Donavan
3/14/13
Score
outline for obesity
Why are so many teens obese today? Is
it because they don’t have enough gym class in school? What are they doing for activities
in their free time? For school interventions in every state, schools should
take part in the problem of obesity focusing on how to get kids involved in
physical activities. For example, the requirement for gym at Manchester Essex
High School is physical activity for half the year, and then the rest of the
school year is health classes until the semester ends. Although health classes
are important, and topics such as nutrition, substance abuse, and physical
health are taught, physical activities should also continue throughout the
years. For those who are not playing sports after school, gym should be
required all four years instead of just two years to reduce obesity so children
can live a long healthy life. For my score project. I will be assisting Mr.
Ricci-Munn in helping him to support teens in fighting obesity and to try and
break through the answers of why there is obesity in the world.
In some cases, lack of physical
activity may be due to having tons of homework. That’s fantastic because the
kids are into getting excellent grades. The YGOY health community claims “about
15% or, to give exact figure, 9 million teens in America below 15 years of age
are obese. This figure is almost three times the teen obesity figures in the
year 1980.”(www.YGOY.com) The YGOY says that the causes for obesity are, “teenage
obesity is from overeating, less activity or inactivity, and excess TV
viewing.” When teens are not exercising enough and are a tiny bit obese, they
will only get much worse and have a poor self image. Studies show that sitting
at home all day eating mostly fast food has a huge impact on children they get
drawn in as young children by the toys that go with the meal, and then start to
develop a taste for the fast food. Children are falling into the fat trap and
can’t get enough of the tasty food; therefore, they become addicted to the salt
& sugar. Children don’t think about becoming obese from fast food and that
the food is full of oil, salt, and fat to make the fries and burgers taste good.
The advertisements don’t tell the real truth of about the health effects of the
food. Schools have become more aware of the food quality and are slowly changes
their food choices for children.
America has been stepping forward in
trying to stop obesity by giving kids healthier foods, such as veggies, whole
wheat pastas, sweet potato fries and no energy drinks. Schools should give more
healthy options along with hamburgers such as turkey and veggie burgers. Unfortunately
kids are throwing their food out because they’re not use to the healthier version.
In some cases, schools have started their own gardens to supplement the
cafeteria food. At least when the schools are planting some of the food in a
garden the veggies don’t have any chemicals inside to change the taste of the
food. These gardens can be another way of introducing healthy foods to children
who may not have healthy food at home. It can help teach them that they can
take control of what they eat along with exercising more. This can be another
way to help fight obesity.
