Obesity in Children

Obesity in Children

What is Obesity? Obesity is when there is excessive amount of fat in the body. For a child to be overweight their body mass index (BMI) that is 25 of more . This is a problem in the United States because the number of children who are becoming overweight is growing. This common chronic disease will be an even greater health problem when those children turn to adults. Problems at school and at home are the cause of this. Obesity in children is a problem in the United States, fortunately there are solutions to the problem that need to be put into action. These actions include health awareness in

To make obesity less of a problem in school, a few things would have to be done and taken into account. First of all, a positive attitude towards healthy foodthis obesity epidemic. With better education on the subject children will understand how important eating habits and physical activity are when there is an emphasis on the subjects. Another solution is for schools to have gym class more than once a week, and during that gym class it should be required for each student to participate so that everyone is involved and no one is left out. As for food available and vending machines, healthier choices of food that children will enjoy need to be made available to them. There is no need for vending drink machines because soda's and sugary drinks are not beneficial to anyone. Healthier foods need to be put in the vending machines at a lower price; this will have a great impact. " Experimental studies have shown that the price of foods will control the purchase of healthier foods vs less healthy foods . . . When prices were reduced by 10%, 25%, and 50% of baseline prices, the corresponding purchases of these items increased by 9%, 39%, and 93%," (Calamaro). This just proves that these children want a good deal. Money to put something like this into action needs to be incorporated into the budget.

In conclusion, obesity of children in the United States is very high and has risen over the past years. A lot of un healthy outcomes of obesity affect the child later in life when they are a grown adult. The causes of obesity are because of problems with foods at school, fitness and gym classes, and the education on the subject. Causes of this issue in the home include the same issues on food that is stocked in the home, lack of activity and too much TV, and parents'