Childhood Obesity a National Security Threat or Just a Need of PE Reform?

How much have a problem has child obesity become? Child obesity is now a National Security threat. Obama and his administration feel that childhood obesity is decreasing the number of people in the military and people able to be in the military because of just being too obese to fight. They are trying to make the case that improving the quality of school meals and ridding schools of junk food is critical to combating child obesity and ensuring that young people are fit for possible military service. I do not think this will solve the issue though; that would just control the food intake at school, but it will not help what they are consuming out side of school. The childhood obesity epidemic is because of a lack of parental control, which the government can not really enforce, sure healthier lunch at school will help some, but it wont make the change that they are looking for. Only 25% of 18-24 year olds can join the military because everyone else is overweight or have other disqualifying issues, such as a criminal record or inadequate education. Being overweight is by far the leading medical cause for rejecting potential recruits. These statistics should show America how fat our people have become because of our fast food and just pure laziness. We need to do something to fix the obesity problem in America, but Obama is just helping one aspect, when we need a lot more then healthier schools to fix childhood obesity. If we do not fix this problem soon we might have to reinstate the draft because we do not have enough people joining the military. This might not work either because they can not recruit overweight people, which is most of America.

This link is a news article about Child Obesity Called National Security Risk:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100421/BUSINESS01/4210361/Child-obesity-called-national-security-risk
 
So how can we help combat against obesity? One of the best ways to do this would be to have Physical Education, PE, required for each grade and for every state. While most states have some regulations for PE, they do not have a required amount of time that the students must be in gym. 12 states even allow PE credits to be earned through an online class! PE classes promote healthy choices. But just adding PE regulations for all states to mandate gym classes will not complete the job. In these PE classes, students need to learn about the importance of physical activity, how to stay active, and the correct/safe way to be active. Gyms need to be properly equipped with supplies and they need to have safe gymnasiums to participate in. Children need to learn the importance of physical activity; they need to be given plenty of choices of things that they can do to stay active. A PE reform needs to take place so that our country stops this epidemic.

This link is about the article Obesity Won’t Improve Without Reforming PE:
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/obesity-wont-improve-without-235301.html

Preventing Childhood Obesity

In many countries especially ours, children have been suffering from the same thing, childhood obesity. It is caused many things but stopping it can be very difficult. Though there are many ways to prevent childhood obesity, preventing it are about three things, activity, eating, and emotions. For activity, each child needs to stay active every day. Children do not need hours upon hours of videogames and TV. Getting exercise can be as easy as going outside and playing cardio games such as, tag, ghost in the grave yard, and red rover. By just having your children outside and away from the TV they are less likely to become obese. In the winter it is harder so instead of having them watch TV while you make dinner or clean have them help you or go outside and have a snowball fight. If children can get some activity every day for at a minimum for an hour they are much less likely to become obese. Then next way to prevent obesity is to watch what they eat. This does not mean a child cannot have junk food or fast food ever but limit it to as little as possible. Getting children to eat healthy is difficult but try to any way you can add cheese to some vegetables to make them more eye appealing and taste better. Also eating more chicken and turkey and less red meat will help too. Eating is not just about what they eat but how much they eat. A child does not need the same portion size as an adult limiting how much they can eat will make a difference too. Lastly is the emotional aspect, some people including children eat when they are not hungry. Some eat because they are bored some eat because they are depressed or for other emotional reasons. If it is not a major problem a parent can talk to the child and comfort them and help them, if it is a serious problem them it would be wise to see professional help. If a child gets all of these things such as physical activity, eating healthy, and staying happy then a child is less likely to become obese.

Vistit this link to see other ideas for prevention:
http://www.fsafood.com/fsacom/News+and+Information/Solutions/Menuing/Preventing+Obesity.htm

Is Childhood Obesity the Result of Fast Food and/or Video Games?

