Food is Not the Only Issue Here

                 Food in today’s society has a bad wrap. Is it the fast food companies’ fault for Americans eating the food they sell? No, that is crazy! Again, people want to blame someone or something for obesity in general and more specifically childhood obesity. Although there are many other factors that influence obesity in children most of the time the blame is placed on food. Regardless of what the children eat, it is a direct result of what the parent purchasing the food gets for them! A child simply does not order what him or her wants. If it were up to children what they could eat the obesity rate would be higher than it is now. Gregory Green says that, “children normally buy food that is convenient but unhealthy”(Green). While this sounds good on paper in reality children simply are not buying their own food. The parents ultimately decide what the child is eating. When a child sees one of their parents eat hamburgers and french-fries for every meal then that is what he or she will want also. It is that simple. Children see the choices that role models in their lives make everyday and will almost always follow in their footsteps. Anne Moore in “Dieting and Exercise can help People lose weight” says that “we got off the scale and turned a blind eye to the kinds and amount of food we put in our bodies.”(Moore). While this is true, it proves that not only do you have to eat healthier; you also have to work out. It does require actually being active. If you get started in sports early on then it is way less likely for you to stop working out when you get older. Working out is said to be calming and addictive so losing that source of stress relief or not having it at all can be very detrimental to mental health as well as physical health.  Food is the easiest thing to blame when it comes to childhood obesity.  Although working out is very beneficial to the body and mind, it does not mean that eating healthier gets thrown out of the window.  The main point of working out to lose weight is to expend more calories than are taken in. Diets and supplemental meals have been common in the race to solve the epidemic but the truth is there is only one best way to solve the crisis and it is getting involved in something that gets your children and you active.

This map shows the percentages of teens that were overweight in 2011.

Here are some things you should check out: Mayo Clinic Basic Information on Childhood Obesity