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Putting a Stop on Child Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition that is characterized by the accumulation of excess body fats in the body of a person to the extent of imposing health risks on the individual. A person is considered obese if their body mass index is over 30 kg/m2 (Summers). Those individuals within the range of 25 to 30kg/m2 are considered to be overweight. There are various reasons as to why people become obese, and some of them include excessive food intake that is rich in higher cholesterol levels as well as reduced rates of physical activity. Obesity can also be inherited from the parents as it is a genetic condition. The rate at which people are getting obese is alarming in both children and adults. According to the statistics from the American Heart Association, the prevalence of obesity to children of ages 6 to 11 increased for 4 percent in the year 1974 to 18 percent in 2010 while that of adolescents between ages 12 to 19 as well increased from 6.1 percent to 18.4 percent. With the above figures, it is evident that the rate of obese children and adolescent is on the rise, and some measures need to be put in place to ensure that the menace is reduced. Various reasons warrant the need to reduce the rate of obesity among our children to ensure a safe society that is free from health risks.
Child bullying is one of the reasons that call for the need to put a stop to child obesity (Williams). Children are at a higher risk of being bullied by their classmates or other children during activities in the fields, and this is attributed to the fact the obese kids are unable to carry out their duties as they are expected effectively. Children are mocked especially on the social media making the child feel unwanted and eventually end up acquiring low self-esteem due to their weight. Reduced self-esteem makes the child feel detached from society as they are no longer accepted and therefore they start experiencing mental torture. Isolation from the other kids makes them feel more detached as most of the obese children are unable to cope up and engage in the activities that the healthy children engage leading to isolation. Continued isolation from the rest of the children makes the kid feel useless, and depression starts knocking the door. As the children already possess reduced self-esteem, they are unable to cope with the depression and the next action that comes to mind is to terminate their lives leading to suicide. Suicide rates that happen due to depression that results from childhood bullying are on the rise, and this implies that child obesity is a problem that calls for urgent intervention.
Health risks are another concern that puts the issue of obesity at limelight so that individuals can see the dangers that arise due to obesity. Obesity can be termed as a predisposing factor to some other lifestyle diseases that pose a threat to the lives of a person such as diabetes (Alford). Poor eating habits that involve the consumption of foods that are not limited to diet especially the consumption of foods that are rich in carbohydrates may lead to an increase in the sugar levels in the body leading to a person being at a higher probability of being diabetic. Despite diabetes being a genetically predisposed illness, poor eating habits may also lead to an individual being obese and eventually becoming diabetic due to the pancreatic failure to produce insulin to regulate the amount of blood sugar. High blood pressure is another health condition that arises from being obese, and this can be as a result of reduced exercising that may help in reducing the amount of accumulated cholesterol in the blood veins. Eating foods that are rich in carbohydrates imply that high amounts of cholesterol are taken into the body, most of the cholesterol get settled in the blood vessels making them thick, and this results to high pressure in blood flow as well as the increased heart rate leading to high blood pressure. High blood pressure if not controlled may be fatal, and therefore this calls for action in the fight against obesity not only among the children but also to the general population across the globe as well.
A number of factors can be used to reduce the rate of obesity among the children, and the environment is one of the factors. Eating habits are the major causes of obesity among the children leading to the accumulation of excess glucose in the body that is stored in the form of fats (Schwart). To fight obesity, therefore, an individual must control their feeding habits, and this implies the reduction in the amount of foods being taken. Dieting can be used to control obesity among the children an aspect that can be achieved through the involvement of other stakeholders that are relevant to the child’s development such as the parents and the teachers. Parents stay with the children at home and their fore it should be their responsibility to regulate the amount of food consumed by the children at home. At school, the children spend a lot of time with their teachers who as well have a crucial role to play in the fight against obesity. Teachers may also reduce the amount of food consumed for their student and as well conduct a guiding and counseling sessions with the students making them aware of the dangers of being obese and this will significantly reduce the rate of overweight children.
Behavior can also be included among the factors that can be used to reduce the impact of obesity among the children. Most of the obese kids are subject to bullying, and therefore they are asked to act out in such cases such as telling their parents or teachers so that they are shown a way out. Acting out can also be implemented by the obese individual though taking measures such as dieting to reduce the amount of fats in their body. The obese children may also seek health attention from the professionals to minimize the impact of their condition and at the same time get guidance on reducing the onset of obesity and other conditions that are related (Phelan). Being lonely may lead to a person being depressed and at the same time may increase the chances of being obese, and therefore, an individual may be advised especially for the children to get much involved in activities that require their attention such as playing with others to reduce the effects of loneliness. Laziness is another factor that can contribute to the development of obesity in a person in that a person spends most of their time seated with fewer activities to perform leading to accumulation of high amounts of cholesterol in the body making the person obese. In the control of obesity, laziness should not be tolerated, and the child should be kept active either by playing or doing other activities.
The need to be physically healthy helps a lot in the reduction of obesity cases among the children (Lobstein). Physical fitness can be obtained by engaging in physical activities such as running, jogging and playing. Exercise plays a significant role in the attempt to reduce the rate of obesity among children. The reason behind is that exercising reduces the amount of fats in the body by burning the cholesterol into energy that is used in engaging in the physical activities such as jogging and this helps in keeping check the amount of fats and cholesterol in the child’s body. Exercising also results in weight reduction among children, and therefore it is significant to emphasize the children to do a lot of exercises in an attempt to reduce obesity. Reduced obesity accompanied by physical fitness increases the child’s self-esteem, and this boosts their confidence leading to reduced suicide rates. Physical health is therefore essential in reducing the rate of obesity as well as nurturing confidence in a child.
Work Cited
Alford, S., et al. “Obesity as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease: weighing the evidence.” Obesity Reviews 19.2 (2018): 269-280.
Lobstein, Tim, et al. “Child and adolescent obesity: part of a bigger picture.” The Lancet 385.9986 (2015): 2510-2520.
Phelan, Sean M., et al. “Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity.” Obesity Reviews 16.4 (2015): 319-326.
Schwartz, Michael W., et al. “Obesity pathogenesis: an Endocrine Society scientific statement.” Endocrine reviews38.4 (2017): 267-296.
Summers, Rachael H., et al. “Perceptions of Weight, Diabetes and Willingness to Participate in Randomised Controlled Trials of Bariatric Surgery for Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Body Mass Index 30–39.9 kg/m2.” Obesity surgery 25.6 (2015): 1039-1046.
Williams, Ellen P., et al. “Overweight and obesity: prevalence, consequences, and causes of a growing public health problem.” Current obesity reports 4.3 (2015): 363-370.
