Childhood Obesity

One major problem our country faces is childhood obesity. Obesity is a major health risk for many chronic illnesses. In the past thirty years childhood obesity has doubled among children ages 2-5 and adolescents ages 12-19. It has tripled in children ages 6-11. It is estimated that more than 9 million children over the age of 6 are obese. (Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity, 2006). Our youth are becoming more and more obese. What is going to happen if this is allowed to continue? What does obesity lead to? It is a risk factor for type II diabetes, heart disease, asthma, psychological and social problems, and many more. We need to step up and take action to combat this very real and dangerous problem.
What are we going to do about childhood obesity? The Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity suggests many interventions to help fight childhood obesity. They include, empowering communities through education so they can become active in the fight and work towards change. Changing the physical environment and building communities so they facilitate more physical activity such as building more play places and parks. Create partnerships between local businesses, state and local governments, community based organizations, and industry to bring people together for a common goal of change. Gain political support to initiate measures to help prevent childhood obesity, such as requiring nutrition information on food from restaurants. Educate the public about the causes and effects of obesity and about proper nutrition so they can make informed decisions about their food choices. Identify leaders to serve as role models and teachers for children. Lastly we need to evaluate programs and interventions in order to see what is working. Once we know what works we can then make these changes to other communities (2006).
The longer we let this trend continue the more health disparities we will begin to see. The causes of childhood obesity are numerous and multifactorial. In order to reverse the trend of childhood obesity our interventions need to be on a large scale. We need to work with communities and state and local governments to bring about change and programs designed to fight childhood obesity. We must educate the public so they have the knowledge to obtain a healthy weight and lead a healthy lifestyle. We can serve as role models in our community. We must be leaders in the fight against childhood obesity.