Childhood obesity is a major concern. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control), in 2010, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese. This can lead to many health issues now and later in life: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes to name a few--all risk factors for heart disease.
Who's responsible? Apparently, everyone is; the schools that provide unhealthy food and drinks for our children to consume and not enough physical activity, parents who allow their children to play video games or watch TV for hours everyday, or those who do not provide healthy food options, or those are overweight or obese themselves, companies that abuse loopholes when packaging their food, using words like "light," "fortified," etc to make one believe they are buying something healthy when they really are not, the government that allows these loopholes, the list goes on and on.
Regardless of who's responsible, things need to be done to help stop this. Some schools have taken unhealthy snacks and pop out of the vending machines. Some are providing healthier meals for lunch. Daily physical education is mandatory in many school districts. All of these are good things, but I believe that home is where the biggest changes have to be made. Studies have shown that parents of obese children see them as being at a healthy weight. We need to open our eyes.
Yes, children are in school for the majority of their day, but if once home they are consuming high calorie, high fat snacks and food, and not doing any other physical activity they will gain weight. It takes only minutes to consume a 300 calorie candy bar and about 1 hour of running to burn it off. You do the math.
This same opinion is stated in this continuing education article on the subject from The Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFAA) also published in American Fitness Magazine.
This has been one of if not the main platform that Michelle Obama has been a part of . With her help, the Let's Move! program was launched in 2010. This is a great website that provides information and strategies to help put an end to this growing problem.
There are many things we as parents can do at home: have your child/ren help you plan the menu for the week, get rid of the junk food, keep a bowl of fruit on the table, or cut up pieces in the fridge for quick snacking, provide more vegetables (even if it means blending them up and sneaking them into foods), take a walk or bike ride after dinner, limit TV/video time, have your child help you plan and grow a garden, have your child brown bag it for lunch if they normally buy it--these strategies work for the overweight adult as well. You can't expect your child to do any of this if you as a parent don't do it yourself. We must lead by example, it has to be done as a family.
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