Preventing Childhood Obesity
Victoria Johnson Baker College

Preventing Childhood Obesity
“I doubt that the outcome we desire as a nation is to have excellent readers and outstanding math teachers — who are obese or undernourished and who are not physically fit,” says Gerald N. Tirozzi, executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Obesity is an extremely complex disease that is devastating our society, and plaguing our children. Parents and teachers need to tackle this issue of obesity that is effecting children. As one society needs to come together and help children become more aware of the serious situation they are facing if this disease is left untreated. The risk associated with eating fatty food and lack of exercise leaves children with a high chance of developing diseases such as: Diabetes, type one and two, heart disease, and certain cancers. Proposing a solution to prevent childhood obesity seems like the right move. This proposal is to spread awareness about the epidemic that’s plaguing our children by educating parents and teachers through strategies proven to prevent obesity. Parents and school officials should conjointly instruct children on proper eating techniques, and through a health education program instill in children the importance of exercise and modeling a healthier lifestyle. This proposal is directed towards parents, school officials and school age children.
However, there are countless causes of obesity, but first we need to examine what obesity is in order to thoroughly evaluate it. Obesity is a disorder involving excessive body fat that poses incredible health risk. Childhood obesity is when a child is significantly overweight for his or her age and height. In 2004, about 9 million children over the age of 6 were considered obese. In 2005, the percentage of school age children who were overweight was around 25% and the percentage of children who were obese was 11% (CDC. Gov, 2014). Because the number of children being affected by obesity is drastically changing just means the issue at hand is just that serious.
Childhood Obesity and its Factors
Also, to understand childhood obesity one must first know how it started. Childhood obesity occurs when a person consumes more food than their bodies need. For example: a child partakes in a relatively high calorie meal and proceeds to eat sweets then lye around playing video games instead of exercising it causes the child to build unwanted body fat. The reason why children are becoming obese is due to fast foods plus many other factors. These factors include social, physical and mental. An example of social and mental factors consist of when a child makes poor food choices they tend to display bad eating habits. For instance, children are quick to grab some candy to eat, as opposed to a piece of fruit.
In addition, children are becoming more aware of their personal physiological changes in result experiencing stress at a younger age. Children use eating as an alternative to avoid anxiety, being bored, and even anger. The environment is another important factor that shapes children’s eating habits. Parents and teachers modeling healthy eating in front of children will help shape their eating behavior. Genetics also play a role in obesity. Children with overweight parents seems to be larger at some point in their life, studies suggest obesity is considered a highly heritable and genetically heterogeneous disorder (Al-Shafai, Falchi, 2011). Despite the improvement in our understanding of the genetic basis of obesity, the underlying genetic cause of most families with extreme obesity is still unknown (Al-Shafai, Falchi, 2011).
On the other hand, most children have higher metabolisms than other kids. These kids might eat the same fatty food amount as the other child, but they won’t gain unwanted body fat because of their fast acting genes. However, with exercise and healthy eating habits even children with the