Submitted By Lisa C. Hickson
I think by now we all know that obesity is a problem in this country, but I think childhood obesity is devastating. We are responsible for our children. There are several factors that may cause childhood obesity. Some children's genetic make-up make them prone to being overweight, but with a managed diet and exercise this problem can usually be corrected. I think the biggest problem is children not being served the proper foods. Children are dependent on their caretakers, usually those caretakers are the parents. There may be several reasons why parents don't serve healthy foods. One reason could be money ; after watching the clip in class yesterday, it seems people feel that buying fast food or going to the corner store is cheaper than buying healthy food. I beg to differ, I think people are using money as an excuse. The truth is it's easier, more convenient to go to the corner store, or to purchase fast food. Parents are letting children tell them what they will and won't eat; they're afraid children won't like the meals that they prepare. What we must do as parents is start early, with our children's diet. We can't wait until this issue becomes a major problem. I know we want to blame the government for everything that is going wrong in our lives, and usually that is the case, but not now. We also want to blame the media ; we feel that advertisers are trying to ruin us. Newsflash this is our problem, we are creating it, like I said "we are responsible for what our children eat"! What we have to do is take a little extra time. We have to be more involved with our children's daily activities. We have to give them alternative things to do ; something other than sitting in front of the televison with a happy meal or playing video games. We should exercise with our children; remember we are their first teachers. I think people are uninformed about healthy foods being very expensive, we have to look for items that are on sale, the best thing to do is try growing some things, I know for a fact seeds are not as expensive as you think. It might sound like a lot of work, but aren't our children worth it? I picked this video so that everyone who reads this blog will know this is a serious problem.
I do agree with you when you said children aren't being provided with the proper foods. That is true and some parents just decide give their kids what they think tastes good so they won't have to worry about hearing them complain that they don't like it. But I don't agree with you when you said its not money. I think that it is money because food is expensive now and days and its hard to support a family now with this economoy that we are living. Maybe if certain stores like Whole foods and other stores of that kind made things a little bit cheaper than maybe we all could be healthy and we wouldn't have this obesity problem.
ReplyDeleteShakera Dunn
ReplyDeleteLisa, I totally agree parents are responsible for their children and what they consume.I understand if a parent is to tried to make dinner the next best time is fast food.Instead of purchasing chicken nuggests and fries, a child can have side salad with grill chicken with no dressing and apple juice. Nowadays, fast food restaurants inform their customers the amount of calories their meal contains.I truly belief some parents do not care what their children eat, but they blame McDonalds and Wendys for making their children obseity. The reality is parents are the one's to blame.Children does not need soda, candy bars, or chips to survive they need fruits and veggies.