From the time a child is old enough to eat solid food through adolescence, he is taught to finish what has been put on his plate. It is something that is that is built into our culture, it is the norm to always finish what you start, even food. A child always hears from his parents “no dessert until you finish your food”. Once he is old enough to understand, he is told about all of the starving children in somalia who never have enough to eat. He is toldto be grateful for what he has and that it is a very bad thing to waste food.
So, instead of listening to his body telling im when to stop eating, he bypasses the instructions that his body is giving him,and he keeps on eating. Basically,he is made to feel like a bad, ungrateful person if he doesn’t eat, no matter how full he is. This affects the child throughout his whole life, because he think he should stop eating only whne he has cleaned his plate. This leads to obesity. Obesity in children is a serious issue with many health and social consequences that often continue into adulthood.
Providing prevention programs and getting a better understanding of treatment for youngsters is important to controlling the obesity . Many parents are rightly oncerned about their child’s weight and how it affects them. They look for specific answers for prevention and treatment options. Unfortunately, the state of the science is a lot less precise than we would like. Are kids too concerned about their weight? What are the best strategies for prevention? What treatments work over a long time?
Researchers are trying to answer those and many other questions. In many cases, common sense works well. In situations where there are serious health concerns, psychological or social problems, parents should seek out the best possible advice. Overweight and obesity result from an imbalance involving excessive calorie consumption and/or inadequate physical activity. For each individual, body weight is the result of a combination of genetic, metabolic, behavioral, environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic influences.
Behavioral and environmental factors are large contributors to overweight and obesity and provide the greatest opportunity for actions and interventions designed for prevention and treatment. It is recommended that Americans accumulate at least 30 minutes (adults) or 60 minutes (children) of moderate physical activity most days of he week. More may be needed to prevent weight gain, to lose weight, or to maintain weight loss. Physical education should be put back into the education system as a mandatory from K-12th grade, and not have it as an elective.
I feel that each day the student’s should do some sort of physical activity to raise the heart rate for at least 15 minutes, then so some type of weight exercising. For elementary and middle school children there are many ways to weight exercise, you don’t need to always use heavy weights you can use special rubber bands used for weight resistance exercise’s. Then the teacher can continue with the usual PE programs. Statistics show that 77 percent of school aged children flunked the California Physical Fitness Test. That’s CRAZY!!!
Sometimes the school don’t care. The school district that takes advantage of soda machines income and puts the children’s health aside. With all the state cut backs the schools look for any kind of income. Even though the statistics show soda is not healthy and diet soda’s even more unhealthy the old mighty dollar takes over and they say it’s for the kid’s, our budgets keep getting cut by the state so we need to additional onies elsewhere. The fast food that is sold at schools should be cut out. Also the school should implement closed campus.
Most students only have thirty minutes for their lunch break, so off campus they go in a rush to a fast food restaurant. Mass produced food is the way of the future for young and old. We need to evaluate our lives and ask ourselves what is important. When you are young you feel no effects of unhealthy eating, yes maybe heartburn or a stomach ache here or there but no long term illness. With so many children’s eating habits so bad nd diabetes and high blood pressure on the rise, parents need to stop and look at what they eat and change their life styles.
Can you believe that there is a program called “Project LEAN” which is a state effort (poor I must say) to teach high school students a healthier way of eating. I say by high school they are on their way of doing what they want. This program needs to start in elementary school. Get parent involvement so they can be educated also. Another way to make a difference is by contacting your Representative and Senators in the United States Congress is an important part f democracy.
Thousands of people bring their concerns to Congress every day. This includes people concerned about various health care issues from research to prevention to programs like Medicare. Most members of Congress have never heard from a citizen of their community about obesity. It may be that people with obesity, their families, don’t know how to become active in getting the attention from the government that this disease deserves. Congress receives many proposals requesting funding or policies to be passed for various causes.
Even if a roposal is solid and backed by science, it may not get the attention it needs unless members of Congress hear from you, their constituents. The solution makes that makes most sense to me is that smart eating starts at home when children are at a young age. Children learn from their parents and what their parents do. If the parent offers fast food or quick frozen meals because they worked all day, taking children to soccer, baseball practices after work, or just tired the child learns nothing else. So I feel that healthy eating should start at home.