Childhood Obesity Research Paper

Childhood Obesity Obesity may be defined as having excess body fat and can be determined by the body mass index percentage using a growth chart (Xu, Xue 16). There are many contributing factors that play a role in childhood obesity. Those factors that can cause a child to become obese is their parents, family genetics, the environment around them, lack of physical activity, and the different sources of technology that is available today. Childhood obesity is a constantly increasing worldwide epidemic (Xu, Xue 15). Many people blame fast food restaurants for childhood obesity, but they are not the ones to blame. The employees at fast food restaurants are not the ones allowing children to eat their food. The leading cause of childhood obesity …show more content…
One of the biggest factors that spark obesity is the genes you inherit from your parents. As stated by Sahoo, Choundhury, Sufi, Kumar, and Bhadoria, authors at a family medicine and primary care facility, body mass index is 25-40% heritable (188). Children follow in their parents’ footsteps therefore if a child sees their parents eating unhealthy foods, the chances are the child will also eat unhealthy foods. For example, parents who are lazy create lazy children. Parents allow their children to be lazy and play video games all day. If parents would encourage their children to go play outside with friends or participate in any physical activity, it could reduce the amount of snack food children consume while sitting around in the house. Children need to eat snacks throughout the day in order to maintain their calorie intake. Instead of buying snack foods like cookies, chips, cakes, and candy, parents need to buy healthy snacks such as fruits, whole grain crackers, or granola bars. According to Sahoo, Choundhury, Sufi, Kumar, and Bhadoria, authors at a family medicine and primary care facility, the types of food available in the house and the food favorites of family members can have an effect on the foods that children eat (189). Children have no other choice than to eat the food their parents provide for them. If parents emphasize a healthier lifestyle at home, many obesity problems could be bypassed (Sahoo, …show more content…
Opportunities to be physically active and safe environments to be active in have decreased in the recent years as reported by Sahoo, Choundhury, Sufi, Kumar, and Bhadoria (189). Children need to be active and be able to partake in physical activities with other children in their neighborhood. If they live in neighborhoods that is not safe enough for them to play outside it causes them to be forced to stay in the house, which leads them to eat junk food because they are bored. Many kids used to walk or ride their bikes to school. In 2002 a study found that 53% of parents drove their children to school (Sahoo, Choundhury, Sufi, Kumar, Bhadoria 189). The reasons the parents drove their children to school instead of letting them walk or ride their bikes include no safe walking routes or the fear of child predators (Sahoo, Choundhury, Sufi, Kumar, Bhadoria 189). This is a problem because children who live in unsafe environments, do not have many opportunities to be physically active. It is the parents’ job to know what type of environment they are living in. Before choosing an environment to live in, they need to know how safe the neighborhood is and the amount of crime that goes on around the area. Parents should also choose neighborhoods with children in the area, so their children would be encouraged to engage in outside activities with the neighborhood

Show More

Related Documents: Childhood Obesity Research Paper