What are the Causes and Effects of Childhood Obesity?

How can they best be addressed? Childhood obesity has become a big important issue over the years. This issue should be addressed immediately. The problems seem to be the food that the children and adolescents eat and a little to no physical activity. Many children lead sedentary life styles at school and home. At school, they sit in classes all day with little or no physical activity and they eat non-nutritious lunches and snacks. At home, they sit in front of television for hours, play video games, stay on the computer for hours and also eat non-nutritious foods and snacks. However, the focus for this paper will be on the schools and their role in this problem, so the question is: Do the schools have a responsibility to help combat childhood obesity? Yes, they certainly do because my claim is that the school system shares some responsibility for the childhood obesity. The foods that they serve are not nutritious, the snacks that are available are full of sugar and fats and their physical education programs need to be revamped or they actually should offer a physical education program.

The schools role could be pivotal in helping to combat childhood obesity, but it is not because they are not doing any thing to help combat the problem. The role that they play is helping to create the problem through their lunches, snacks and their lack of physical education programs. The children spend most of their day in school, at least seven hours, so the schools should offer nutritious lunches, snacks and good physical education programs to help with this epidemic of childhood obesity that can lead to so many medical problems that can exist on into adulthood. Children and adolescents have become affected by being obese with all types of medical problems. The information from Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity: Strategies and Solutions for schools and parents states that “Today more than 23 million U.S. children and adolescents are either obese or overweight. Being overweight during childhood increases the risk of developing diseases such as high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression and type 2 diabetes” (Green, Riley, Hargrove, 2012 , pg 915).

This information is important and relevant to my research because it shows the number of children that is obese or overweight. It also shows the medical ailments and diseases that come from being obese or overweight. The problem is when it comes to childhood obesity in the schools; they share in the responsibility of helping to create obese children and the way the school’s share in this problem is that their school lunches are not nutritious. In the Journal of Human Resources, Schanzenbach stated that “The role of school food environment in addressing children’s overweight has gotten increased policy attention. In 1995, after research showed that many school lunches failed to meet nutrition requirements, Congress passed the Schools Meals Initiative for Healthy Children”. (Schanzenbach, 2009, pg 696). This is significant because this information shows that this issue is so important that the government have done research on childhood obesity. They have passed a policy to help to combat the problem within the school systems by passing the schools meals initiative.

“The schools meals Initiative was a new policy that required food served to meet one-third of the child recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calories, protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C, and for no more than 30 percent of calories to come from fat” (schanzenbach, 2009, pg 696). This information is explaining the schools meals initiative policy that was passed by the government to help schools with their meals to help with the obesity in schools. It required the schools to serve at least one-third of the daily recommended amount of calories, protein, calcium, iron and vitamins A and C in their school meals, only 30 percent of calories could come from fat. This was a good way to start serving better meals in the schools. This shows that this information is very important to my research in proving that lunches in the schools are non-nutritious and are not helping the children.

Next, the schools barely have good physical education programs. “Children spend many hours in school, making physical education programs in schools a potentially important channel through which physical activity and fitness may be promoted among young children” (Datar, & Sturm, 2004, pg 1501). Well, we all know that children spend at least seven hours a day in school on the week days and this information is explaining that having physical education programs in the schools is an important way to help children with physical activity and fitness. This would be very important to help with the childhood obesity that exists in our schools today. In the pass, as far back as the 1980’s, schools had very solid physical education programs. They actually had a physical education teacher. The students had to dress out for the class daily. They had to participate in activities such as basketball, kickball, tennis, badminton, softball, running the track and etc. This class was important and the students received grades in this class.

A student could actually receive and A in this class or an F. The class lasted at least an hour. Today, the physical education class consists of letting the students just hang out and talk to their friends. These classes have no structure. “There have been studies that show that children should have at least one half hour of physical activity class daily. This active class time is far below 50%, only a small minority of children have daily PE classes” (Datar & Sturm, 2004, pg 1501). This statement is explaining that there have been studies about how much physical activity that children should have daily an that only a small amount of children actually have daily PE Classes. To show the significance of the low number of physical education programs, I have obtained research from Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity: Strategies and Solutions for Schools and Parents: “These numbers are disturbing and they reflect the current status of physical education programs across the nation: Only 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools provide daily physical education programs” (Green, Riley, Hargrove, 2012).

