Technologies: Fueling Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Name
ENG 122
Instructor
June 20, 2011

Technologies: Fueling Childhood Obesity Epidemic
Nintendo DS, Wii, Play Station, X-Box 360, or computers what kid doesn’t love them right? How many owners of these devices suffer from obesity? Obesity now affects 20% of U.S. children, according to the National Center for Health statistics, a U.S. government agency. Obesity occurs when an individual takes in more calories in the form of food than he or she burns for energy. With recent popularity in new technologies, children are not exercising as much as they did in the past, and childhood obesity is becoming a wide spread epidemic in today’s society. Childhood obesity is an ever growing struggle amongst our society today. Most health experts believe childhood obesity is the result of a combination of genetic, environmental and psychological factors. Environment factors that contribute to childhood obesity include activity levels, diets, and eating habits. These factors can easily be maintained, or improved in a young individual’s routine with the help of the peers around them. Parents are the ones who should be acting as positive role models for their children. If an obese child has and obese parent they may think that it is just genetic, but in fact it could be due to poor eating habits ( consumption of excessive amounts of calories), or lack of physical activities. Recent studies show that on average kids among the ages of 8-18 are exposed to 12.3 hours of different types of media per day. (Kate Driers, 2011) You figure if a young individual gets the recommended 8 hours of sleep, and consumes 12.3 hours of their day using some sort of media, it leaves them less than 4 hours in a 24 hour day to fit in some form of physical activity. More than 4,000 children ages 8-16 show a strong link between childhood obesity and television viewing time. Children in the study who watched more than five hours of television daily were five times more likely to be overweight than children who watched less that just even two hours per day. (Pamela Livingston, 2011) Children in the United States watch 17 hours of television a week, according to the American Heart association. This does not include other media and or technologies. One solution to over exposure to media sources is the parental control software. This type of software, including parental settings on your TV, computer, cell phone, and video game players, can help you set daily restrictions for screen-time. The convenience of media and technologies has proven to be great, and beneficial at times, however, it has dramatically affected our society in the fact that our physical activity we do every day has dramatically decreased. Certain media sources such as the Nintendo Wii, advertise the game counsel as an alternative and fun way to get in shape. The games such as Wii Sports, Wii Fit, etc., are their main games for this particular claim, however, a study from ACE (American Council Exercise) states that in fact you would not get fit from the Wii. The study consisted of 16 volunteers, ages 20-24, who tested the product. They were given a test to measure their baseline fitness level, and then practiced 6 different Wii Fit games until they could demonstrate proficiency in each. The games were Free Run, Island Run, Free Step, Advanced Step, Super Hula Hoop and Rhythm Boxing. The results that were found were that none of the activities were actually sufficient enough to maintain or improve cardiorespiratory endurance as defined by the American College of Sports Medicine. Each activity proved that Wii Fit games do not burn as many calories as to doing those activities in real life. Although Wii Fit burns double the calories of a traditional video game, and is clear to be better than just sitting on the couch. The study shows that this kind of activity should not be a replacement for your regular session at a gym. (Alexa, Carroll, M.S, 2011) Physical activity is extremely important when it comes to preventing or maintaining obesity. It is recommended 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day for children and adults. Parents can prevent obesity by simply restricting computer, video games, television, or any other media, or game technologies to less than 2 hours a day. Keeping these certain technologies out of the children’s bedrooms, and off during meal times will also help. Eating in front of the television can cause its own set of problems: 60 to 80% of commercials on the television during children’s programs are food-related, which can make a child think more about food and increase the desire to eat. TV watching can become monotonous. Children sometimes may continue to eat whether they are hungry or not as long as there is food in front of them. This contributes to overeating. Studies also show that children who eat and watch TV consume foods higher in fat and/or salt and few fruits and vegetable than children who don’t’ eat in front of the television.(William Cochran, 2011) After conducting research on the affects our today’s technologies have a play in the current obesity epidemic, it has come very apparent that our society is facing a large problem amongst our children’s daily habits. That the convenience of the media, and resources we have to work with comes with a very large price to pay. Young individuals need to spend less time in front of these resources, and get more physical activity. Parents need to start taking a stand and set stricter rules for their children and themselves. This will result in a healthier lifestyle for young individuals, and slowly decline the numbers of obese children within the United States.

References
Kate Dries (2011) Minority youths consume more media than their counterparts. Retrieved on June 20, 2011 http://www.wbez.org/story/minority-youths-consume-more-media-their-counterparts-87579#
Dalton, Sharron (2004) Our Overweight children: What Parents, Schools, and Communities Can Do to Control the Fatness Epidemic. Retrieved from on June 1, 2011 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10064733&p00=childhood%20obesity
Cochran, William (2007) Pediatric Obesity FAQs. Retrieved from on May 30, 2011 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10171433&p00=childhood%20obesity Okie, Suzan (2005) Fed Up! Winning the War against Childhood Obesity. Retrieved from June 10, 2011 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10075869&p00=parents%20main%20player%20preventing%20childhood%20obesity Koplan, Jefferey (2007) Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?. Retrieved from June 9th, 2011 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/Doc?id=10170922&ppg=1 JJ. Reilly (2005) Early life risk factors for obesity in childhood: cohort study. Retrieved from June 9th, 2011
J.James (2004) Preventing childhood obesity by reducing consumption of carbonated drinks: cluster randomised controlled trial. Retreived from June 11,2011 http://www.bmj.com/content/330/7504/1357.full Epstein, Leonard H(1994) Ten-year outcomes of behavioral family-based treatment for childhood obesity. Retrieved from June 12,2011 http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/hea/13/5/373/ Lissau PhD(1994) Parental Neglect during Childhood and Increased Risk of Obesity in Young Adulthood. Retrieved from June 12, 2011 http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(94)91163-0/abstract# Alexa Carroll, M.S.,(2011) We Fit or Just A Wee Bit? Retrieved from June 25, 2011http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/WiiFit102009.pdf