What Is The Cause Of Childhood Obesity

Obesity in America is a tremendous health issue in fact it is the epidemic of the 21st century. The rate of overweight children is highly increasing and is being considered a major health concern of the developed world. They are at risk of developing heart disease or diabetes later in their lives. It’s lowering the children’s self-esteem as well. In the United States today, about one third of children are overweight or obese. There are many factors that fall into the cause of obesity in those being a lack of exercise, unhealthy eating habits, as well as an environmental factor.
The lack of physical activity is found to be the most significant factor contributing to childhood obesity. “Inactivity and obesity hand in hand are among the greatest …show more content…
The way one eats or feeds their children affects their health and way of living. The U.S. department of health and human resources says that, “Convenience has become one of the main criteria’s for Americans food choices today say.” It’s easier for busy parents to buy their children fast food then to take the time and cook a healthy meal for them at home. With fast food restaurants at every corner children are more likely to desire these foods. The choice in food for kids is extremely important from snacking on fruits rather than chips. They consume large meals and high fat foods that soon become an eating pattern. Time and money could be the big factors that contribute to the lack of eating right and making the right choices in food. “Lower income parents tend to buy more fast food for their children then high income parents because it’s cheaper.”(Pretlow) Having these foods on the go and cheaper makes it much easier for parents however; having these foods too much will increase the risk of having obese …show more content…
And it is only getting worse as the years go by. Children are not properly being taught the importance of eating healthy and making the right food choice. In fact with so much marketing and advertising these unhealthy foods are being consumed even more by kids. Also the prices being so cheap make it easier for the parents to buy it for their children. It’s a threatening illness that is affecting many of the children today and it’s not being taken as serious as it should. This illness harms children’s health and gives them risks of getting more diseases as they get older. Kids are eating unhealthy too much and are not being physically active enough. The parents need to make their kids more active and participate in different activities and avoid buying them unhealthy food. If this continues, the number of children who are overweight will continue to triple for the years to come. The number of obese kids just keeps getting higher. If the parents don’t help out their kids they are pushing them to having higher risks of being unhealthy and not wanting to be active. Action needs to be taken for these children and that would be by altering what the media advertises, what our environment offers these children and by educating them in what to eat and actually feeding them these foods making smarter food choices and finally by having these kids more active. If not we are just going to keep having more obese kids and the