...Childhood Obesity Shakia Bennett ENG 122: English Composition II Marsh Bechwith-Howard April 15, 2012 Childhood Obesity: Whose Fault is it? The Ashford library, ebooks, and newspaper articles are where the sources on childhood obesity came from. When doing research on childhood obesity, nutrition and parenting were some of the main reoccurring topics of childhood obesity. This paper will focus on unhealthy and healthy eating habits of obese children, and the effects of parenting towards childhood obesity as well as ways to overcome childhood obesity. In the United States there has been a rise in childhood obesity, but whose fault is it? Some parents blame fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, saying their food is unhealthy and the portions are too big. However, on the first part the blame for childhood obesity should be on the parents. Although fast food restaurants do paly a small part in childhood obesity, it is up to the parents to determine what they allow their children to eat. Parents should stop blaming fast food restaurants for childhood obesity when healthy eating habits should be enforced at home. Childhood obesity is a rising serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. Approximately 15 percent of U.S. children, ages 6–11, and 16 percent of U.S. adolescents, ages 12–19, are obese (Encyclopedia of Special Education, 2006). Childhood obesity occurs when a child is above the normal weight for his or her age and height. Obesity appears...
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...Eating, Substance Abuse, Sex/Gender/Sexual, Impulse-Control, and Personality Disorder Normal behavior is accepted world-wide, but when people show abnormal behavior, it is accepted by the few that may understand why this is their behavior. Abnormal behavior that disrupts an individual’s life on a daily basis can be caused by several disorders. These disorders can very complex at times and some are more devastating to the mind and body than others. In this paper, the biological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of eating, substance abuse, sex/gender/sexual, impulse-control, and personality disorders will be analyzed. Biological Eating Disorder Genetics and abnormalities in hormones, neurotransmitters, and brain structures are focused on to explain how eating disorders are developed. Studies have shown that identical twins are more likely to have anorexia and bulimia than fraternal twins. However, other studies show that eating disorder symptoms can be greatly influenced by nongenetic factors, such as obsessive-compulsive anxiety disorder and depression. Eating disorders are seen as an extension of obsessive-compulsive anxiety disorder by some clinicians because people may develop the compulsive need for dieting, exercising, or purging as a result of obsessional thoughts about being overweight (Hansell & Damour, 2008). As for hormonal abnormalities, two hormones (leptin and ghrelin) have been the main focus in recent research. Leptin is a hormone...
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...Eating, Substance Abuse, Sex/Gender/Sexual, Impulse-Control, and Personality Disorders The capacity for normal human functioning is reduced when an individual suffers from eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual, gender identity and/or personality disorders. When an individual suffers from an eating disorder their perception of the self is blurred with a constant need to be “skinner”. Society plays a major role in self-perception. Society portrays beauty as women and men who weigh ninety-five pounds. Due to this current obsession to be skinny in today’s society, many young girls and boys will develop an eating disorder, or turn to drugs and alcohol as a way to escape from the daily pressures to be beautiful in today’s society. This paper will analyze the biological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components of eating, substance abuse, sex/gender/sexual, and personality disorders. The DSM-IV-TR includes two axis I categories of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa—restricting and binge-eating/purging types—and bulimia nervosa—purging and non-purging types. Biological factors involved with eating disorders include genetic basis, hormonal excesses and deficiencies and abnormal neural activity. People who suffer from anorexia and bulimia usually have low serotonin levels as well as structural brain abnormalities. High expectations set by parents is a key factor in the emotional aspect of this disorder. Many strive toward high expectations and suffer the effects of...
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... Preventing Childhood Obesity Childhood obesity is a very serious problem today in America. Becoming over weight or obese is the result of consuming more energy or calories than needed (Phillips 2012). Many children who are obese or overweight are happy and confident. However there are serious health and social concerns with being obese. By incorporating exercise, eating healthy, and getting enough sleep children can avoid being obese. Children today are not being physical active like they should. Most kids don’t even go outside to play with their friend’s afterschool. They are consumed with watching television or playing video games or with their electronic devices. Children are required to get at least 60 minute of moderate to vigorous physical activity on a daily basis (Siegel 2011). Physical Education in school can help children stay active by creating activities that get children involved more. Also children can join a sport that they like or even a kid friendly exercise class, just so they can stay active. Families should also encourage more family outing instead of watching television and also support children physical activity by joining in physical activities with them as well. Eating healthy can also play a major role in childhood obesity. Children today are not getting the proper nutrition that they need. More families are eating out and not 2 staying home to cook a healthy...
