America has so many issues, in which most of them like homicide, suicide, and drug abuse cause death. The one that tops it all is obesity, and to make it worse, our children are suffering from childhood obesity. Nearly 1 out of every 3 children in America are obese today. That is over 23 million children that are overweight. Childhood obesity is a serious disease that occurs when a child is above normal weight for their age and height. Obesity at a young age is terrible and can lead to a long life of depression, which can affect everyone around him or her. Since the 1970s, the rate of childhood obesity has significantly tripled. With today’s technology and all the easily accessible snacks and other unhealthy foods, it is a lot easier to gain weight. America is the most obese country in North America, but obesity has the simplest cure out of all diseases. It is all about proper diet and exercise. It is important to cure this horrifying disease in our children and it should be done now. Do you want to see your child suffer from type 2 diabetes? How about heart or kidney failures? Obesity, especially in children, leads to health issues and can grow into adulthood. According to Jane E. Brody from The New York Times, “Life-threatening ailments like heart diseases, cancer, stroke and Type 2 diabetes most afflict adults” (Brody). We need to prevent childhood obesity because a healthy child can live a happier and longer life. Childhood obesity is a significant problem in the United States and through my research, here are many ways to solve the problem. 

One of the main causes of childhood obesity are meals. The meals in America that we give to our children of the future isn’t food. A majority of it is processed foods, which is fake, man-made food created out of garbage. Believe it or not, your child’s school can be a factor of childhood obesity. According to The New York Times, “those [students] who regularly had the school lunch were 29 percent more likely to be obese than those who brought lunch from home” (Rabin). We can’t expect children to know what is healthy and what foods they need, so we leave it up to the schools to make that decision for them. Nowadays, school lunches often consist of burgers, pizza, nachos, cookies, sugary drinks, and other unhealthy foods. All of which include a lot of carbs, sugars, and fats and a lot less vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that kids should be consuming. Also, the only snacks schools provide for students are candy bars, chips, donuts rather than freshly produced fruits and vegetables. It is important that every child receives the proper amount of nutrients and kind of food for their body, but when they take in more than needed, it turns into fat. Unnecessary calories are fed to our children, and most likely, they will eat like that in the future. 

Another issue are the meals we serve at home. The food that we buy and cook at home aren’t local and freshly produced anymore. We buy processed food that are full of a variety of additives, extra ingredients, and unwanted calories. That doesn’t include the seasonings we use to make each meal delicious, which add on more calories. They say bigger is better and when you are at home, usually you don’t know the correct portion size to serve yourself and your child. Nowadays, we tend to have the wrong portion size. Chef Jamie Oliver agrees when he says, “Portion size is obviously a massive, massive problem” (Oliver). We feed children the amount of food an adult should eat. A child’s body doesn’t need as many calories as an adult, but they do need the proper balance of nutrients and healthy foods in order to grow. They need less food intake, and of the amount of food they consume, a majority of it should consist of what is actually needed for their young bodies to function the right way. 

There are many social factors that contribute to obese children. One of them is the type of environment they live in. In a poverty-stricken area, it is more likely that a child or children has more of a chance of being obese. In these areas, there aren’t a lot of stores that sell whole foods. That is because whole foods cost more money than processed foods. Businesses stay away from areas in poverty because they can’t make money in an environment that barely has money. Also, nicer restaurants stay away from these areas because they can’t make their money. This leaves children in poverty to eat at fast food restaurants. Fast food restaurants are cheaper and people living in poverty can afford these foods.  Restaurants like McDonalds, Burger King, Popeyes, and other fast food sell food that they can sell a lot of fast, no matter how fried and greasy the food is. Children gain weight fast from eating food from these places like burgers from McDonalds for under two dollars. Fast food restaurants don’t use whole foods, but instead use processed food. This allows these businesses to be able to sell their food for low prices. There is a phrase that goes you are what you eat. This means that if you are fit and healthy, then you eat healthy and whole foods. Since children eat unhealthy food, they consume a lot of fats rather than the proper nutrients from well balanced meals, which doesn’t allow their body to function the way it should. 

Another social factor is family size. The more family member in a household, there is less of a chance for obesity. That is because there are more mouths to feed. The more people there are, the smaller the portion size one consumes because ther is less food per person due to the face that food is being split. . According to Ashlesha Datar, PhD, “It appears, therefore, that childhood obesity was increasing around the same time as family size was declining in the U.S.,” (Datar). Also, with household income, more children mean more money would be needed to afford to feed these children. Likewise, with less children in the house they are able to more food. They don’t have to worry about saving many cookies or leaving some of last night’s leftovers for someone else to feast on.. In addition,with more people in the house, there is more control over a lot, including food. Food is expensive, so households usually want to make food last as long as it can, and with many people under the same roof, food will be gone quick. With less people in the house, there is less control. This means that the child can eat whatever they want, whenever they want, and as much as they want. When they get into this mindset, they weight gain process occurs. Having fewer people telling you no lessens the restrictions of food consumption and when a child able to eat as much junk food as they want, they intake way more servings and calories than needed.

