Childhood Obesity in USA - Essay Example

One major cause of childhood obesity in the US is excessive consumption of calories, for instance, many children take many too calories, and they do not engage in physical activities to burn them since they engage in minimal physical exercises. Most children in the US and other developed countries do not take the right and healthy food.

Increased intake of energy-dense meals and soft drinks leads to childhood obesity. Children consume many calories but participate less in physical activities (Murphy, 5). Lack of physical activity participation in children is caused by environmental factors such as lack of enough space to undertake different exercises like cycling, and running among others. Furthermore, parents do not create time to help their children engage in physical activities. Continuous consumption of fast food and living sedentary lifestyles put them at risk of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and increased cholesterol among others.

Researchers have pointed out sedentary lifestyle is one of the major causes of obesity in both adults and children (Rippe and Angelopoulos 29). Parents are too busy to prepare healthy and nutritional meals to allow their children to carry packed lunches instead of consuming fast food. More so, physical inactivity contributes largely to increasing cases of obesity because they spend most of their time playing video games and watching television. They spend less time exercising, but they do spend many hours watching and playing video games, this way, they are more likely to become overweight as opposed to those who spend less time playing video games and watching.

Children and teenagers should engage in physical activities for at least sixty minutes daily (Murphy 14). Even though physical education has been introduced in many schools and kindergartens, many children do not actively participate in physical activity (Moreno, Pigeot, and Ahrens 12). Obesity affects negatively children’s lives. Firstly, obesity increases the risk for certain serious health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol as well as high blood pressure, and musculoskeletal among others.

Different studies cite obesity to be the major cause of premature death among children. Today, these serious health conditions are found among children due to unhealthy lifestyles because, for a long time, these diseases have been exclusively associated with adulthood. Secondly, obese children are at a higher risk of experiencing psychological problems such as bullying, underestimation, teasing, and low self-esteem among others (Rippe and Angelopoulos 39). Moreover, obese children are prone to depression and other medical conditions such as bone and joint problems, and may experience breathing difficulties especially when they are engaged even in the slightest physical activity.

Most obese children are not happy with their condition and are not comfortable interacting with their peers. In addition, obese children tend to mature earlier, that is, they seem to grow old faster as opposed to their colleagues who are not overweight. More so, overweight and obesity reduce children’s lifespan and cause premature death in most children in America. In conclusion, childhood obesity in the USA increases tremendously and has been pointed out to affect about a third of American youths. Childhood obesity is common in the USA because most children have unhealthy eating habits, that is, most of them rely on fast food and do not carry with them packed lunched from home.