Noah Schatzel

Mrs. Warneke
English 12
07/08/15
Childhood Obesity: A Growing Problem
Nine million kids in the U.S. alone are considered to be obese. This number is three
times the number it was in 1980(Landauro). Childhood obesity has been a growing epidemic
since the late 1900s. Kids have become less active causing them to become larger than the
normal kid. The kids that have a higher energy gap are more prone to being overweight since
they are not able to burn more calories than they eat (Doing the math...). Of course it might not
be all the kids fault, the parents and grandparents could be part of this problem. A study on mice
showed that less active parents gave offspring that tended to be larger than those whose parents
were active during pregnancy. If the mouse parents were more active while pregnant then the
offspring usually came out being active as well. Of course this could also be an issue if the parent
gets into exercising too much during pregnancy and causing the child to have a complication
during birth . If a kid has a high energy gap or has a parent that was not as active as they should
have been during pregnancy, then there is a greater chance that these kids will end up obese
(Archer).
Childhood obesity is a problem that has been growing as more kids turn to the unhealthy
food choices easily provided to them during school instead of other healthier choices that they
should be eating. Schools nowadays are providing food that might not be the healthiest since it
cost less to have unhealthy food instead of healthy food. A study showed that 6th graders who ate
school lunch were 29% more likely to be overweight than those who did not eat school lunch

(Rabin). And of these obese children over half of them were school lunch regulars. Some school
lunch programs make kids pay extra for getting more than one fruit or vegetable with their meal.
This makes kids have to choose what healthy food they want with their meal instead of getting
multiple healthy food choices. If the schools cut down on the amount of a la carte that they sell
they will not end up making as much money as they were with the a la carte line open, but it
would either have kids eat more of the school lunch, assuming that they would allow them to eat
more than one fruit or vegetable.
Since the study on mice found that if the parent was active during pregnancy they usually
produced healthier children, shouldnt there be a program to get pregnant women to be active
during pregnancy? If the government has to spend money on those people who become
overweight it would be better for them to spend the money to fix the issue before it even would
happen. There have been other studies that test what can affect the childs likelihood to get
obesity. A Harvard study showed that there are multiple variables that influence a childs chance
to get obesity, and some of these variables are chosen before the kid is even born. Some of them
are: if the parent smokes or not, if the mother gains weight during pregnancy, or even her blood
sugar levels during pregnancy. Of course once the child is conceived there is again a set of
variables that could influence the childs obesity likelihood (Prenatal and Early...).
Since kids of this generation have grown up in a more technologically advanced world
than that of their parents, they do not know how to go outside and play or be social with others.
These kids instead sit in their rooms or on their couches and play on their cell phones or tablets,
which also has advertisements on them, like for the McDonalds new all day breakfast (Koplan).
Parents and schools need to encourage kids to eat their fruits and vegetables if they want them to
be able to lose some weight or maintain a healthy weight. Parents, usually, need to be responsible

for their child's health and wellbeing through all of their life and if these parents dont have any
rules when it comes to eating then that child will end up eating to much.
For kids to eat healthier at school, schools need to cut down on the amount of a la carte
items available in the lunch line, even though that's what kids tend to eat the most, and focus
more on the foods that they serve the children, since the best way for kids to eat healthy is for
you to offer it to them. Since schools usually dont make a lot of money off of the lunch itself
they rely on the high energy but low nutrient foods (Rabin).If schools lowered the prices of the
fruits and vegetables there is a good chance that the students will buy those foods. If this were to
happen kids would end up eating healthier since there is no longer junk food to snack on once
you have finished eating the normal meal, or just filling up on junk food instead of that normal
meal. On the bad side though there would be kids that would bring their own food or just decide
not to eat if they cant get the a la carte option that they wanted.
It does not help that some schools will even now require kids to have ipads or tablets
with them during the school day, although it might be for educational purposes. To help with this
parents need to encourage their kids to go out and play at a young age instead of giving them
some technology device to quiet them down. If kids learn to play outside and with other kids at a
young age it will stick with them longer than if they never get the chance to play outside.
Schools also need to help with this problem by limiting the amount of school work being done
on the tablets, they should limit it to less than two hours a day, and also encouraging students to
go outside and be active (Preventing Childhood Obesity). Schools need to let kids have recess
and other breaks throughout the day to get them moving instead of just sitting in their desks for
countless hours listening to teachers talk about things that the kids barely even want to know

about. Since seven plus hours of a kids day is spent at school the school should be responsible
for a majority of the kids ability to exercise.
If the parents buys fresh food then the child should have to eat some of it whenever they
are are hungry and looking for a snack to eat. The government should allow it so fresh foods are
not more expensive than junk food since junk food, like McDonalds, is a cheap and easy way
(Koplan). Harvard Medical school did a study on students that ate fast food at least once a day
compared to those that didnt and found that nearly one third of kids eat fast food at least once a
day. This increased the amount of sugars, fats, carbs, and salts in their diet making it extreme, the
same one third also ate less fresh food than their peers (Prenatal and Early life...).
To make the ultimate solution for childhood obesity, I believe, one must first take a look
at all the solutions that have already been thought of and then see if they will serve as a viable
solution. For childhood obesity, I have seen that the main solutions are to eat healthier and to
spend less time in front of a screen and to exercise more. These solutions, if added all together,
make this ultimate solution. If you have a kid that spends less time in front of a screen and they
eat healthy while exercising then there should be no reason that they are overweight. These
solutions are the main solutions to ending childhood obesity but it will only be able to be
achieved if the parents and schools and even the government are able to help.

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