Preventing Obesity in Elementary School - Essay Example

"Preventing Obesity in Elementary School" is an astonishing example of a paper on child development. 
There has been an obesity crisis experienced in New York City among teenagers in Elementary school. Moreover, this is a difficulty hurriedly rising as a health predicament faced by numerous Americans. During the early 1960s, obesity was a problem that affected only thirteen percent of Americans (Federal Trade Commission, 3). However, in recent years this problem has increased to an extent of affecting thirty-four percent (Sabrina, 1). On the other hand, obesity has been regarded as a cause of premature death among the youth. In this case, this has led to the research establishment of various programs aimed at preventing obesity in elementary school.

There has been a program to prevent obesity in elementary schools, which is a component of national conversation attributed to aggressive advertising campaigns in New York City. In fact, this is a program, which has been facilitated by Michelle Obama, and other scientists, though there were, doubts that the anti-obesity programs can be successfully implemented (Sabrina, 1). Furthermore, efforts made by individuals such as a timed exercise program have increased the chances of failing. There are a broad set of policies that are applied systematically in a way that reserves the feeding pattern among teenagers in elementary schools.                         

In New York, there are has been a broad assault on childhood obesity for a long period. In fact, this involves sugary foods and drinks such as sweetened ice. Nevertheless, efforts in the program led to a reduction of foods such as fruit punch and sports drink consumption. Therefore, these types of foods have been abolished in 2004 (Sabrina, 1). The other strategies to eradicate the problem caused by obesity include snack guidelines on set calorie and fat limits. In this way, the problem decreases the number of snack foods such as potato crisp distributed in elementary schools. Moreover, the program had overseen the replacement of whole milk by one percent and skim in numerous cafeterias by 2009 (Sabrina, 1).         

The program has undergone a slow change since the schools generated substantial revenues through sugary drinks; thus, leading to a decision by others to set up rogue drinking machines, which is undermining effort made by the program. Other school administrators in school are not willing to t lose popular foods such as French fries; hence, they continue to supply deep fat fryers in the school. Therefore, the program seeking to alleviate obesity among the children in the elementary school has not been successful. In fact, it has been noted that obesity is a problem among children from a poor background, whereby twenty percent of these children are comparable to twelve percent of children from affluent families.

Through an evaluation of the program, there are notions by various experts indicating that the decline in its effectiveness was due to a concentration between higher income and the white population at the expense of the minority children in the elementary schools. Therefore, the problem related to obesity has been affecting children in New York elementary school unequally. In this case, this has led to the ineffectiveness of the program aimed at eradicating the problem.