In the article Obesity is Found to Gain It’s hold in Earliest Years, great insight was given to broaden the spectrum of childhood obesity. The article explained that in the greater majority, childhood obesity starts at an earlier age. Researchers studied children between Kindergarten through 8th grade and found shocking information about this problem striking a vast majority of the population throughout America, and globally. I have sided and agreed with this article, forming the belief that obesity is caused early by cultural differences, lack of nutritional knowledge and bad parenting skills.
Many of the children that were overweight in Kindergarten, carried on being overweight throughout their adolescence and into adulthood. According to Gina Kolata, When starting Kindergarten 12.4 percent of the children were obese and by 8th grade that percent rose to 20.8 percent. Researchers found that income, ethnicity and race played a very crucial part to the increase of body mass within children. Native Americans are at the highest of risk, followed by those of a Mexican decent. Many suggest that certain cultural traditions and practices could be at fault. Throughout many cultures, food is prepared differently, and eaten in great numbers which could lead to the issue of obesity.
Until fairly recently, many children did not understand nutrition and were not educated on how to treat their bodies well. Schools sold junk food, and parents served fast food diners to save time and money. Children got the short end of the stick and were robbed of a healthy life out of pure laziness. Genetics play a great role in determining whether one will be overweight or not, but it does not mean that with the right diet and exercise plan, one could change that. Many children can simply not comprehend all that is happening with their bodies or the effect of what they put into it and I believe that information as such should be spread profusely throughout our school systems, and throughout the nation.
Many parents do not know how to say no to their children. They do not force their children to eat vegetables like they used to, but rather allow them sweets and junk food out of pure convenience. So many children eat whatever they want, and consume copious amounts of food with little to no physical activity. With this being the age of technological advances, many children stay in front of a Television screen, or play on various devices instead of playing outside. This teaches children to stay indoors, eat as much as they want, and lay there nearly stagnant which adds fat onto the body quickly. Because of the bad parenting skills, self-control is never learned and more often times than none, this trait follows them throughout their entire lives.
Obesity is a serious problem, and unless we focus on teaching and assisting our young leaders of the world, it will continue to become a major and difficult issue. Knowledge is very critical, and needed to be within the children and within the parents. With this, we can finally kick obesity aside and make room for a healthier, wiser, and happier race of humans.
