Current State of the Childhood Obesity in the United States

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Religion

Document 1

Children whose families had low incomes are the ones who were more impacted by childhood obesity as compared to other socio-economic groups. The financial and physical impacts of obesity in children are considerable. Several types of research have been carried out to determine the current state of the childhood obesity in the United States, and they have all depicted that obese and overweight children have a high likelihood of becoming obese at their adulthood (Rifas‐Shiman et al, 2017). The children suffering from childhood obesity have high health risks in both their youths and adulthood stages which lead to increased medical costs. For the last few years, the issue has drawn the attention of both the public as well as the policymakers, yet notwithstanding that the marginal risks recently observed in certain parts of the country, the state of the childhood obesity has remained troubling.

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The draft will also seek to address those specific causes of the disease that both the parents and the medical practitioners should reinforce to ensure the disease has reduced with a realizable margin. Figure 1. 1 A graph of childhood obesity in the USA Causes of Childhood Obesity There are several causes of childhood obesity which are generally as a result of a disparity concerning energy expended alongside the energy taken. This difference has been observed to be closely related to nutritional consumption preference. This imbalance between energy taken and energy spending has been established to be narrowly related to preferences of dietary intake. By 1995, beyond 35% of the carbohydrates taken by children with two years and above in the United States was obtained from sugars with additional caloric sweeteners (Bartick et al, 2017).

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Spending more time watching television and in cases where children study in Academy, schools contribute a lot to the low level of physical activity among children leading to fewer opportunities of burning excess calories present in their bodies. The effect of increased screen time goes beyond sedentary encouragement activity. Boutelle et al (2017) contends, spending more time watching television correlated to increase in the intake of calories, where a child could eat high-density meals as they watch television (Boutelle et al, 2017). Specific Effects of Childhood Obesity in the United States Childhood obesity has various effects on the body. Other than that, a few extremely intense cases even ensue in possible demise. Policy Attempts Made to Counter Childhood Obesity in the USA In the last few decades, attempts have been made to combat the increasingly high rates of childhood obesity at the national policy level.

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In the year 2001, a Call to Action was issued by the Surgeon General whose main role was to prevent and reduce overweight (Boutelle et al, 2017). Although it did not specifically focus on the childhood obesity, it stimulated actions in various sectors with the aim of addressing the issue of childhood obesity. Since 2010, the white house has been used by Obama administration with the aim to make obesity in childhood a top priority (Bartick et al, 2017). Parents should change lifestyles and diet of their children by giving correct proportions, practicing sedentary behaviors and increasing physical activities to help reduce levels of childhood obesity in children. If children were less sedentary and more mobile, obesity in children would increase by a large margin in the United States.

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Document 2

For example, a child may have high blood pressure, risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and type two diabetes. In the past 30 years, child obesity has increased by more than three. Therefore, this shows that childhood obesity is a significant challenge in health which should be addressed adequately. Whereas obesity is a significant health problem among the aged in the society, the children have become one of the most affected people in the society, and several reasons contribute to this menace. Why cases of Obesity is rising among children First of all, we need to consider that children may be overweight at their young age and therefore this may lay a foundation for them to develop obesity disorder in the future. Most of the time the parent does not want to tell the child no because they don’t know how to teach the child that unhealthy eating habits aren’t food for the health.

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Parents have therefore greatly failed their children. Allowing the children to eat the junkie food without questioning them is a great thing that is seen in the modern times. Junkie food is at times used by the parents to cajole and bribe their children because of their sweet nature. This is a grave concern that needs to be fully addressed (Dawes p. This shows to us as teachers, parents, and guardians we need to encourage their children to engage themselves in doing more physical exercises such as going for bike rides, participating in school activities like football games, and to have relay races with their friends. If children become more active, there is a slight chance that they would not be obese.

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One of the basic things that help the children to avoid obesity is exercising. Any form of exercises is critical in building the children and also burning the excessive calories. It is one of the things that should be encouraged in the modern world. The research indicates that obsessed children are more likely to get depressed seven times as compared to healthy children (Dawes p. Health concerns are one of the essential primary reasons why we need to prevent obesity. A large number of people do not realize how costly it is to treat a child with obesity. A global health study conducted in 2014 shows that the cost for treating each child with obesity is estimated at $19,000 as compared to the cost of a child with a healthy weight.

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Research also shows that America spends about $147 billion every year on obesity including both the direct and indirect costs related to the disorder (Van Grouw et al. Parents are also using a lot of money to help their children in salvaging them from this venom. Children also spent a lot of time that could have otherwise been used in schools to learn new things and foster their knowledge. Most of the obese children seldom attend classes for fear of ridicule and stigmatization. Obese children are also quite lazy and cannot cope up well with other pupils (Ogden, Cynthia et al. Sensitization is one of the critical solutions through this menace can be curbed. Watching education programs on television is a good idea for both the parents and the children.

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