Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

Childhood obesity is a major health issue in the United States and across its boundaries. Obesity and overweight are severe health issues that are significantly dependent on the inadequate activity of a person and unhealthy eating habits. When the child has just been born his mom breastfeeds him, so he gets enough vitally essential components for an infant. When he grows, parents have to widen the ration, and it becomes more complex so a child may get more vitamins and minerals for his body. Choosing a proper way of nutrition for a child is important, and everyone has to understand that because otherwise, it may lead to many dangerous consequences. Here is a short list of illnesses that can happen to children that do not feed normally: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, gastric ulcer and the other ones that can follow after them. All of them are dangerous and can lead to fatal results, and that is why the public health organizations are raising the issue of improving the situation by implementing various government programs which must be established to prevent future generations from possible adverse outcomes of obesity and overweight.Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

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Introduction

Public health can be defined as the science concerned with preventing diseases and prolonging lives, as well as improving the health of communities through research, organized efforts and education about these diseases and their prevention. Public health is diverse, and it means differently to people. It is a branch of medicine that allows one to work around the world, with different communities, gathering new information about a variety of diseases, and also provides the opportunity to stop an epidemic.

Childhood obesity is a significant health issue in the United States and across its boundaries. Obesity and overweight are severe health issues that are significantly dependent on the inadequate activity of a person and unhealthy eating habits. When the child has just been born his mom breastfeeds him, so he gets enough vitally essential components for an infant. When he grows, parents have to widen the ration, and it becomes more complex so a child may get more vitamins and minerals for his body. Choosing a proper way of nutrition for a child is important, and everyone has to understand that because otherwise, it may lead to many dangerous consequences. Here is a short list of illnesses that can happen to children that do not feed normally: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, gastric ulcer and the other ones that can follow after them. All of them are dangerous and can lead to fatal results, and that is why the public health organizations are raising the issue of improving the situation by implementing various government programs which must be established to prevent future generations from possible adverse outcomes of obesity and overweight.Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

Problem statement

The United States of America is the country of obese people. The US government is of high concern regarding this problem as overweight and obesity lead to various chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, and many others. Various programs and policies have been implemented to decrease the number of overweight and obese population. However, the rate of such people still exceeds 35% in North Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In 46 states the rate of obesity exceeds 25%, 25 of them have more than 30% of the obese population (The State of Obesity, 2018). Such statistics state that in the nearest future the cost of healthcare will increase in the country, along with the number of deaths and handicapping.

Obesity and overweight are severe health issues that are significantly dependent on the inadequate activity of a person and unhealthy eating habits. The profile data of the American population displays a relative decrease in inactive lifestyle and improvement in dietary habits nowadays. However, the increase in people with obesity is still maintained. According to the article published by Public Health, modern Americans eat fewer portions of food than they did, for example, in 1950. When comparing nutrition of those years and now, one can state that people ate healthier foods back then. Now, “Americans are notorious for their fast-food consumption – such food makes up about 11% of the average American diet” (Public Health, 2018).Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity Thus, their nutrition is largely constituted from energy drinks, added sugars, and soda drinks. All those facts prove that unhealthy foods play a significant role in the increase of obese population. Moreover, the American population is not as active as they were for example in the 1950s and 1960s. The automated manufacturing has decreased jobs for workers. Nowadays, “only 20% of today’s jobs require at least moderate activity, as opposed to 50% of jobs in the 1960s” (Public Health, 2018). Moreover, the leading states in obesity are also leaders in an inactive lifestyle. According to the State of Obesity report, more than 30% of Arkansas and Mississippi population are inactive. Thus, sedentary work and inactivity during the day have led the population to the need to decrease the eaten calories. Public Health has stated that 50 years ago people burnt from 120 to 140 more calories a day than they do now. Thus, obesity is the result of unhealthy eating habits and an inactive lifestyle.

