Childhood Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Introduction

More and more households have both parents working full-time jobs to provide shelter, food, and clothing for their families. (Caterson p.11-21) Providing the basic necessities is not enough for a healthy family. Parents need to become more involved with their child's life.

Thesis Statement

Childhood obesity is more prevalent today than ever before. Our children for the future are being failed. Healthy living needs to be taken more seriously.

Background

Child obesity has been medically proven to increase the risk of long-term life altering illnesses. A more positive role by our nation's parents should be taken to lead our children to a healthier future. (Joseph, p. 78) Emma a nine year old weighs a hundred and ten pounds. When returning home from school one day she learnt that all the elevators were not working in the building where she lived. She was faced with the dilemma of climbing eight floors to her apartment. (Royal, p.267-72) As she started to climb the stairs, she began to have trouble breathing. She had to pause for breaks at almost every second floor. After half-an hour, she reached the eighth floor though with a lot of difficulty. Kids these days consume a lot of junk food.

Fast food is becoming more popular than ever; it's convenient, predictable and fast. It has become a part of today's busy lifestyle. In addition to fast food, children lead a very sedentary life. The Canadian Fitness and Lifestyle Research Institute say that forty-two percent of children almost never participate in organized sports such as soccer, basketball, hockey, baseball and football. Basically in the long run, lack of exercise, peer pressure and poor eating habits leads to obesity. If parents spend more time with their children and teach them the right food to eat, the obesity problem can be solved. Obesity is the disease of other diseases. Majority of children are not taught to eat the right amount of fruits and vegetables in a day. (Braun, p. 124)

Some neighborhoods don't have easy access to grocery stores that sell a wide variety of healthy food like good-quality fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat diary products. This makes children choose junk food over nutritious food. The food we eat and the amount of exercise we do shapes our body. Kids aren't getting enough exercise to use up all the extra calories they are taking in everyday. Children spend most of their time watching television, playing video games and using the computer which reduces the time children spend playing outdoors or riding their bikes. Likewise, on television children see commercials that promote sugary cereals and soda. Children fall into these loopholes and starting demanding their parents to get them that cereal. If they don't, some start throwing tantrums. Child obesity has been medically proven to increase the risk of long-term altering illness. It can seriously compromise the health status of the population in the future.

In the morning, most parents are so busy in getting ready for work and reaching ...