Argumentative Essay On Childhood Obesity

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Researched Argument Essay

Obesity has been an ongoing problem recently in the United States, especially for children. People are wondering what the major cause of this problem is, and many people believe that it is related to food advertising. There is evidence to prove that the real answer is that children are being less and less involved in physical activity. The main culprits of this conflict are schools because they are focusing more on subjects that are tested on, rather than health classes and physical education. Even though most people believe that childhood obesity is due to food choices and television advertisements, it is actually the result of sedentary lifestyles. According to Dr. Mark McClellan, who is a former FDA Commissioner, the amount of calories that children have been consuming for the last 20 years has not changed barely at all. Therefore, the problem must be related to physical inactivity. Also, children have actually seen only half as much advertising in the past six years than before (Andersen 2). Too many kids are living sedentary lifestyles because they …show more content…

Therefore, that implies that banning food advertisements would not be a beneficial solution to the problem. The article actually used Sweden and Quebec as examples because they have banned advertisements and those kids do not weigh any less. It is interesting because there is more of a correlation between obesity and video games than there is with obesity and television. This is interesting because kids nowadays spend more of their time playing video games rather than watching tv, so they are exposed to even less advertising. Obesity is much more common in kids that play video games than those who spend time watching television, where there are more food advertisements (“A Lack of Physical Activity”