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...States for many years. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic issue worldwide and some Asian countries are seeing an increase among childhood obesity for instance, country like Japan. Before discussing the obesity issues in Japan there are cultural differences that needs to be taken into consideration in order to fully understand the reason for the increase of childhood obesity among the Japanese There are numerous connotations to describe and point out differences of one’s culture, many sociologists describe culture as an adoption and process of behavioral patterns that influence people within a society. Cultural factors that play a key role in the increase of obesity within the Japanese population are; attitudes and customs. Japan’s cultural and eating habits has for many years included a seafood-based cuisine, rice and fresh vegetables. Japanese food portions are smaller compared to American portions and simply prepared with fresh ingredients. 50 Years ago a stable meal consisted of soup and rice three meals a day. With the adaption of Westernized eating habits, Japanese are eating bigger portions for breakfast, eating lighter lunch and having a big dinner. With the influence of bigger portions, Japanese are increasing their diets with more sweets and fatty calorie rich foods. With a change in life styles and a more westernized eating habits, there has be an increase on childhood obesity within the last decade. Japanese children’s eating habits include more intakes...
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...PSYCHOLOGY Parental Influence: Implications for the Prevention Of Early Childhood Obesity Abstract The overall purpose of this study was to investigate whether parents serve as role models in influencing their children’s weight-related behaviours. Participants were 60 random parents of children from Barbados. Unlike previous research studies, the correlation analyses of this study indicated that the junk food or fast foods children consumed was negatively associated with the amount of income made by the parents or their education level. Although it was found that some children do model their parents’ behaviour when it comes to healthy food choices, the findings show that parents do not enforce the healthy eating practices unto their children. This study did not support the theory that children model adult eating behaviours on their own. Parental Influence: Implications for the Prevention Of Early Childhood Obesity Some researchers in public health have concluded that the problem of early childhood obesity has reached near-epidemic proportions (Deckelbaum & Williams 2001; Puhl & Latner 2007). The problem of early childhood obesity and overweight appears to be on-going without implementation of early detection and prevention strategies (Stegelin 2008). The causes most commonly identified with the increase in early childhood obesity are inadequate physical activity, sedentary lifestyle, and poor diet (Campbell...
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...“The Causes, Effects, and Prevention of Child Obesity” Jennifer Like ENG 122 English Compositions II Instructor: Jessica Hamman November 12, 2012 Obesity is more than a looking good concern. It does not just affect the way people look. It can change the development of our lives, and not for the better. It sets us on a fast track for health complications such as heart disease, type-two diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. In addition, it is not just a problem for adults, but it has also become a health concern among teens and children. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) A child who fights obesity and carry extra weight threatens their future and their quality of life. So what is obesity, what causes it, what effects can it have on an individual and is there any ways to prevent it? Obesity is the state of being well above one's normal weight. An individual that is twenty percent or more above their ideal weight is considered as being obese. The ideal weight consists of the height, age, sex, and build of an individual. Obesity defined by the NIH (National Institutes of Health) as a BMI of thirty and above. A BMI of thirty is about thirty pounds overweight. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) The BMI (body mass index), a key index for relating body weight to height, is a person's weight in kilograms divided by their height in meters squared. Since the BMI describes the body weight relative to height, it correlates strongly with the total...
