As American researchers Cynthia L. Ogden, Margaret D. Carroll, Brian K. Kit, Katherine M. Flegal conclude from their study “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012”, about 30% of US adults and 17% of children are overweight. The obesity epidemic in the United States is not going to decline, that is a concern. Researchers examined the trends in child and adult obesity rates of more than 9.1 thousand respondents, whose weight and height were measured in 2011-2012 (Ogden et al. 806).
Among children from birth to two years, the excess of weight over the growth parameters was 8.1%. Most often, the weight above normal was observed among girls – in 11.4% of cases, among boys – in 5% of cases. In the group of 2 to 19 years, 31.8% of participants were obese or overweight (body mass index over 30), and 6.4% had a high degree of obesity (BMI over 40) (Ogden et al. 808).
At the same time on February 25, 2014, The New York Times cited studies of US federal health authorities. According to these data, the number of obese kids in the United States began to sharply decline. Scientists have no explanation of this phenomenon yet (Tavernise, “Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade”).
The researchers also found that boys younger than five years consume 7% less calories than a decade earlier, and girls – by 4% less (Tavernise, “Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade”). In addition, children consume fewer calories from sugary drinks. More mothers started to feed their children with breast milk, which, as believed, is likely to help preventing the tendency to obesity at a young age. A number of American states have introduced programs to form healthier eating habits among children. US First Lady Michelle Obama has been actively campaigning against obesity among children as reported in the article (Tavernise, “Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade”).
Among the reasons for childhood obesity, scholars named enormous consumption of fast food and junk food. Most children do not perform the recommended 60 minutes of exercise and spend huge amounts of time sitting. The best thing to do in order to solve the issue of childhood obesity is to prescribe certain rules which children are to follow. Children`s parents and teachers are to mentor children in order to make sure that children live to these rules, for example, eat only healthy food, switch between academic work and sports exercises, sit in front of computers less, etc. A role of a teacher is extremely important in efforts to overcome obesity among children. A teacher can easily influence a kid and teach him to live a healthy life and keep fit.
Works Cited
Ogden, C., Carroll, M., Kit, B., and Katherine M. Flegal. “Prevalence of Childhood and Adult Obesity in the United States, 2011-2012”. medicine.uiowa.edu. 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. Available at https://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/uploadedFiles/Research/Obesity_Cluster/Smart_Forms/News/JAMA%202014.pdf
Tavernise, S. “Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade”. The New York Times. 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2016. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/health/obesity-rate-for-young-children-plummets-43-in-a-decade.html?_r=0