This information shows that 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools offer physical education programs. This pertains to the whole nation. This is shameful. These numbers are quite low an especially the high school numbers. Lastly, the snacks in the vending machines are full of sugar and fat, the schools make good revenue from the sale of the snacks in these machines and some school’s revenue is at least $15,000. This revenue could be one of the reasons that the schools do not care about changing the snacks in these machines to healthier snack foods. If the schools did this, it would bring down their revenue. In the School Vending Machine Purchasing Behavior: Results from the 2005 Youth Survey stated that “Competitive foods are often available in school vending machines. Providing youth with access to school vending machines, and thus competitive foods, is of concern, considering the continued high prevalence of childhood obesity: competitive foods tend to be energy dense and nutrient poor and can contribute to increased energy intake in children and adolescents” (Thompson, Yaroch, Moser, Rutten, & Agure-Collins, 2010, pg 226).

This information is explaining that there is much concern about children and adolescents being able to buy “competitive foods” out of the vending machines, because they can replace the mandated school breakfast and lunches with these unhealthy foods. This shows that this is definitely not helping with the high rates of childhood obesity because the foods do not help energize the children and they are not nutritious. “The meaning of competitive foods and beverages is foods that are sold outside of the federal school meal program. Competitive foods and beverages are defined by the U. S. Department of Agriculture” (Thompson, Yaroch, Moser, Rutten, & Agure-Collins, 2010). This information explains what “competitive foods” are. They are the snacks that are in the vending machines and any other snacks sold in other venues within the school system. Some schools contain snack rooms, candy sales, soda machines and etc. They are called “competitive foods” because they are competitive to the federal school meal program. The students may buy them instead of the school meals. This information is also explaining that the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave this definition for the “competitive foods and beverages”. Results

The results are the schools are not doing their part in the fight against childhood obesity. The schools do not serve nutritious lunches, “in 1995, after research showed that many school lunches failed to meet nutrition requirements, Congress passed the Schools Meals Initiative for Healthy Children”. This is evidence that many schools lunches are not nutritious. Schools vending machine snacks are full of fats and sugar. Here is evidence that this statement is true from the New York Times and the name of the article is: Study links healthier weight in children with strict laws on school snacks and it stated that “Public Health experts have told local and state governments to remove vending machine foods from schools and recently states have started to pass laws restricting their sale, banning them or setting limits on the amount of sugar, fat or calories they contain” (Travernise, 2012).

This information explains that the state and local governments are telling the schools to remove their vending machine foods and they have passed laws to slow down their sells, banned the vending machine foods or have set limits on how much sugar, fat or calories that the vending machines foods can have. The schools need to revamp their physical education programs or even offer one. These are numbers that show the percentage of elementary, middle, and high schools that offer the students physical education programs that was researched by Green, Riley, and Hargrove: only 3.8 percent of elementary schools, 7.9 percent of middle schools and 2.1 percent of high schools provide daily physical education programs” (Green, Riley, Hargrove, 2012). This is proof that the schools need to revamp their physical education programs and that many schools do not offer a physical education program. Conclusion

My claim is that the school system shares some responsibility for the childhood obesity. The foods that they serve are not nutritious, the snacks that are available are full of sugar and fats and their physical education programs need to be revamped or they actually should offer a physical education program. The conclusion about the school meals: there need to be more done within the school system to serve more nutritious meals. The vending machines in the schools should be upgraded to serve nutritious snacks. A physical education program should be offered daily, so students will have some form of physical activity during the seven hour period at school.

References

Datar, A., & Sturm R. (2004) Physical Education in Elementary School and body mass Index: evidence from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study American Journal of Public Health, 94(9), 1501-1506. doi: 10. 2105/AJPH.94.9.1501 Green, G., Riley, C., Hargrove B. (2012) Physical Activity and Childhood Obesity: Strategies and Solutions for Schools and Parents. Education,132(4), 915-920. Retrieved from http://Search.proquest.com/docview/102298763?accountid=32521 Schanzenbach, D. (2009). Do School Lunches Contribute to Childhood Obesity? Journal of Human Resources 44(3), 684-709.

Thompson, O. M., Yaroch, A.L.,, Moser, R.P., Rutten, L., & Agurs-Collins, T, (2010) School Vending Machine Purchasing Behavior: Results from the 2005 Youthstyles Survey. Journal of School Health, 80(5), 225-232. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00494.x Perpich, K.J., P.A. C., Russ, R., Rizzolo, D., & Sedrak M. (2011). Childhood Obesity: Understanding the causes, beginning the discussion. JAAPA: Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, 24(12), 30-4. Retrieved from http:// Search.Proquest.Com/docview/1010360381?accountid=32521

Travernise, S. (2012). Study links healthier weight in children with strict laws on school Snacks. New York Times.
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