Many of our
adolescents are becoming obese, and there are many factors to blame for this.
Adolescent obesity has more than quadrupled in the past 30 years. The
percentage of adolescents ages 12-19 who were obese increased from 5% to 21% in
the United States in 2012.
The causes of obesity are complex
and include genetic, biological, behavioral, and cultural factors. It stated
that if a child has one parent that is obese, they have a 50% chance of being
obese as well. If both parents of a child are obese, they have a 80% chance of
being obese. I personally believe those statistics, but to an extent. I believe
children these days cause themselves to become obese. They choose what they want
to eat, how much they eat, and how much exercise they get daily.
Television, video games, and the
internet are some things to blame for obesity. Some children would rather be
inside the house, sitting down like couch potatoes watching their favorite TV
shows or playing video games instead of being active and playing sports,
running, or playing outside. I think parents are part to blame for this as well
because they let their children watch too much TV and play video games for too
long. I remember growing up, I used to love going outside and riding my bike.
My parents never used to let us watch too much TV.
Fast food is one big thing to blame
for obesity! Children can sometimes be so impatient when it comes to how quick
they want their food and they would much rather go to McDonalds or Burger King
and get order a burger that will be ready for then in a minute. I think it is
so sad that you can get a burger for .99, but a salad cost $5. We can also
blame that on making our children obese. Shouldn’t the salad cost .99 and the
burger $5? Our society is just messed up!
We know that overweight kids are
subject to being bullied by their peers. This can lead to low self-esteem and
depression. The health risk factors that these children can have are diabetes
and high blood pressure.
Children
just should watch what they eat and increase their level of physical activity. I
know how hard it is to watch what you are eating, and I believe that parents
and kids should all be eating about the same types of food. The whole family
should watch what they eat. If the parents eat bad it is more likely for the
children to eat bad. I know this because I went through this experience. I am
half Italian and half Ecuadorian and we all know that Italian and Spanish food
is not really that healthy. I grew up eating both and I was a little
overweight. I finally got to the point in my life where I wanted to look good,
and I started to watch what I ate. My parents eat what they want (the bad
stuff) and I eat all the healthy stuff. It is so hard to sit down at the dinner
table and eat my healthy food while my parents are eating something else that
looks so good. It is so tempting, but I am pretty good at saying no, but I know
a lot of children cannot do that. So, it is best that the whole family tries to
eat healthy.
I like your pictures! And I agree with you, I was in a similar situation with my family when I was a child and I ended up getting kinda chubby too in high school. I realized after high school when I moved out on my own I was able to maintain a better lifestyle due to doing my own grocery shopping. Great job!
ReplyDeleteStephanie,
ReplyDeleteI like the topic you chose for this. I agree with you that obesity is a big problem in teens and adolescents today. Many children cannot control what they're eating because they rely on their parents to provide them with food, so it's hard for them to eat healthy if their parents are not. Good job of explaining the many aspects of the problem. I would just suggest you integrate the pictures into the text to make the post more aesthetically pleasing. Other than that, nice work!