Childhood Obesity

The Growing Obesity Problem in Children:

            Obesity has become more and more prevalent in the United States within the last ten years. Specifically, obesity has rapidly increased in children ages 1-19. One’s body weight is measured as a BMI, which means body mass index and also depends on the person’s height. In general, being “overweight” is measured at a BMI of 25-29.9 and being “obese” is measured at a BMI greater than 30. Obesity is a huge problem within itself, but it also can lead to greater issues like, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc.

Defining the Problem:

Childhood obesity has more than tripled in American adolescents in the past decade. By 2010, the percentage of obese children aged 1–19 years old, in the United States, increased from 5% in 1980 to nearly 18%.

Relevance and Importance:

Having a healthy body weight is important because children are still developing and if fat is cushioning their bones, then their bones are more like to be brittle. Also, children who are obese usually don’t participate in any physical activities either at home or school, so the rate of obesity will continue to grow from all the sedentary activities. This problem is relevant to the US because it has more than tripled in a decade and is contusing to grow.

Why this topic interesting:

This topic is interesting to me because this problem is increasing and not much is being done to stop it. Many people feel that this issue can only be fixed with eating habits, but its more than just than. People need to learn to exercise and exercise properly by doing workouts that are high intensity and fat burning. Children also need to learn that being active is fun and rewarding compared to sitting in front of the TV playing video games and becoming a couch potato. Public Health officials shouldn’t expect kids to make all their healthy decisions on their own; parents also need to be actively involved literally and figuratively. Parents should be taught what is a proper diet and exercise for their children.

The points that I mentioned about the growing rate of obesity are just some factors that lead to this cause. Other factors and people at risk of becoming obese are the lower class, different races/ethnicities, and how much education one has. Obesity is not a problem that can be change overnight. This problem is demanding and will take a long time to just begin to reverse it. Physicians, Public Health officials, and parents need to put their full attention into the children to stop this problem from developing and eventually quadrupling itself.