Allison Hilden
Mrs. Milne
Composition 1
04/17/2013

Skin & Bones Anyone who has gone through high school before knows that most girls have image issues. Eating disorders have become a huge problem in many high schools and my in-home town, Hudson High School. I have come up with a few solutions, some of them not so great, but one might just actually work. The first solution would be to start a non-profit community work out class and education classes about issues along these lines. The second would be to get the school district to provide adequate food for people who will not eat un-healthy foods. The third solution is to have the school district make it a class requirement to have sports in their daily routine other than gym class, and continue that through the high school years. Eating disorders have been an issue/problem in children and teens for years. It has been estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder – seven million women and one million men, and half of these numbers include children. What happens is people are not educated enough in this problem to know where to go for help. It is also hard to tell if someone has an eating disorder -unless it has gotten extreme, therefore, it is hard to help the person in need. Nearly half of all Americans personally know someone with an eating disorder (Note: One in five Americans suffers from mental illnesses.)
Each year many people die from this disease. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recovers. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old.
Children now days spend a good amount of their day in from of the television or playing a video game. There is not enough physical activity in their lives. One thing that does not help this situation is that parents are so busy they allow their children to be entertained all day by electronics. It seems more parents are not taking the time to spend quality time with their children, resulting in children not being pushed to be active. In some cases, it is not completely the parents fault. If they have a busy life in general and cannot control everything that goes on in their family, they should at least take a second to pay attention to the health of their children that you cannot see-the mental side. It is the mental side of the brain in people that can get out of control a lot easier. People cannot see what is going on inside the body so they assume nothing is wrong. Like the saying goes “Out of sight out of mind”.
The first solution that I came up with to help keep people healthy from a young age through the rest of their life, was the town could hold free seminars for teen and parents to go to, to help educate them about issues like this one. This is a good idea because it would provide education to the community helping educate all ages about eating disorders and keeping a healthy lifestyle. This solution might not be satisfactory to people because once most teenagers reach a certain age they do not want to do thing with their parents anymore. They would rather hang out with their friends than go to seminars on the weekends with their parents. The second solution that I had came up with to help keep people healthy from a young age through the rest of their life, was to get the school district to provide adequate food and drinks for kids who do not want to the eat un-healthy. Keeping in mind that most kinds do not like healthy food, there will be alternatives, but the school must help portion control these items. This is a great solution because it will keep kids eating healthy. This solution might not be the best one