Love Social Problem - Essay Example

Prof’s Obesity as a Social Problem One of the biggest problems in our society today is childhood obesity. Childhoodobesity is affecting a staggering number children, and it shows no sign of decreasing – in fact, any quick glance around a supermarket cans how you that more children now are struggling with obesity than ever have before. The World Health Organization indicates that the rate of obesity has increased indicates that obesity has increased each of the past ten years, and that more and more people are dying of the disease every year (WHO).

Obesity is a problem both for the society at large and, obviously, for the individual children who suffer from it. It is essential that we, as a society, address childhood obesity. This problem is a social problem for several reasons. Firstly, with the interconnected world we live in, in which resources are so scarce, any over-use of resources by one group of people leads to a shortage or resources for another. In the case of childhood obesity, food is obviously being over-consumed, but this also leads to an over-consumption of many other types of resources such as medical care, that could otherwise be better distributed or lower cost.

These are social ills and require a society-wide effort to address them. Childhood obesity is an enormous problem for all of our society that must be addressed by everyone in it. The exact sources of childhood obesity are hard to pinpoint – there is probably a complex interrelation of a variety of factors. But two things are clear – for obesity to occur, children are both eating too much and exercising too little. The origins of both of these problems are societal in nature. Over-consumption is rampant in developed countries; we more, electricity, oil, media, clothing, and nearly everything else than other countries.

Everything in the developed world is super-sized, cheap, and made to be consumed in massive amounts. This is especially true of food, where the simplest foods to eat are by far the worst for you – processed foods high in fat and carbohydrates, which encourage children to develop an addiction to both of those things, and parents a love for the simplicity of providing that kind of food to their children. Furthermore, the social activities that children engage in are becoming less and less physical demanding – previously children would have to actually play together, moving around, to entertain themselves, but now entertainment is essentially beamed into their brains in the form of television and video games, which encourage lethargy rather than activity.

The consequences of childhood obesity are clear. Addressing childhood obesity could be a very difficult thing to do. One of the first things that has to be done is encourage people to develop a love for healthy food early in life – make processed and unhealthy foods more expensive through taxation or other means, and educate parents on healthy eating. Furthermore, we must learn to consume less by being critical of every single thing that we consume. Finally, it is important to provide cheap, easy and accessible options for children to engage in physical activity from a very early age – this will help them develop a love for a activity young they will carry it for the rest of their life.

Works Cited"Obesity." WHO. Web. 01 Mar. 2012. .