Introduction
Obesity is a medical condition that means when
a person is overweight. It also affects a lot of people. Obesity can slowly
happen to anyone without realizing it.
If the way you live your life isn’t very healthy you could run a risk of
becoming obese. The food, the amount of exercise, and stress could be all
factors of obesity. When you step on your scale does it shock you how much you
weight? “It’s absurd that obesity affects 52% of adults and children combined
in the United States” ("How Many People Are Affected by at Risk for
Obesity &over Weight").
History
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that
affects children and adolescents. It occurs when a child is well above the
normal weight for his or her age and height. Children are becoming more obese every
day, there has been many study’s, surveys and etc. to examine the population of
children that becoming more obese. “The National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey begin to track children who are overweight and obese in 1963…
this time 4.2 percent of 6 to 11 year olds and 4.6 percent of 12 to 19 year
olds are obese” (“Childhood Obesity Timeline” 1). One of the many reasons
children gain weight is the delicious sugary drinks and foods that our country
is selling. How much they consumed at a time has a big part to do with the
amount of weight they gain. “Beverages portion have grown as well in the mid-1970s,
the average sweetened beverage was 13.6 ounces compared today, kids think
nothing of drinking 20 ounces of sugar-sweetened beverages at a time…..average
American now eats fifteen more pounds of sugar a year than in 1970”("Let's
Move"). It’s nothing new that fast food, junk food, and sugary drinks,
etc. is a major problem to America, and the children. “47 percent of women with
children, 78 percent were employed .With more time spent working outside the
home, there was less time for home activities including food preparation. It
will come as no surprise that the per capita number of fast-food restaurants
doubled between 1972-1975”(
"The Nation's Childhood Obesity Epidemic Health Disparities in the
Making").The records in childhood obesity keeps going up has the years go
by. “Obesity rates have doubled since 1980, from 15 to 30 percent for adults,
while childhood obesity rates have more than tripled” ("Obesity").
After a long time coming, the community starts
investigating what is causing this enormous problem in America’s children. In
1988 “NHAES third Examination Survey connects between television, physical
activity and Childhood obesity are found. The results show that the more
television is watched, the lower the amount of physical activity amongst
children which leads to a higher BMI and weight gain” (“Childhood
Obesity Timeline” 2).This condition started in the 1990’s.”Our research
documents the emergence of the obesity epidemic among adolescents in the later
half of the1990s, and among young adults in 2000” ("Epidemic of Obesity in
U.S. Kids Began in Late '90s” 1). The citizen tried to get America back in
shape. In 1995 “A campaign called Shape up America is founded by Connecticut
Marketing Associates to try to decrease obesity in the United States” (“Childhood Obesity” 3).
After all these years of struggling with obesity in America now it has become an
epidemic. “The World Health Organization
declares obesity an epidemic in 1997”
(“Childhood Obesity Timeline” 4).
What is obesity? Is obesity a disease? Just being lazy? On
1999 “The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially identifies obesity as a
disease” (“Childhood Obesity Timeline” 5). You would think that because,
obesity is now consider an epidemic, and a disease people would start to worry
and try to do something about their health? No, in the 2000s citizens are still
becoming obese and the statics just continue going up. “BMIs increased “sharply
in the adolescents ages beginning in the 1990 and among young adults around
2000” ("Epidemic of Obesity in U.S. Kids Began in Late '90s” 2).Obesity is
a worldwide disease, it affect anyone. “Most of these countries showed
increased obesity rates over the past decades…luckily there wasn’t any change
from 2001-2007 among 16 year old youth, and other groups” ("Child Obesity ").
Trying
to get healthy and is just more than saying it, it takes dedication , time, motivation .It’s
hard to do it by yourself , but when you have help and support it makes it
little easier to achieve your goals. “In the First Lady Michelle Obama 2010
launches a foundation called “Let’s Move” it’s dedicated to solving the
challenge of childhood obesity within a generation, so that children born today
will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams” ("Child Obesity
Timeline" 2). The topic obesity is a huge topic and there is so
much information about it. This generation is wonderful .There are so many way
of getting information like books, newspaper, the internet, magazines and last but not least documentary’s. “The
weight of the Nation premieres on HBO as four part documentary series” ("Childhood
Obesity Timeline." 6).
Examples
of obesity
Symptoms for children who are dealing with obesity were unhealthy and
emotionally difficult.
