Let’s Fight Back
Kayla Mosley
Professor Faught
ENG 115
October 28, 2012

Let’s Fight Back
American’s children are faced with skyrocketing obesity rates. Over the last thirty years obesity rates have seen an increase of 300%. Patricia Crawford of Medscape Education Diabetes & Endocrinology states, “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 one risk factor for cardiovascular disease”. If the outcome of childhood obesity is not turned around, humankind will have to endure the discomfort and cost of many obesity related chronic diseases. The question now is how do we fight back against childhood obesity? Children today are eating more snack like foods and drinking more soda pops and sugar filled beverages. Today our youth’s consumption of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are nowhere near the current recommendations. As a society, we need to educate our children to make smarter and healthier choices when food is involved. However, the average child attends school around seven hours a day, five days a week. That child has the option to eat what the school has prepared for breakfast and lunch, at least twice a day. Nanci Hellmich of USA Today reports, “Overall, kids consume about 30% to 50% of their calories while at school”. Therefore, schools should provide kids with access to more nutritious foods, items that are not only good for them, but that they can enjoy at the same time. Junk, greasy, and fatty food slows kids down; therefore kids need foods that can supply them with energy and the nutrition that their bodies need. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 will achieve this by making serious improvements to federally funded school meal programs. As shown on Table 1 schools will provide children with