Once said by my eight year old brother, “I would rather have a bag of chips than my family.” Even though he was joking, sadly this is becoming true for children throughout the United States. Clearly stated by the website World Atlas, published on November 2, 2015, the United States is rated the eighteenth most obese country in the world, with 33% of the population obese. This is only expanding to greater percents with our children. Child obesity in the United states is a growing problem that contains a lot of threats.There are multiple consequences, along with factors that are a result from child obesity. There are solutions available for this major problem, but they aren’t being used enough. 

Being overweight is defined as a person is above a weight that is considered healthy, this definition coming from the website dictionary. In many cases, this can lead to obesity, which means the person is  severely overweight with a BMI (body mass index) that is greater than or equal to 95%. There many consequences to both cases. Being  overweight causes extra stress on the body and it’s ability to maintain proper glucose levels, which causes Diabetes. Also,obesity can cause Asthma, because it makes it harder to breathe and also can inflame the respiratory tract. Lastly, it can cause heart failure. Heavyweight causes the heart to work harder than it is suppose to and put stress on the heart. This information coming from the website Cardiosmart, posted on March 11,2011.  These health issues are just three consequences as a result to obesity, but there are many more.

Countless factors contribute to being obese make it so effortless to let adults or children get there. Television and Media are causing children to spend less time doing physical activity and instead increasing snack times and casting ads of unhealthy foods.Since healthy food is more expensive than unhealthy foods, families have limited access to more nutritious options. Lack of physical activity is another cause for being obese; American recommendation is 60 minutes of aerobic physical activity a day. Only 18% of students nationwide in grades 9-12 met this recommendation in 2007. In 2009 only 33% had access to daily physical activity classes stated by the website healthier generation in 2009. Increased portion sizes and a very high consumption of sugary beverages is also a very big problem, but with easy solutions. 

In the last two paragraphs and my next the information is coming from the website Healthier Generation, they also a program that help children become healthier. They are founded by American Heart Association and Clinton Foundation. Solutions for child obesity is their goal is improve child obesity by working with schools, companies, communities, organizations, health care professionals, and families.

Schools are where kids spend the majority of their time outside of home, which makes this a big place to keep nutritious. The program healthier generation is helping more than 18 million students in more than 31 thousand schools in every state updated in December 2015. Making sure there is drinking water available and good healthy breakfasts and lunches that meet federal requirements is a critical part of staying at a healthy weight. Also, making sure physical activity and education is provided is critical, considering most kids are addicted to television, media, and junk foods. Juvenile centers are included as well, by giving them healthy meal plans and making sure they retain good exercise. They only work with juvenile centers in California and Arkansas and I hope that this will grow into other states. If your area does not have help like Healthier Generation or any other support program, 56,000 doctors in the US  provide obese prevention services. This information coming from the website healthier generation also, founded by american heart association.

Child obesity along with being overweight as a child can result to adult obesity, coming with many consequences. There are too many factors to count that are making it 10 times easier to sit on a couch all day and eat fatty processed food and become obese; as well as too many solutions to count. Working on the youth will make a healthier future. It may be harder to take the piece of fruit than the bag of chips, but what will be more worthwhile in the long run.