There is a lot of controversy about the issue of child obesity. No one can really pinpoint the exact cause of obesity but many people say that childhood obesity is the result of fast food and/or video games. Those that say obesity is because of video games say that video games promote inactivity. We all know that video games are fun and they are a nice thing to do when we are bored. But in reality, video games don’t really help us at all, and really prevents kids from getting any physical activity in their day. Most video games do not involve any physical activity. Yes, there are some games like Dance Dance Revolution and Wii that have some games that require you to move and be active but those are only helpful if you play for over an hour, every day. Video games also make a lot of kids eat unhealthy food. When kids are playing a certain game, they are so intently focused on the game and if they get hungry, they need a quick snack to eat. The easiest way for them would be to grab a bag of chips or candy so that they can just reach for the food and shove it in their mouths. Kids also opt for pop; it’s easy to get and it’s simple to just go grab a can out of the fridge and have it at your side. Junk food is just easier for kids to eat when they play video games. Also, when kids play video games, they are replacing outdoor games. Doing activities outside promotes healthy physical activity. When playing video games, they are not getting the physical activities that they need. A study done in Switzerland reported that for the children that played video games, they doubled their risk of obesity. But is video games the real cause of childhood obesity? Is there something else that also leads to obesity? Others believe that child obesity is from fast food. Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4-19 eat fast food, which causes the children to put on about six extra pounds each year. Billions of dollars are spent every year on fast food. Many people say that child obesity is from fast food because fast food is the simplest way to get food when on the run or when you are just hungry and don’t feel like making your own food. Kids don’t even have to go out to get fast food-the fast food is inside of the schools as well. There are poor eating choices for children at schools so instead they get greasy foods at school and then they possibly get fast food for their dinner. Fast foods are packed with fats, sugars and carbohydrates that do not do anything for children. Children beg their parents to go to places like McDonald’s and Burger King so that they can get the toys that come with their meals. The way the fast food companies advertise their food to show the kids what ‘prize’ they can receive from eating at that place makes the kids more likely to go eat at that food joint.
So what do you think…is fast food to blame for childhood obesity or is it video games?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/05/health/main591325.shtml (fast food)

http://obesity.ygoy.com/2008/11/08/playing-video-games-may-lead-to-obesity/ (video games)

Causes of Obesity

Childhood Obesity PSA

A public service announcement about childhood obesity and its effects.
Created by Laura Menta, Greg Powers, & Chelsea Rakowski

Should Parents Be Responsible For What Their Children Eat?

In recent days a woman lost custody of her 14 year old child because he weighed 555 pounds. Is this the right way to deal with child obesity? Should parents’ lose custody of their children if they are obese? Yes, this is the right thing to do parents have full responsibility for what their children. A child cannot get to be so obese on their own the parents are the ones choosing the type of food they keep in the house. If a parent did not allow junk food, candies, pop, and fast food to be the main food source in a household the child is more likely to have a healthy lifestyle and healthy weight. If a parent chooses to keep fat free and healthy food options in the house it is less likely that that child will be obese. This is not only because they don’t have the junk food to eat but they also learn to make healthier chooses when it comes to food. Yes there still school and friend’s houses that a parent cannot control entirely but that is not going to cause your child to be obese. If the only time that a child can have junk food is at lunch it will not be enough to cause a child to become 555 pounds. Secondly if a parent teaches their children how to make the right chooses when it comes to food when they are at school and friend’s houses they are more likely to choose healthy food over junk food. Yes, to buy healthy food is more expensive than junk food but it’s your responsibility as a parent to be able to support you child in the proper way and that is buy keeping them healthy in all ways. There is no reason for a child to be 555 pound or obese in general it is all lazy parenting and nothing more. This is a form of neglect and neglect is a good reason to have a child taken from their parents. No it is not neglect like not feeding or supporting the child at all but it’s just a life threatening. The fact that when you are obese you have more problems medically than others and as a parent you must try to prevent theses medical conditions that are associated with obesity such a diabetes and heart conditions. If a parent truly loves their child they would not let them hurt themselves and damage their future though medical problems.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-07-20-obesityboy_N.htm