Obesity is having too much body fat. It is not the same as being overweight, which means weighing too much. A person may be overweight from extra muscle, bone, or water, as well as from having too much fat. Obesity has not been a problem that just occurred, obesity has been here forever but not only in adults but in children and adolescents as well. A third of children more than 7,000 children who were overweight in kindergarten were obese by eighth grade.
Approximately ten percent of four and five year old children are overweight. Obesity increases even more as children get older. For ages six to eleven, at least one child in five is overweight. Over the last two decades, this number has increased by more than fifty percent and the number of obese children has nearly doubled. For most children, overweight is the result of unhealthy eating patterns and too little physical activity.
Here are a few examples of the illnesses caused by obesity: type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular (heart) disease, and asthma. Singling out cancer just for the sake of example, 14-20 percent of all cancer deaths were blamed on obesity. If this statement holds true, if every adult would hold their BMI under 25 (50th percentile), about 90,000 deaths a year could be prevented. (Biographies Of Disease:
Almost one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese, and more than two-thirds of adults are overweight. Obesity rates have increased by 214 percent between 1950 and 2000(Livestrong.com). Also According to livestrong.com, the main cause for the increase it weight among American’s is lack of exercise, as well as the convenience of fast food, and caloric increase. This rise in obesity has increased diseases such as heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. As a country, we are spending over $190 billion a year treating these diseases, diseases that could be prevented by increasing exercise and decreasing calories.
Do Children Living below the Poverty Level have adequate Health Insurance? Abstract This paper goes over children living in poverty and whether they have access to adequate health insurance. The paper compiles statistics on uninsured children; researches the Medicaid laws that congress has passed and covers the effects that lack of health insurance has on children. Over 40 million people are living below the poverty line, and many children are living without any health coverage. The unemployment level in our country has nearly doubled since 2007, and children can be some of the hardest hit it our economy.
Jessica Brown English 101 Childhood Obesity In America Obesity is one of the serious medical conditions which is difficult to treat. Up to one out of every five children and teens in the U. S. are obese, and this number is continuing to grow. Over the past three decades, the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years. (Jeff Barnes) Childhood obesity has dramatically increased. The United States needs to take concrete steps to reduce obesity in children.
Mrs. Obama stated, "We have a right to expect the food (our kids) get at school is the same kind of food we want to serve at our own kitchen tables." Most of the children that participate in these programs eat more than half of their daily food intake at school. Offering a higher quality of food and better choices that are more nutritious improve children’s diets. (CBS, 2012) The First Lady and the USDA took charge with Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act by reducing starchy foods like potatoes and prohibiting schools from counting a small amount of tomato paste on a slice of pizza as a vegetable. Before they counted as 1 whole serving of vegetables.
If we do nothing to the current configuration of our Social Security program, projections are showing that by the year 2035, the Trust Fund will only adequately support 75% of beneficiaries. (Goss, 2010) This is in large part due to the current generation of baby boomers who are living longer, more healthful and active lives. When they start collecting Social Security benefits, they will collect for more years than previous generations. Although Social Security benefits account for approximately 40% of prior earnings for an individual who has worked, this would be a substantial amount of earnings to lose. For the economy, the challenge is to generate growth and financial resources needed to meet age-related spending needs.
I found that this was interesting because I did not know that on average only 7.6% of adults between the ages of 19-23 get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity per day. This would explain why 60% percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese. After the thirtieth day of Morgan Spurlock’s experiment, he had gained 24.5 pounds and increased his overall body mass by 13%. After stopping his experiment, it took several months to lose all of the weight that he had gained and to return to a normal healthy weight. I believe that although this experiment was very helpful it would have been scary for to have “catastrophic liver damage” or to be overweight because it would cause your heart to work harder and cause it to wear out faster.
After decades of lies and industry propaganda, the truth is finally coming out: junk food kills. Even after the effort of some states to tax soda pop, require healthier school lunches, or mandate calorie information in chain restaurants, obesity rates are still growing. Studies have shown that school organic gardens, salad bars and healthy lunches improve the health and academic performance of young people. Healthy eating habits and gardening skills nurtured and developed at an early age most often have a lifetime impact. A 100% tax on junk food and beverages would help pay for the collateral damages of this industry: the $150 billion in diet-related disease and health-care costs now incurred by the public and taxpayers for obesity and diabetes.