...Have you ever wonder what are the causes to the great increase of childhood obesity in the past 30 years? Childhood obesity is a very serious problem and becoming very dangerous. Childhood obesity affects 17% of all children that is triple the rate of just one generation ago. children are becoming are very obese at young ages and they are getting diseases and unhealthy conditions very young. Obesity is now the second most preventable death in the U.S. Up to one out of every five children in the U. S. is overweight or obese, and this number is continuing to rise. Childhood obesity has greatly increased and they are three main things that have caused this, they are the increase of fast food, increase of technology, and change of family habits. These three things are the main reason why childhood obesity has been increasing so much in America, and it is becoming a very dangerous problem. Fast food has become a huge part of America in the last 30 years. Families lives have became very busy and fast food is a very easy way for parents to feed their children when they don’t have time to cook a meal. What parents don’t realize is how bad fast food is for people and how horrible it is to eat on a daily basis. Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eat fast food, which likely packs on about six extra pounds per child per year and increases the risk of obesity.( www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-591325.html) Fast food is made with tons of preservatives and...
Words: 1626 - Pages: 7
...Research Paper Final Draft October 12, 2014 How does video games affect youth negatively? One of the main concerns that have constantly been raised against video games is that most of the games feature aggressive elements. This has led many people to assert that this may have a detrimental effect on individuals who play such games. Despite continuing controversy for over 15 years, there has been little in the way of systematic research. The one consistent finding is that the majority of the studies on very young children - as opposed to those in their teens upwards - tend to show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or watching a violent video game. Research suggests that children and teens that playing and watching video games over an extended period of time tend to be more aggressive, are more prone to struggle in school, and more prone to be obese or overweight. One of the ways that the videogames affect children and teens that play and watch for an extended period of time is that they tend to be more aggressive. In “Children, Adolescents, and Television,” it has been stated that even more important than the amount of time spent playing video games is the content of games played (2001). Research shows that up to 90% of all video games contain some sort of violent content and in a survey of 213 adolescents, 99% of boys and 84% of girls said that at least one of their current video games has violent content. Some experts assert that there...
Words: 983 - Pages: 4
...Are Entertainment Media Devices Making Our Children Obese? English 122 Over the last thirty years obesity is becoming a major threat to the youth of America. “Obesity now affects seventeen percent of all children and adolescents in the United States- triple the rate from just one generation ago, states the Center for Disease Control and Prevention” ( CDC.2012 par.1). Obesity is an excessive accumulation of fat causing a person to become overweight. Childhood obesity is a medical condition that affects young children and adolescents. Children are no longer playing outside like riding bikes or playing hide and seek as they did generations ago. However the children of this generation are sitting on the couch being entertained from media devices. The American Medical Association states that, “One of the reasons American children and adolescent gain weight over the generation is that children expend significantly less energy than their parents and grandparents did at their age” (Green, G. Riley, Hargrove, C. pg. 915-920). The children of today do not have to leave their family room to find entertainment instead they stay in the house to watch television, play video games, and play on the computer. Doing these activities for hours and not getting the recommend sixty minutes per day is extremely unhealthy for the children of today and this is the major reason why so many children are obese. I will prove in this paper that childhood obesity is a growing epidemic because today’s...
Words: 2451 - Pages: 10
...is because many parents become so busy that they do not have time to cook. But they don’t realize that this isn’t good for their children. I think that they should make changes to his/her child’s diet, they should help them to eat healthier, and do more exercises because children can get many serious diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. “According to experts approximately 10 percent of 4 and 5 year old children are overweight and it is more prevalent in girls than boys and in older preschoolers (ages 4-5) than younger (ages 2-3).Obesity increases even more as children get older. For ages 6 to 11, at least one child in five is overweight. Over the last two decades, this number has increased by more than 50 percent and the number of obese children has nearly doubled”, (Alternative Medicine). In my point of view, children should be encouraged to eat healthy food. Parents should encourage their children to do...
Words: 659 - Pages: 3
...industries, video games, poor eating habits and the lack of exercise. This disease affects adults and children in the United States (Evans2006). Obesity is the state of being well above one’s normal weight. Children are becoming sick and being overweight because of this condition. ( medterms 2008). Everyday one in four children (from ages 5 to 18) eats fast food. As a result, children are gaining extra pounds daily while increasing the risk of obesity. Child obesity from fast food consumptions is an issue for parents because of the health risks associated by obesity. Fast food products contain higher fats, carbohydrates, sugars, and calories than any other products. As a result, children of all ages worldwide are accumulating excess weight because of unbalanced nutrients found in these products. According to several studies, child obesity from fast foods is a major problem because children consume over 120 extra calories daily. Poor nutritional habits are one of the important reasons for childhood obesity. Television and Video games Another problem that could lead to obesity is playing video games and watching television. Many children sit in front of the television many hours unsupervised and they tend to eat more. The growth of technology has taken the place of play exercise. Watching television or playing video games requires less effort on their part. Children are still growing and they need to exercise more so that they would not get obese. Television...