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...2011 Childhood obesity has been on the rise by 20% in children ages 6 to 11 and that number is triple for children under the age of six. This is posing a serious issue with many health and social consequences that may often continue into adulthood. Research on childhood on obesity is showing that family eating patterns are a crucial factor and environmental and lifestyle are all contributing factors. The responsibility for this national epidemic is the question. Who is responsible for these children’s lifestyle and eating habits which all play an important part in childhood obesity? The first question to answer is what is childhood obesity? According to the Mayo Clinic (Mayo Clinic, Childhood Obesity 2010), “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. Generally consumption of foods high in sugar and fats lead to obesity.” According to research, we all have and need fat tissue in our bodies. (UM, 2010) When there is too much body fat, the result is obesity (Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers, 2007, Saunders). There are many factors that contribute to causing obesity including: physical activity, lifestyle, eating habits, environment, family and genetic inheritance (Mayo clinic, childhood Obesity 2010). The greatest impact on a child and their eating and exercising habits comes from their environment...
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...2012 Psy/410 Components Introduction Eating disorders, substance abuse, sexual, gender identity, and personality disorders lessen the ability for the human to function normal. Although their components have many varieties, being able to understand each of them allows for the reduction of classified awareness of these disorders and advertises a more realistic function of preventions and interventions to give support and become more normal. Eating Disorders Biological Biological components involve a genetic basis, deficiencies, hormonal excesses, and abnormal neural activity. People suffering from bulimia and anorexia have serotonin levels that are low and unusual along with structural brain abnormalities. Alterations in the brain may be responsible for the change in the metabolic reactions and endocrine to starvation. Emotional Eating disorders may be a compound reaction to expectations that are high and usually start with the parents and kept up with by the person. Eating disorders can also be considered a way of protecting self from adult sexuality or it could be a response to a situation where sexual abuse may have taken place. There are many times where the individual has high expectations but unfortunately they have to deal with never being able to reach them (Hansell & Damour, 2008). Cognitive Cognitive in eating disorders have to deal with the individual focusing more on situations where eating and starving experiences that help to bring...
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...Child obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or wellbeing. The cause of childhood obesity are spread out, and certain factors to this epidemic include lack of physical activity and dietary patterns. Changing eating and physical activity in children with the use of nutritional guides, work out DVDs and proactive parents can assist in decreasing child obesity (Ryder, 2011). Child Obesity is determined through BMI, body mass index. Children over age 2, or teens whose BMI is less than the 5th percentile are considered underweight. A child that ranges in the 5th percentile and less than the 85th percentile are at a healthy weight. In the 85th percentile to less than the 95th percentile are considered overweight. Equal to, or greater than the 95th percentile are considered obese. Today, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963. One major contributor to a child’s diet that affects their weight is beverages that include soda and juice boxes. The consumption of soda by children has increased throughout the last 20 years by 300 percent. Scientific studies have documented a 60 percent increase risk of obesity for every regular soda consumed per day. With the growing use of computers, and watching TV this is a big contributing factor as well that contributes to child obesity. We find that these activities take away the physical activity that children need to stay healthy. Sedentary...
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...Nutrition through the Life Cycle Obesity in children Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems. Physicians and researchers did numerous studies on children’s habits and lifestyles as an important part of society. Nowadays, children face big problems with obesity. As a result, researchers have learned that healthy habits could have a profound impact on the future of every child and get a better understanding of how children perceive healthy eating. Researchers have proved and would like to emphasize that obesity has tripled in Canadian children in recent decades. For this reason, researchers have identified that healthy behaviors have numerous benefits. By making healthy food choices and explaining the nutritional value of various foods to children will improve the lifestyle of every child and make children’s health better. After a large quantity of interviews that were used to collect data on what food children prefer to eat and why it was discovered that they have bad eating habits and lifestyle. Researchers have found that only 75% of children understood healthy eating by identifying what is healthy food and what is junk food. Almost all children have mentioned eating fruits and vegetables. Findings suggested that children had previously heard or thought about these topics. As a result, these findings were used to improve unhealthy...