·
Usually self-diagnosable
·
Obesity occurs when a person's body mass index
is 30 or greater. The main symptom is excessive body fat, which increases the
risk of serious health problems.
·
Pain areas: in the back or joints
·
overweight, binge eating, fatigue, pot belly, or
snoring
It’s hard for a
child that is obese, but also on their families. I took his to get this checkup
and in his check up the doctor told him he was overweight. He said he was
twenty pounds over his weight limit. He gave my little brother instruction of
what foods not to eat and what to do to lose at least five pounds every month
for four months. Since the moment my mom knew she was strict with his diet and
he got so upset. She limits the amount he ate, what he ate, and when he
exercise. No more fast foods, sugary foods, drinks and walks/ runs every day
after school. It was so hard for us not to take him out to eat, or buy him junk
food. Especially when we had junk food and he knew we had it, and we couldn’t
give him any. With more exercise and managing the way he ate, his weight is
back to normal for his size and age. Now is just managing to keep it off.
Solutions/Evidential Support:
There has never
been and probably would never be a complete solution to the problem that
affects all our future, which are the children. Children are becoming obese
every day in every part of the world. Losing weight is more than just being
skinny and having the perfect body. Healthy weight loss isn't just about a
"diets" or "program. It's
about an ongoing lifestyle that includes long term changes in daily eating and
exercise habits. “Obesity was declared an epidemic in 1997 by the World Health
Organization” (“Childhood Obesity Timeline"). In 2016 obesity in children
is still a big part of the world, up to this date! “Child obesity around the
world has reached alarming levels. An estimated 41 million children under 5
years old are either obese or overweight as of 2014, and the epidemic is
hitting developing nations especially hard”. ("Childhood Obesity Is Now
Higher Than Ever"). Some solutions that can help children lose weight are
exercise daily, reducing calories, and last but not least get a goodnight of
sleep every night. The one thing I believe that you should never do when trying
to lose weight is pill dieting, it’s unhealthy and not a guarantee to lose
weight.
One solution that
can help the children of America to have a better and healthy life style is to
exercise. It not helps you in losing weight, but brings your mood up, and you
feel extremely happy about yourself. Exercise it can actually help you feel
good, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Getting the right amount of
exercise can rev up your energy levels and even help improve your mood.
“Experts recommend that teens get 60 minutes or more of moderate to vigorous
physical activity each day” ("Why Exercise Is Wise"). You need a
healthy life to be able to move forward. If you take care of your body and
healthy you will go a long ways. But in the other hand if you take advantage of
your health and not appreciate it, it’s going to start effecting you and you
will start to have problems with your health. “In the same way that a sports
car is designed to go fast, we are designed to move. If the sports car is taken
out once a week for a 3 mile round trip through a town center then it would
probably develop engine problems fairly quickly. Over time people too develop
problems if they sit down all day at a desk or in front of the TV and minimize
the amount of exercise they do” ("The Importance of Exercise").
Secondly point to
find solutions to a healthy lifestyle is to reduce the amount of calories your
child consumes. That does not don’t fed them or let them starve. “Eating fewer
calories doesn't necessarily mean eating less food. To be able to cut calories
without eating less and feeling hungry, you need to replace some higher calorie
foods with foods that are lower in calories and fill you up. In general, these foods contain
a lot of water and are high in fiber” ("Cutting Calories").The child
can eat any foods he/she desires but within moderation. The key to weight loss
is to consume fewer calories than you burn. It’s possible to lower the calorie
intake to a greater degree than it is to burn more calories through increased
exercise. That's, why cutting calories through dieting is generally more
effective for weight loss. But doing both cutting calories and exercising can
help give you the weight loss edge. Exercise can help burn even more calories
than just dieting. Reducing calories can go a long way with the proper
balance. “Successful weight-loss
treatments include setting goals and making lifestyles changes, such as eating
fewer calories and being physically active”( "How Are Overweight and
Obesity Treated?"). Remember that a calorie is always a calorie whether it
comes from fat or carbohydrate. Reducing fat and saturated fat in the daily
diet is important to maintaining heart health and reducing calories. However,
fat-free or reduced-fat food choices aren't always low in calories. They can be
high in sugar or other nutrients that increase calories. Some reduced-fat or
fat-free foods provide almost the same number of calories as the regular food.
They are not the solution to weight loss. This is especially true if you think
you can eat more of a reduced-fat food than you would eat of a regular item.
There is two ways to reduce their calorie intake by focusing on food, but
another way to cut calories may be to change what you drink. You may find that
you're consuming quite a few calories just in the beverages you have each day.
