Obesity “I don’t think there are many words more frightening to a parent than: “Your child has an eating disorder” (Dellasega, 1). Reality can hurt people but so can an illness that the world is aware of. How can we stop obesity? Today there are 23 million children and adolescents in the United States who are overweight or obese (Green, Riley, and Hargrove 915). This epidemic is only increasing year-by-year and there needs to be something done about it. Obesity is one of the leading ways of death at a young age for many people. Those who are affected by obesity do not realize that there are major health concerns that will approach them at a later age. It is causing harm to over weight adults because they get diagnosed with type one or two diabetes very early in their life and are more likely to have high blood pressure. All of these illnesses can cause an obese person to develop a heart disease or stroke. (Hoffman, Salerno, and Moss 14) Obesity can easily be stopped if people want to gain a healthier lifestyle.

Many obese people do not believe that they are over weight and pretend it is okay to eat whatever they want. Rather than eat a healthy snack they pull out chips and ice cream. These kind of people are in denial and do not realize they are hurting their bodies. If anyone tries to help most over weight individuals, many will respond with “I’ll eat what I want”, or “The government cannot tell me what to do.” Obesity is a disorder many people live with but do not want to do anything about. However, the government has tried to push the idea of obesity and help those in need. This help from the government only enforces few things and many companies have not achieved making their servings healthy for all. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention “Over sixteen percent of children and adolescents from ages six to nineteen years of age are overweight or obese and this number has tripled since 1981 (Green, Riley, and Hargrove 915). This issue will never end unless people limit the number of calories they intake and exercise more. If a child becomes obese and does not do anything to take off they weight, they will later have major health issues later in their life leading to early death. Without doing these the rate of obesity will continue to grow. “Current literature indicates that obesity rates among children of all ages are grammatically higher than they were a generation ago” (Green, Riley, and Hargrove 915). Taking little steps will only help a person who is obese become healthy and this will decrease the number of people with obesity. Parents (families), the government, and schools should all work together to stop obesity.

The first step to stopping obesity is from parents. Rather than waiting until an older age to feed children healthy foods, parents should introduce vegetables and fruits to their toddlers. This will help them realize they like apples rather than candy. Also, exercise is the best thing for a child to do to decrease the rate of obesity after eating healthy. If parents get their children involved in sports such as soccer, basketball or just running around outside. “Children and adolescents spend an average of five and a half hours a day of using media that includes TV, video games, computer activities, and the Internet” (Green, Riley, and Hargrove 915). If parents let there children come home from school and watch television or play video games this will not help. Without exercise burning calories would not be possible. Exercise is very important and helps children gain strength along with burn calories.
Fast food restaurants are one of the leading ways to cause a person who does not exercise gain weight. At fast food restaurants parents are given many options for their children. This food is very greasy and if parents bring their children there every night this could definitely lead to obesity. If parents treat their children every once in a