Obesity in childhood and Public health

Every parent is eager his/her children to be healthy. There are many aspects of healthy growth. The most important one is healthy nutrition. When the child has just been born his mom breastfeeds him, so he gets enough vitally essential components for an infant. When he grows, parents have to widen the ration, and it becomes more complex so a child may get more vitamins and minerals for his body. Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

This idyll becomes a nightmare when a child starts going to school. Since now parents cannot totally control their child’s nutrition. They have to face a difficult choice either their child takes homemade food for lunch to school, or he gets money and eats lunch at a school canteen. There are many ideas on the issue of what is better school lunch or homemade food in a doggy bag. Choosing a proper way of nutrition for a child is important, and everyone has to understand that because otherwise, it may lead to many dangerous consequences. Here is a short list of illnesses that can happen to children that do not feed normally: obesity, diabetes, heart problems, gastric ulcer and the other ones that can follow after them. All of them are dangerous and can lead to fatal results, and that is why many articles have been written, and many government programs have been established to prevent future generations from those problems.

Some people argue that children at schools are not provided with healthy food provided under the School Nutrition Program. “Public health experts say it’s no wonder our kids are more obese than ever when we feed them trans fats, salts, and sodas for lunch. Kids get half their daily calories at school, so what’s for lunch there has a big impact on health and lasting eating habits.” (Scientific American 2008). From this point of view, children suffer because of benefits that the American government has provided to them, but there is a solution. If the children do get too much at school, they may share their lunch with someone or get less than they are given. The other solution is to eat less at home, so the daily ration is maintained.
Current programs

According to the article “Why some schools are saying “No Thanks” to the school lunch program” written by Alexandra Sifferlin, published in Health Land Time on the 29th of August, 2013, the problem of poor nutrition in school is due the reason that the children do not want to choose healthy food in the school canteens. The US government launches many programs on improving nutrition at schools and providing children from low-income families with free meals by reimbursement the schools with those lunches price. “In a survey conducted this summer of more than 520 district nutrition directors, the School Nutrition Association reported that a very small percentage — 1% — of schools were dropping out of the program for the 2013–14 school year and 3% were considering abandoning the program” (Sifferlin 2015).Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

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The evolution of nutrition with the time flow

Speaking with other words, children in schools are not concern about those benefits that government gives them by providing programs and stating requirements for canteens, they eat what they want because it tastes better or it is forbidden at home. They are not concern about their health yet, but when they grow and become senior students or enter the university or a college, their attitude to healthy food changes greatly. As it has been mentioned in the article “The use of nutritional labels by college students in a food-court setting” published by Kolodinsky, J., Green, J., Michahelles, M. and Harvey-Berino, J.R., college, and university students would rather choose healthy nutrition, but their ration depends on the money aspect.

College students are always in a rush, and they have to face independent life which is challenging. Many of them start working and making their own money for the first time when they are at college. Young women realize that their beauty and school results are strongly dependent on the way they feed. At the same time, young men realize that their sports and academic achievements are directly connected with what they eat. That is why they need more energy that can only be provided from good quality food which is expensive so “price and convenience also play a role in food purchases and that, of those items listed on each label, calories and fat were most important to the study population” (Kolodinsky et al., 2008)

Possible solutions

Even though the statistics data is disappointing, the issue of overweight and obesity in the United States can be solved with fewer costs. The people of the USA must be taught about the severity of this issue. Educational programs must be created to teach children and their parents about healthy lifestyle, the importance of being active and eating healthy foods. Such programs will not cost much for the government. They will increase general awareness of the community. Fewer people will eat fast foods, more of them will start doing sports. Such an approach will help the government reduce the rate of obesity and save money by making the Americans healthier.Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity

Conclusion

The evidence shows, we can see that different age categories of people accept the need for healthy nutrition differently. From my experience, children are rules breakers. The more adults take care of them and set different rules to prevent them from losing their health at an early age, the more they want to break them and do what they want. Children are the category of people that always need to investigate new things and if an adult prohibits something that means that the child needs to try it. Unfortunately, children always learn from their own mistakes and do not take into consideration the opinion of the adults.

All in all, obesity is a severe health problem of the American population. More people get this disorder by eating unhealthy foods and being inactive. Obesity and overweight lead the American population to develop severe chronic diseases and deaths. The government must create effective programs and policies to decrease the number of people with such disorders.Public Health Effects of Childhood Obesity