Technology plays a role in being a social factor for childhood obesity. Technology is made to help people do less work. It is an easier way for people to do things and from it, we become lazy. Nowadays, people don’t need to go up to their friends’ house because they have cell phones. Kids don’t need to go outside when they can enjoy themselves at home playing video games, watching television, and going on social media on their phones and tablets. Instead of going out and playing basketball, they can play NBA 2K18 right in the comfort of their living rooms. As technology advances more, children start becoming less physically active. However, there are some people who believe that technology has nothing to do with obesity. People like Sarah Womack, a social affair correspondent, believes that “computers and tv [are] ‘not to blame for childhood obesity’” (Womack). She believes that it is the child’s fault for not wanting to be physically active. However, this is incorrect because you can’t show a kid a video game, computer, or a new phone and expect them to choose to go outside rather than use the new technology. That is like someone buying you a new car and expecting you to ride a bike or walk instead. Young kids are easily susceptible, and they shouldn’t be counted on making decisions by themselves. They shouldn’t be blamed for wanting to use something that is right in front of them and they can easily access. 

As good as eating a lot of delicious food sound, there are a ton of medical problems that come with it. To start, gaining weight causes depression. Depression is a serious mental illness that comes from being really unhappy all of the time. Obesity is a negative self-image one has on themselves, and it only feels worse on a child. Imagine if your child was upset all the time because kids at school bully him or her for being fat? A lot of overweight children cannot do the same things normal weight children can do because of the extra weight. It makes it harder for them to breathe, keep up the pace with the friends, and it also is embarrassing. So, they being to be upset, and it gets worse each day. From the studies of Deina Nemiary, MD, MPH, Ruth Shim, MD, MPH, Gail Mattox, MD, and Kisha Holden, PhD, “Compared with normal weight adolescents, obese adolescents have a higher prevalence of school and mental health problems, including poor academic performance and self-esteem, anxiety, depressive disorders, and a greater number of reported suicide attempts” (Nemiary, Shim, Mattox, Holden).  I used to be overweight as a child and being called fat and not being able to have fun the way I wanted to was upsetting and depressing. All the names I was called like “Big Boy” and constantly being reminded of my obesity made me have unthinkable thoughts that a child shouldn’t think of. I was mentally ill from childhood obesity and children shouldn’t have to go through what I went through because of poor food choices that their young minds have no control over. 

Another serious medical condition is type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is when the body doesn’t need insulin, which is a hormone needed to maintain a normal glucose level. People get type 2 diabetes from having excess weight and not being active. It’s even worse for a child because they have to live their life taking pills, constant doctor visits, and even inject themselves with insulin at such a young age. Liz Szabo stated, “‘more than 20,000 [children] have type 2 [diabetes],’ says study author Diana Dabelea, of the Colorado School of Public Health in Aurora, Colo” (Szabo). What if it was your child or a child you know that can prevent from taking pills, injections, and other treatments by simply changing the way they eat and being active?  The whole thing is like a progressive line. Chips, cookies, McDonalds, Taco Bell, sodas, juices, and other delicious but killer foods cause obesity because of the number of calories that the body doesn’t need is consumed, which causes obesity. Obesity then can and most likely will cause type 2 diabetes if a child or anyone continues to eat the way they eat. Diabetes isn’t the only medical condition that a child can gain from gaining weight. There are cancers and others disease like “heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hypertension. If obesity continues into adulthood, risks include developing cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gallbladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” (Regan). No child should have to grow through any of this, and shouldn’t have to worry about going through any of this by prevent obesity early. 

Luckily, childhood obesity is one of those medical conditions that can be cured. If a child is suffering from obesity, it can be treated. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Treatment usually includes changes in your child's eating habits and physical activity level,” (Mayo Clinic). There are two parts for the treatment, and the first part is changing their eating habits. If someone eats healthy and properly balanced meals, their child(ren) who live with them or grow up around them will do the same. You can’t expect a child to know what food they should and shouldn’t eat. Their brain isn’t that developed yet. Especially if they are already obese., it is up to you to decide the type of lifestyle you want your child to grow up. If you introduce whole foods to them, they most likely won’t like the taste of it, but it is better for them in the long run. Over time, the body will adjust to eating in a healthy way. Also, it is best to keep them on a strict diet. Limit the amount of fast food and other unhealthy snacks to eat to maybe two a week at most. The point is to get the child to eventually not want to have cravings for food they don’t need. The second half is to increase the amount of physical activity. This would limit the amount of use of technology the kid(s) would use. You should encourage them to go outside and play outside or do a sport. Find something they love that is physical and let them do it. Children love nothing more than to have fun, so don’t make it seem like hard work. Have them play basketball, tag, jump rope, or other sorts of moderate to high-intense activities. With the combination of both, your child or a child you know would be shredding off the excess weight without even knowing it. 

Although treatment sounds great, it is better to prevent childhood obesity. It is because you don’t have to do as much as you have to do for treatment. One way of preventing childhood obesity is to educate families about healthy portion sizes. If they learn about portion sizes, they will mostly like think twice about eating a second plate of that delicious dinner, and would be more restrictive on their children’s’ plates. Another prevention is to push for healthier school lunches and longer recess. Think about this as a combo. Healthier school lunches would be able to provide students with their nutrients their body needs to function. After that, they can allow kids to have longer recess. This would allow them to increase their physical activity level, which means they will burn calories while having fun. It may sound silly, but another way to prevent it is to allow the child an unhealthy snack maybe once a week. That way they aren’t craving fast food or candy as much as they normally would. You shouldn’t cut it out entirely out of their diet unless they can’t have it. It is important that they don’t have too much of it and on these days, they should move a lot more, so that they can burn they unnecessary calories.  