Words: 1539 - Pages: 7
...Effects of Video Games on Child Development Stats: In America, 81% of youths play video games at least once a month, 8.5% of them are addicted and “the average 8- to 12 year-old now plays 13 hours of video games per week, while the average 13- to 18 year old plays 14 hours of video games per week” (Metrics 2.0, 2007). Question posed: Due to the fact that video games are so prominent in children’s lives, it is difficult to prevent them from playing video games entirely– but is that even necessary? Supporting Info: With such a variety of game types out there, it is difficult to say if video games in general are good or bad. Nowadays, there have been countless studies done on this and information on the pros and cons can be easily found. Cons: According to Cesarone (1998), violent games became consistently popular among children. Educational games on the other hand were completely the opposite. Studies found that “students who had played a violent virtual reality game had a higher heart rate, reported more dizziness and nausea, and exhibited more aggressive thoughts in a posttest than those who had played a nonviolent game” Another negative aspect of video games is the fact that kids are spending too much time playing the games rather than physically playing outside. Lastly, let’s take a look at the obvious reason why video games are not beneficial to a child’s development, obesity. According to the CDC, in 2009-2010, 12.1 percent of children ages 2 to 5 are obese, 18 percent of...
Words: 589 - Pages: 3
...their children being obese. California called the epidemic of children being obese a state emergency because it’s that important and we need to stop or try to stop what’s happening. Some people are not looking at the one of the biggest causes of childhood obesity. The parents, not anyone else, are the ones who can best fight the epidemic of obese children. No, banning fast food isn’t going to stop childhood obesity, parents need to take responsibility. They teach them their eating and exercising habits....
Words: 1417 - Pages: 6
...Shining a New Light on Video Games More often than not video games are viewed in a negative light by society. These negative views are reinforced on a regular basis by the media through news stations, television shows, and movies. They are often used as a scapegoat for being the cause of some of the violence happening in recent times such as mass shooting etc. Video games are also often blamed for other problems such as causing obesity, leading to anti-social behavior or leading to aggressive behavior. In spite of the stereotypes gamers face, there is research that shows that video games can have many positive effects such as promoting positive youth development. When watching television shows and movies, people who play video games are often stereotyped as obese kids and young adults who live off of energy drinks and potato chips and never leave their computers or consoles. One example of this stereo type can be found in the television show South Park. In the episode Make Love, Not Warcraft, the four main characters have become addicted to playing the popular...
Words: 1509 - Pages: 7
...English 101 2 May 2012 Childhood Obesity on the Rise Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic in the world, and is showing no sign of slowing down. Obesity is a vicious cycle that starts with simply carrying an extra five or ten pounds and leads to obesity in no time. There is less of an urge to go out and get in shape. People see it and want it, but aren’t taking the right steps to do so. With the growing attraction for television, video games, and computer use combined with the easy capability to get highly fattening foods in a quick low price, it looks like it’s going to be a problem for a long time to come. This fast food problem has become an accepted means of a meal. In his book True Enough, Farhad Manjoo examines the Committee on Food Habits and their research on how Americans think about food. Manjoo states that, “even for something as fundamental as eating, people look to others to determine the reality around them. You eat to live, but what you eat is more a cultural choice than a mere act of biological survival” (49). There is a big controversy over whether or not obesity is a genetic disease. That debate gets more and more intense as the rates of childhood obesity rise. Some people believe it is a disease because it comes genetically for biological reasons. Other people believe it is not a disease at all, rather it is a chosen lifestyle combined with bad eating habits and the environment for which they live in. I believe that childhood obesity is caused by a variety...
Words: 2772 - Pages: 12
...physical requirements, as the result of excessive accumulation of body fat.” (Saunders, 2007) According to the medical dictionary, mildly obese is twenty to forty percent over ideal weight; moderately obese is forty to one hundred percent over; and severely/morbidly obese is over one hundred percent. (p. 1) Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children more today than ever before. The extra pounds children are carrying around starts them on the path to health problems. Heath problems that were “adult” problems have now become a bigger problem in children. More children are developing health related problems due to bad eating habits and lack of exercise. Childhood obesity causes serious complications, the risk of illness, and even a shorter life span. These are the ways to help prevent childhood obesity, health risks, and issues associated with the lack of exercise. Childhood is an important period of life to deal with obesity. As it is today more than thirty percent of children are overweight. The International Obesity Task Force (IASO/IOTF) states “two hundred million school children are either overweight or obese, of those forty to fifty million are classified as obese” (para. 2). Since the 1980s child obesity has more than doubled. There are increasing numbers of children under the age of five who are considered obese. Poor diet and lack of exercise is responsible for over 300,000 deaths each year according to...
