Week 7 assignment Antoinette Brooks Adelia Cozart-Amos Eng 115 November 26, 2012

Thesis Statement Today, youth in America face an obesity crisis that is unprecedented in our history. Obesity rates have skyrocketed by 300% over the last 30 years, with dramatic implications for our children and our society.
Introduction
Children born in 2000 have a 1-in-3 chance of developing type 2 diabetes during their lifetime, and 70% of obese 5- to 17-year-olds in a population-based study had at least 1 risk factor for cardiovascular disease.” A statement written by KM Richardson. If the childhood obesity epidemic is not reversed, our society will bear the pain and cost of high rates of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and other obesity-related chronic diseases. The tragedy is that these consequences are preventable. We know that prevention of disease is cost-effective and ethical; treatment is costly and painful. If we know what our children need to be healthy, why don't we, as adults, fix the problem? Is it lack of education about nutrition; an inadequate food supply; the power of food marketing; lack of access to healthy, affordable foods; or a failure of will?

The Obama administration announced its long-awaited changes to government-subsidized school meals, a final round of rules that adds more fruits and green vegetables to breakfasts and lunches and reduces the amount of salt and fat. Specifically, 38.8 percent of students who routinely eat school lunch were found to be overweight or obese, compared to 24.4 percent of kids who brought their own food from home. The children consuming school food were twice as likely to drink sodas, and a measly 16.3 percent reported eating fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, compared to 91.2 percent of the kids who got homemade food. To me, food is the one central thing about human experience