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Childhood Obesity In America

721 Words3 Pages

Childhood to adolescent obesity in America is becoming an over-whelming issue. Most schools have decided that physical education isn’t critical due to budget cuts and the increased pressure to excel in standardized tests. One out of three children in the U.S. is over-weight or obese according to the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. I believe that childhood obesity is the result of lack of exercise and poor diet due to a fast-paced lifestyle. Junk food is attractive for many reasons including price, taste, and convenience. My own research outside of school has led me to learn and value the importance of healthy food as it preserves and protects our body from diseases because it contains the vitamins, minerals, and protein that our …show more content…

is also in the upper percentile in the overall amount of people obese. These alarming statistics should be enough reason to allocate more resources towards the physical education of our population starting at an early age. We should not only be teaching young kids the importance of sufficient exercise, but also the implications of consuming junk food. With an increasingly fast-paced society we tend to forget to eat a proper nutritious diet. From my perspective, the convenience and over-marketing of junk food is the main reason why kids seem to be drawn towards processed foods. As a part-time Herbalife health coach I help people create meal plans so they are not tempted by the convenience of fast junk food. I have found that proper nutrition is an even more important factor in reaching fitness goals than the exercise aspect because no amount of exercise can mask a bad diet. A tax on the same sugary beverages and junk food that our youth cannot seem to get away from, could generate money that can create, fund, and endorse preventative fitness programs such as Herbalife to teach the youth the importance of balancing healthy eating with …show more content…

Most schools simply don’t require physical education. This puts the task of educating the youth about healthy eating habits and exercise entirely on their parents. If parents aren’t educated on proper nutrition, kids are left to their own devices to figure out how to give their bodies the nutrition it needs, often to no avail. This creates vicious cycles of obesity in certain family lineages. I believe that the proposal to have a tax levied on junk food and sugary beverages is imperative to our nation’s longevity. The money generated can also be used to fund and make physical education a requirement for schools

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