School District - - > Childhood Obesity

When you look at this picture, what do you think?  How delicious that cheeseburger looks… or the chubbiness in that child's face?  This picture is the definition of CHILDHOOD OBESITY.

Childhood obesity--> is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. It occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his or her age and height.
                                                                       -Mayo Clinic

The varieties of fat acceptance ranges from mild to extreme; while for health and safety, obesity must be acknowledged as something that exists in society and is likely to continue.  Is it something that we want to continue to be known as in the United States?  Childhood Obesity is a big issue in the United States.  There are too many people these days that are either born with obesity, or have become obese.  This is not something that should be a "hot topic" in today's world.  Lets try to help this issue and reduce the number of obese children.

With the nation's childhood obesity being so high, there is an expectation that schools should help out with this issue.  Lately, this has not been happening and the question these days is will it help in the future?  First lady, Michelle Obama, has taken a stance against childhood obesity.  When she was a working mother, her doctor had told her that her diet wasn't right.  She was experiencing what working mothers usually experience, which includes: working full time, a husband that is always busy, taking children to activities or sports, and too tired to cook at the end of the day.  This is called Stress.  Changing her ways, Michelle decided to start by eliminating sugar and instead drinking more water.  With Michelle Obama's new program "Lets Move!", she has set national goals to end childhood obesity in one generation.  Lets Move comes with four oppositions to help childhood obesity:

1. Offering parents information they need in order to give their children healthier nutrition.
2. Getting healthier foods within school systems.
3. Improving affordability of healthy foods.
4. Increasing opportunities for physical activity.

With this new program influencing me, I decided to take a stand.  After my freshman year of college, I wasn't feeling the same. I knew something was up and turns out it was how I was eating. Going into the summer, I had realized that I didn't eat the best that past year and had gained a little weight with not being as physically active as much as I should have been.
      Going into sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, I knew something had to change.  Whether that was eating healthy or getting more physical activity, I knew I could make it happen.  Starting out, I ate at the school cafeteria less, due to have a horrible amount of non-healthy food. From there I ate on my own, but then eating in my dorm room started getting old and I knew there was something I had to change. I knew that one thing I needed to change was to purchase a gym pass. Purchasing an Anytime Fitness pass, I was able to work out daily and by the time it came to the one month point, I had lost five pounds.  Continuing on this route today, I have confidence that physical activity along with watching my diet can continue to make me healthier and persuade me to get the body of a model.

Information needed to know if you are overweight:

Risk Factors: 

• Diet: Are you regularly eating high-calorie foods without even knowing it?  Stay away from fast foods, baked goods, vending machine snacks, candy, and desserts. Yes, junk food is very tasty, but this kind of food can easily cause weight gain way faster than you would ever expect.  
• What to eat? Protein-Chicken, Fruit, Milk, Vegetables, Water

• Lack of Exercise: Those children whom are attached to their "new" technology are the ones whom don't get out and about much.  If you are someone who is known to not get a lot of exercise, you will most likely gain weight from not having the ability to burn calories through physical activity.  Examples of activities that are known as the inactive actives include: television, video games and technology.
• How to fix this? Exercise

• Family History: If your child comes from a family of overweight people, he or she may be more likely to put on excess weight.  

• Psychological Factors: Stress, Relationship Issues, Boredom, Fighting

Now, lets think about the simple solutions to reduce your risk of obesity. Start by turning off the TV and your personal technology devices (iPad, iPhone, Computer) and instead go for a walk with your children, or have a dance party.  Also, think about cooking meals more often at home.  Think about it, you don't want your children growing up eating fast food all the time.  Instead, cook meals at least twice a week to help them get the nutrition they need.

Mhmm… Sweet & Sour

        Yum… those tasty airhead bites you just say on TV look so good, but why? Have you ever thought about why companies are trying to target younger children for their ads? Typically, people don't tend to notice because they aim their target to kids in a very sneaky way. If you think about it, your kids are their future customers. The older they become, the more they will become interested.  This doesn't just come with a positive side of selling products, but it also comes with a negative side known as childhood obesity.  Advertising has had a huge affect on children and targeting them with food, which leads to childhood obesity.

        "Kids eat free!" "Mom can I get that, please. please. please." Yes, your children just continue to pest you with something AMAZING that they just saw advertised on TV or their brand new kindle.  There are many ways stated below about how companies are trying to target your children.
         1. Website free downloads and games that make junk food seem more exciting and delicious.
         2. TV commercials where they are advertising food, while also interacting with other individuals.
         3. At grocery stores, they are placing food at eye level so children are targeted to see everything
             on the shelf.
         4. Fast food restaurants that are offering children playgrounds or other fun activities.
         5. School advertising such as vending machines, pop machines, school lunches, and many other
             reasons

       Remember when you were a child and you loved getting the McDonalds kids meals because it came with those sweet toys. Well, that is a form of advertising on how companies are trying to target

children.  Fast food companies tend to use "free toys" to get kids appealed, which is currently working.  I mean it at least works for me! If you think about it, this makes childhood obesity at a greater risk due to the fact that fast food restaurants are reeling in children when it isn't the healthiest choice.  According to American Psychological Association, today, children ages 8-18 consume multiple types of media and spend more time in front of the computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives.  Due to this, research has found that their are increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and higher rates of childhood obesity.  This type of advertising has been influencing children and the choices they make in food products along with their diets.  Did you know that food ads on television make up 50% of all the ad time on children's shows.  Most of these ads are taken over by junk food such as: candy, cereal, and many other sugary snacks.  I can definitely relate to that because every time I see some delicious looking food on TV, I instantly say "yum I have to try that!"

     How about all of that good food they sell during school lunches?  Or the venting machines?  I mean

that's when the time is to buy junk food because mom won't see.  Why not just sneak a dollar out of moms purse right before school?  School is one place where childhood obesity and advertising needs to be taken care of.  Advertising junk food and sugary drinks in the schools vending machines makes kids instantly attached. Once you eat one you won't stop.  Yes… the food may be good, juicy, and sweet, but is that really what we should be eating.  Schools are tempting to cause childhood obesity these days with all of the advertising they are including in the districts.
     The other problem in school these days are the food they advertise for school lunches.  The "hot lunches" aren't the problem, but the extra food they put out for the alacarte is the real problem.  From the tasty peanut butter chocolate rice krispy bars to those super fluffy french fries that smell amazing, our schools need to stop selling this junk food.  When they advertise the food out in some pretty rappers, children just run right to them and don't even think about how many calories they could be taking in.

Lets stop targeting children into food advertisements or maybe start targeting them into healthy food advertisements.