important aspect of publishing research is the credibility of the researcher and the sources from which the author collects data. Without credibility it is impossible for the reader to trust the information in the article. Throughout the article, “Childhood Obesity,” the researcher, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, presents surveys from other researchers who have conducted studies on childhood obesity. She covers different possibilities of the source of childhood obesity, and uses other researchers to convey information to the public to show the importance of the prevention of childhood obesity. The author of the article entitled “Childhood Obesity” uses credible resources in order to validate her research and to back up the statements she expresses throughout the article.
This article published by Sebelius covers the causes of childhood obesity. She states that there are several reasons as to how a child could become obese such as the child’s nutrition and eating habits, his or her physical inactivity and sedentary behaviors, the parental influences, genetics, and advertising and marketing from television. The items and time a child eats is directly related to whether the child could become obese or not. If a child eats fast food or foods high in fat and sugars the risk of their chances of becoming obese greatly increase. The amount of times and the time of day a child eats also heightens their chances because a child is less active at night meaning they will not burn the calories off like they would during the day. Also, too much food is an overdose of calories and fat, and the child cannot burn off the extra calories quickly. Sebelius states in her article that when a child has time to relax or down time the child would go outside and hang out with friends but now children spend most of their time in front of a television or computer. This increases their chance of becoming obese because they are not engaging in any physical activity throughout the day. Parental influences also affect a child’s chances of becoming obese. The influences a parent has on a child range from if they breast feed or not all the way to how a child interacts with food while the parent is absent. If the parent makes the food available to the child while they are alone, they will more than likely snack on it. However, if the unhealthy food were not readily available they would not be tempted to eat it. Offspring of obese parents will often have a higher body mass index. There is around a seventy-five percent chance that a child with two obese parents will end up obese, and a twenty-five percent chance that the child will be obese if only one of his or her parents is obese exclaims Sebelius. While a child is watching television or on the computer there are often commercials or advertisements that promote unhealthy food and fast food. These advertisements influence children to want to eat these foods because they make them look appealing, but these foods are high in calories and fat and low in nutrients.
The article “Childhood Obesity” is posted on the website of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The secretary and article writer of the website is Kathleen Sebelius. The “Biography” article about Sebelius on the HHS website states “she was named one of Forbes 100 most powerful women in the world.” In the article, Sebelius says that the HHS organization provides several different resources for people who need them. It is one of the leading organizations that provide services, like healthcare, for Americans. It is also one of the nations leading health care insurers, which include but are not limited to, Medicare and Medicaid. One in four Americans have one of the two insurances, which prove how reliable the HHS is. Sebelius states in the article “the HHS programs provide for equitable treatment of beneficiaries nationwide, and they enable the collection of national health and other data.” Their main