We All Know Who to Blame

We All Know Who to Blame

In a world filled to the rim with unhealthy choices, advertisements, and people, it's not really a surprise that obesity rates are what they are today. But what is even scarier is the amount of children and young adolescents who are currently facing an obesity problem. Many people nowadays are asking themselves who's fault this trend is and how do we stop it. Whether this has arisen from bad advertising, bad parenting, or fast food companies, America needs to find the answer; and it has to happen fast. Depending on whom people ask, the problem behind these changes, but to me it's because parents do not find this a problem until it happens to one of their own children. To doctors, the definition of childhood obesity is a serious medical condition affects children and adolescents. It occurs when the child is well above his or her normal weight for the age they are. With extra pounds of fat the risk of health problems as an adult with raise in risk (Mayo Clinic). To myself, Childhood Obesity is happening because parents are not setting good enough examples for eating healthy, also fast food restaurants are using clever advertising to get customers and also stress levels that the kids are having.

We all know the United States has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, but how many of us actually know the numbers behind it. The numbers and statistics behind childhood obesity rates are quite scary. Vincent Iannelli, M.D., an author for About.com's Health's Disease and Condition, proclaims, "Experts estimate that 15% of kids are overweight and another 15% are at risk of becoming overweight. And two-thirds of these overweight kids will become overweight adults" (Iannelli). Fifteen percent may not seem like a large part of the population, but in reality it truly is. Fifteen out of every one hundred kids is already obese and another fifteen will become obese in the near future! This is going to become a serious problem and health risk when these children are grown up. However, Iannelli does not know what has caused this epidemic of sorts, but parenting is one of the leading causes.

Parents have the ability to demonstrate good eating habits along with compelling their children to be involved in exerting themselves into a little physical activity every day. Not only can parents do these basic ideas, but they can also enforce how much time is spent watching television, or how much junk food their children consume. As parents, they have almost total control of what food their children eat because they supply it. The only exception to this is what their children eat at school, and until recently this food has not been strongly enforced. Now however, food children eat during school is heavily regulated by the FDA because of Michelle Obama's genuine concern for the health and safety of our country into the future. In a statement released by President Barack Obama in 2009 after Michelle had an interview with Robin Roberts and "Good Morning America" he said, "I mean, one in three kids are overweight or obese, and we're spending $150 billion a year treating obesity-related illnesses. So we know this is a problem, and there's a lot at stake" (Ferran). Not only do schools limit what food their students eat, but they also require every kid to be involved in some sort of physical education class to encourage them to live a healthy lifestyle. High schools in the state of Ohio require every child to participate to two physical education classes before they are allowed to graduate. But through the use of advertising, children may be receiving the opposite viewpoint.

Some believe the fast food marketing and advertising campaigns are the reason to blame because they intentionally market unhealthy food to the public. Janice Shaw Crouse, the Senior Fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute which is in direct relations to Concerned Women for America, announced in her article published in 2009, "Fast food chains spend more than $3 million a year on television advertising that targets children. These advertisements sometimes include cartoon characters that are particularly of interest to children" (Crouse). With the use of advances in advertising technology growing at an exponential rate, I am surprised to see that fast food chains do not spend more money on advertising than they do. Nowadays there are advertisements everywhere: television, the Internet, YouTube, and billboards. Three millions dollars a year for a fast food chains is nothing compared to the revenue these companies take in.

Just imagine if they all advertised as much as they could afford to do in order to get the word out, how obese would America be today? The obesity rate in children could double, triple or quadruple over the few following years. According to Crouse, "The tipping point came with the realization that in the past three decades the rate of American children who are either overweight or obese increased by 300 percent--the obesity rate for preschoolers and teens tripled and, for elementary school kids, the obesity rate quadrupled" (Crouse). If this isn't proof childhood obesity isn't a growing epidemic than I don't know what is. If this has happened in the last thirty years, the future is going to be even worse. These rates will probably double and the majority of America will be obese. The children now will grow into the parents of the future generation and teach their children how to live; creating a continuing cycle of obesity throughout the United States.

Children will tend to eat what their parents eat, and do