Words: 1480 - Pages: 6
...United States one of three children and teens are obese or overweight as stated in the American Heart Association web site. Definition of Obesity is, Obesity is the result of caloric imbalance (too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed). In order to standardize calculations of obesity the Institute of Medicine asked the federal government in 2005 to develop guide lines for using BMI (body mass index) in schools. The BMI is the ratio of weight to height squared. BMI is used to access weight status because it is can easily be measure and it also correlates with the amount of body fat. Guidance is provided on specific safeguards that need to be addressed before schools decide to collect BMI information, stated on the CDC web site. This information is needed for schools to compare results with other schools for specific age groups. Age and sex specific charts are used to calculate BMI in children and teens using the child’s height and weight then matching there BMI to their age and sex specific chart. If a child is in the ninety-five percentile or higher are considered obese, between eighty-five and less than the ninety-five percentile are overweight, between the fifth and less than the eighty-fifth are normal weight, less than the fifth are considered as underweight, stated in the American Heart Association web site. The percentile how a child compares to other children there age and gender. Obese youth have a...
Words: 2356 - Pages: 10
...In today’s society, the food and beverage industry is faced with an ongoing ethical dilemma because companies are far more concerned with making money than providing a good, safe, and healthy product for consumers. The biggest victims in this unethical marketing scheme are children. Marketing to children is in the spotlight. They are viewed as a key market force. They are constantly exposed to the growing number of advertising, marketing, and commercials through a wide range of resources. Companies are investing billions of dollars to be able to capture children’s attention. Instead of creating an environment where the adolescent health are one of the top priorities for the nation, these large industries are harming them by dangling unhealthy products in front of them. The consequence of this marketing is the growing child obesity problem that is plaguing our society. However, there are those that claim that marketing is not the sole cause of this problem; that environmental and societal changes are equally to blame. The ethical question is whether companies should be more responsible for their role in the health of society’s children, or should society be more responsible for regulating their intake of foods that have a potential negative effect. Marketing is finding out what customers want, and then setting out to meet their needs, provided it can be done at a profit. Marketing includes market research, deciding on products and prices, advertising, promoting, distributing...
Words: 2178 - Pages: 9
...3/14/2014 A lot has been said about the topic that I am choosing to write about. Obesity in America is a huge problem with not only adults but children as well. The Center for Disease Control and Prevent (CDC) states that statistically speaking more than one-third of US adults (35.7%) is obese, for children the CDC states that 15.21% are obese. JAMA (2012) Many blame the recent development of technology i.e. video games, TV, and the media. Even our economy could be the one to blame, but we’ll dive into that later on. Throughout this paper I will be talking about the causes of obesity, the effects obesity has, and how can we prevent it. What causes obesity? Throughout the generations we have experienced a lot of changes in the world such as advancement of technology, medical sciences, etc. Many children now a days are learning how to get an infinite kill streak in Call of Duty, rather than learning how to play ultimate Frisbee, or 2 hand touch football. We also put a lot of emphasis on lets say a new console like the PS4/Xbox One. Look at how much advertising and promoting we did so the children would go crazy over these new game systems. Companies like Sony and Microsoft look at how much money they're going to make over the consequences there systems would cause. Though some could argue that professional gaming could be a sport. Gonchar (2013) Who’s really...
Words: 912 - Pages: 4
...With gaming it is hard to put down the controller, and what happens will horrify you. So when one plays a video game it gets extremely addicting because one wants to get better at it so one would keep playing. There are things one should not want to do, like stay in one position for too long or it will strain one’s body parts like one’s elbow and wrist and neck. By the way video games are also getting blamed for obesity because all the kids do is sit and sometimes eat which make them obese and not healthy. So do not just sit and eat go outside and play or take moderate breaks off one video games so one can be more healthy. So if one limit eating they can still stay healthy! Alternatively people are now creating games that can get...
Words: 379 - Pages: 2
...is obese (CDC, 2017). Children who are obese are at risk for certain diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and musculoskeletal disorders (WHO, 2017). Obesity not only impacts a child’s health by making them more susceptible to diseases, but it also impacts how they function in their daily lives. Occupational therapy is a profession that focuses on helping people of all ages be able to function better in their daily lives. A lot of the time, occupational therapists work with children who have different developmental disorders and help...
Words: 895 - Pages: 4
