Childhood Obesity In Adolescents

Obesity in Adolescents Obesity is a growing problem in America and along with that obesity among adolescents is also growing. Obesity has many negative impacts on adolescents and can cascade into many more lifelong problems. Obese adolescents endure many problems. Many of the problems they face are psychosocial and biological in nature. Obesity can alter an adolescent’s thought processes and lead them into a very dark train of thought. Along with that dark train of thought, obese adolescents will also face many biological issues, mainly relating to their current, and future health. It is important to prevent and eliminate obesity within adolescents so that they can grow up to be healthy, contributing, members of society who are able to live

If advice is given in the wrong manner it could potentially have adverse effects. Adolescents are very vulnerable and having an adult tell them that there is something wrong with them could hurt their self-esteem and even demotivate them and make the issue worse. Giving advice to an obese adolescent is not just as simple as telling them they are obese and need to fix it. Burniat writes “Advice to obese adolescents should enable them to look positively on their condition by encouraging independent decision making and healthy lifestyles which are perceived as attainable” (Burniat 155). This idea of independent decision making is extremely important for adolescents; however, given their circumstances it is very difficult. Adolescents are mostly controlled by their parents, especially in terms of what they eat. Adolescents are also very easily influenced by adults, so if their parents have bad eating and exercise habits then the odds are so will the adolescent. Burniat writes about how “parents decide what foods are available” and how “they do their best to give their children healthy eating patterns” as well as how to go about “including exercise as a natural part of life” (Burniat 161). From all this we can gather adolescent obesity is not entirely the fault of the adolescent, parents also hold some, if not most of the blame. In order to begin to eliminate childhood

Burniat writes “obesity in adolescence is an independent risk factor for, and strongly associated with, other cardiovascular risk factors” (Burniat 157). Burniat goes on to write “increased body mass indexes (BMI) correlate with blood pressure and are predictive of the risk of hypertension by the age of 30 years” (Burniat 157). Along with heart problems and high blood pressure Burniat writes about how a study “showed that obesity during adolescents was linked with increased mortality in early adult life not only from cerebrovascular accidents but also from breast cancer in women and colon cancer in men” (Burniat 157). Heart conditions, high blood pressure, breast cancer, colon cancer, and early death, all potential consequences of adolescent obesity. One can easily conclude that obesity in adolescents has very detrimental effects on their