Essay on Childhood Obesity

The first time that I understood it; I was twelve years old. I’d seen it before; I might have even taken notice of it before. I did, however, never fully comprehend this problem. When I was a child, my parents were missionaries overseas in Europe. Every two years, we would fly back to the United States to visit our family and friends. These trips were some of my favorite times. When living in a third world country, people are not afforded the same opportunities and luxuries we as Americans have. One might expect me to point of the obvious lack of employment, entertainment, and personal services that poor nations struggle with. Of course myself being a child at the time, I did not notice most of those things. The only worries I had to concern myself with were playing, eating, and sleeping. The one that stuck out to me the most of those three, and still resonates with me to this day, was eating. I love food. There’s no way around it. It is a fact. Luckily though, my parents always had me exercise and gave me healthy food to eat. I had no idea at the time how much of a blessing that is, but now I look back and appreciate it dearly. Now that I am 20 years old, I can see how those days as a child molded me to who I am today. Had it not been for my parents teaching me to eat healthy and exercise, I might not be where I am today. I might be obese. Obesity is now a huge problem in today’s America. Amongst adult Americans today, 154.7 million citizens are overweight or obese. Of those, 78.4 millions are obese. That means 34.4 percent of men and 36.1 percent of women obese in our nation. Just over 30 years ago, in 1980, 12.8 percent of men and 17.1 percent of women were obese. Those statistics are scary on their own; but when we consider the repercussions of all these people possibly teaching their kids bad health and nutrition habits, it becomes a nightmarish situation. The same study from the American Heart Association shows the same alarming growth of obesity amongst young adults and children. Since 1980, the percent of obese children grew from 10.9 percent to 18.5 percent. That is almost double in 30 years. It shows no signs of letting up. Even more alarming is the fact that the proportion of children ages five to seventeen who were obese quintupled since 1974. Over 31 percent of children nineteen and younger are considered overweight. Although these

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