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...began to research obesity in middle childhood. The student discovered the causes of middle childhood obesity, the effect of obesity on a child’s health, psychosocial, and cognitive development, and ways to counteract obesity in middle childhood. The student has provided information on obesity solutions in her area, a national program to help stop childhood obesity, and has suggested other ways to help stop childhood obesity. The Causes of Childhood Obesity Genetic factors contribute to childhood obesity (Parke & Gauvain, 2009). Obese children often remain obese throughout his or her lives. Children suffering from obesity often have obese biological parents. Children adopted by normal-weight adoptive parents may become obese if the child’s biological parents are obese. According to Parke and Gauvain (2009), studies have shown that infants who have overweight parents are more responsive to the difference between sweet-tasting solutions and water. The preference for sweets at a young age increases the risk of childhood obesity. Middle childhood obesity also derives from the child’s role-model’s eating pattern and behavior (Parke & Gauvain, 2009). If the parent or role-model is eating junk food, lives a sedentary life, and watches too much television, the child is likely to do the same. Parents encouraging and prompting children to eat more because of his or her size contributes to child obesity. Parents rewarding children for eating everything on their plates teaches...
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...Original Article Maternal awareness of health promotion, parental and preschool childhood obesity (6, n=200)=17.32, p=0.008). Maternal awareness of health promotion on healthy eating appeared to have a protective effect against overweight/obesity in three year old children (odds ratio=0.38, 95% CI=0.20 to 0.70). Furthermore, a higher proportion of overweight/obesity mothers had no awareness of health promotion as compared to 2 (4, n=200)=13.29, p=0.01). Maternal awareness of health promotion appeared to also have a protective effect against overweight/obesity in mothers (odds ratio=0.51, 95% CI=0.28 to 0.95). Conclusions: maternal awareness of health promotion on maternal and preschool childhood obesity. Additionally, this study showed that overweight and obese preschool children had parents who were also overweight and obese. 2 Aim: preschool childhood obesity, as well as maternal awareness of public health promotion on healthy eating with parental and preschool childhood obesity. Methods: Data were collected by measuring the height and weight of two hundred randomly selected three-year old children and their parents. Details of the early feeding and dietary styles and level of health promotion awareness were assessed in faceto-face structured health interviews with the parents. Results: between childhood obesity and parents’ obesity (r=0.2; p<0.001). A higher proportion of overweight and obese preschool children showed that their mothers lacked awareness of health promotion...
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...Linking Factors to Childhood Obesity and Interventions: A Literature Review Dontonio Earls Colin University Abstract The prevalence of childhood obesity worldwide has created an immense concern in how to combat the chronic disease; however, researchers have found that there are fundamental risk factors that contribute to childhood obesity. Because of this immense concern, researchers have examined several risk factors that may be linked to the rising number of obesity among children. The literature reviewed has revealed that the contributions of the built environment have played negative role in providing support to children who are obese or overweight. The objective of this research was to examine the negative risk factors that may be correlated with childhood obesity. The results revealed that the effects of childhood obesity have emerged from different phases of life: (a) familial stress, (b) emotional-behavioral stress (c) self-esteem, (d) peer victimization, (e) eating-habits and influences, and (f) physical activities. In addition to examining the fundamental risk factors, interventions have been suggested and discussed in this paper. Keywords: childhood, obesity, parents, schools, physical activity, food, intervention Linking Factors to Childhood Obesity and Intervention: A Literature Review Overview. Today, childhood obesity has become a primary issue for public health worldwide. It has been well documented that over 23 million children in the United...
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...February 6, 2012 Joycelyn Benett Obesity in Children Childhood obesity is a growing crisis in the United States. A mixture of cultural factors influence children eating and exercise habits. The media, television, video games, and movies take place of exercising or playing outside. Other factors that led to childhood obesity are cultures, working parents, eating fast foods versus healthy low fat foods. The Cause Countless factors contribute to childhood obesity; some of these factors are poor eating habits, overeating, lack of exercise, family eating patterns, activity level, types of foods, and overfeeding. Most children grow up to follow their parents eating examples in the form of lifestyle, therefore; modeling by parents about their eating habits is another cause to childhood obesity. Children tend to model their parents exercise habits. Stressors and emotional reactions promote overeating habits for children, for instance; divorce, marital problems, fighting among parents. Other causes include physical activity classes are being removed from schools are feeding children with unhealthy foods in the school districts. When children sit and watch television they sit for hours at a time, while watching television they consume unhealthy snacks, commercials shown promote eating junk food that encourage children to eat sweets, salty, saturated fats, carbohydrates, and mal-nourished foods. Medical Health Effects A tremendous amount of illnesses arise with obesity...
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