Find out how you can make better drink choices to reduce your calorie intake.
The third point is
getting a good night of sleep. Sleep is a condition of body and mind such as
that which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous
system is relatively inactive, the eyes closed, the postural muscles relaxed, and
consciousness practically suspended. Sleep is a beautiful thing and very
important to a human. In my experience kids take advantage of sleep, they just
want to stay up eating junk food and watching T.V. while doing that they lose
sleep every night they stay up late at night. If they do this constantly it is
going to extremely hard for them to catch up with their sleep. Adults ages 18
to 64 get between seven and nine hours of sleep a night, 30 percent of American
adults clock six or fewer hours .People who sleep less than five to six hours a
night are up to 45 percent more likely to be obese. Between living your life,
working, and exercising, you’re forgetting to sleep enough. Or maybe, more
importantly, you don’t realize that sleep is the key to being rewarded for your
diet and fitness efforts. “Not sleeping enough less than seven hours of sleep
per night can reduce and undo the benefits of dieting” ("Why Sleep Is More
Important Than We Ever Thought").Lack of sleep also pushes you in the
direction of the foods you know you shouldn’t eat. Sleep is very important to
have a healthy and, happy life. Always try to get a goodnight rest, it helps to
lose weight and keep your mind fresh.
There has been a
controversy topic has the pill dieting.
I believe that the dieting pills are not healthy for anyone and should
never use them. There are many prescription weight loss pills that have been
shown to be effective, but it just depends on the type of person he/she is
taking the pills. Diet pills are highly controversial. A number of products
have been taken off the market because they caused serious health problems.
Obesity can't be cured by pills, shots or even surgery. If only it were that
easy. Despite centuries of supposed weight-loss remedies from anti-obesity soaps,
crash diets based on vinegar to even amphetamines, fads have failed. Over the
years, Americans have become more obsessed with weight loss, but not much
healthier as more than one-third of U.S. adults are obese. Drugs have not
effectively answered the problem, despite billions of dollars spent in
research. “Most notorious was the combination of fenfluramine and phentermine,
marketed as Fen-Phen. This was linked to a number of deaths, as well as cases
of pulmonary hypertension and damaged heart valves. Under pressure from the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers removed the product from
the market” ("Diet Pills: Do They Actually Work?”).It is easy for unsafe
ingredients to find their way into popular diet pills, going unnoticed until
adverse reactions. They can increase your risk for heart attack and stroke. The
main ingredients in many diet pills are stimulants that have been found to
increase risk for heart attack and stroke. You may experience multiple side
effects. Some diet pills contain fat blockers that decrease nutrient absorption
and cause stomach upset. Other reported side effects of diet pills include
constipation, headaches, and mood swings. They are ineffective. Many diet pills
are simply a combination of caffeine and other diuretics, which cause water
loss. Initially this results in a lower number on the scale, but this is not
true fat loss and the water weight will return. Additionally, extreme water
loss due to diet pills can cause dangerous dehydration. You won’t change your
habits. Long term weight loss requires a change in your eating and exercise
habits to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Taking a pill as a quick-fix method does
not encourage you to gain a better understanding of how foods and exercise
affect your weight. You are less likely to check food labels, record your food
intake, and fit in your exercise if you think a pill is going to do the work
for you. Taking pills forever is not sustainable and once you stop, you’ll be
back to your poor habits and initial weight.
Camus and Absurdity: “Camus ultimately
became an atheist and, as a thinker, he considered religious faith to be
“philosophical suicide.” According to Camus, mankind was perpetually attempting
to rationalize an irrational universe” ("Albert Camus’ Religion and
Political Views"). I believed that
if Camus was here today he would think that child obesity is a huge epidemic
and problem but there is a solution to it and if you want to lose weight to be
a healthier person you should do what your heart desired and not think about
what other would think or say about you. Also he would be very unhappy with all
the health problem that obesity causes and sometimes even death, if you’re not
careful.
Conclusion: “It’s absurd that obesity affects 52% of adults and
children combined in the United States” ("How Many People Are Affected by
at Risk for Obesity &over Weight").Obesity can slowly happen to anyone
without realizing it. What I have learned researching this topic the past
months is that obesity can happen to anyone at any time, and not to take your
health for granted. If the way you live your life isn’t very healthy you could
run a risk of becoming obese. The food, the amount of exercise, and stress
could be all factors of obesity.
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