Why are children getting fatter? Fast food chains are offering their foods at cheap prices but at a high expense, their foods are causing our children to gain weight. Today’s generation with electronics and social networking, exercise activity is decreasing. Fast food restaurants can be found anywhere in a heavily populated area like the San Francisco Bay Area, and with children, who don’t have much money, sometimes are limited to resort to fast food or other unhealthy meals. Obesity refers to the condition of having excessive body fat. Obesity presents a huge problem both physically, mentally, as well as emotionally. People dealing with obesity have to face with humiliation, depression, and sometimes even discrimination. Who is there to blame for this issue? It isn’t likely to find kids exercising like children used to be. Instead, kids are inside playing their video games, on the computer using a social network, simply not being active. Thirty eight percent of public school children in were overweight or obese in 2010 (Allday 2011). Fingers can be pointed in a different number of places, fast food restaurants, soda companies, schools, and sometimes parents in their own homes can be at fault as well. It’s no question that obesity awareness needs to be raised but we as a society must work in unison to get to the main goal, healthier eating and a more active lifestyle.
Method
This case study was chosen to expand the knowledge of this epidemic issue within our communities. The study explains the overall issue of childhood obesity, health risks, diagnosis and treatment, and the awareness and prevention of the nutritional disorder. Within our group we decided upon this topic based on the doubling rate of obesity in the Bay Area. To aid our research we utilize peer review journals and articles from non-profit organizations, as well as other health reliable sources.
Literature Review c Lastly the third main health risk is depression. Depression has been a major public health issue in youths. Being obese as a child can not only affect your health, but it can affect your overall perspective about yourself as an individual. Symptoms that come from depression are sleep problems, loss of energy, feeling guilt, indecisiveness, lack of interest, seclusion, or thoughts of suicide (Hardy et al., 2003). As a child there is pressure to find where you belong. Obesity can definitely hinder this. Increasing public awareness of this epidemic will help prevent obesity rate from doubling. One of the ways to be aware of this prevalent disorder is to educate children and parents about nutrition and wellness. As a matter of fact, Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) constructed a website designed for parents and children promoting lifelong nutrition and wellness. SCUSD focuses on improving the health of students by making sure that all foods and beverages made available on campus during school day are consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans (“Nutrition services”).
In other part of the Bay Area, San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) also raised public awareness of this epidemic by taking an action to prevent unhealthy lifestyles and develop better nutrition and wellness. In order to break unhealthy lifestyles and to combat the number of overweight children, SFUSD discards the sale of junk foods and sodas at all the student stores and cafeterias in elementary, middle, and high schools (Prelip et al., 2011). Moreover,