David Farrar Childhood Obesity

A silent epidemic is advancing across a generation of health conscious mothers, business orientated fathers and gluttonous children. Throughout Irish history, the majority of the problems regarding food have been due to the dearth of it. James Beard once said, Food is our common ground, a universal experience, many people of todays society fail to remember how imperative and cardinal their health is. Today in Ireland, while some children are content to graze, taking only a few necessary mouthfuls to revitalize before returning to play in the garden, other children are subsequently continuing to guzzle and gorge themselves. Mothers in the 21st century candidly speak about sex, relationships and their own diets, but to comment on how another mother feeds her child, or to remark on the size of her child is a brisk way to end a friendship. Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The percentage of children aged 611 years in the United States who were obese escalated from 7% in 1980 to nearly 20% in 2008. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 1219 years who were obese surged from 5% to 18% over the same period. I implore you to believe the reasoning behind this is that when a woman is told her child is overweight; it delves into all the layers of anxiety, neurosis and antipathy that surround how women feel about themselves. Even simply hinting that you would change the childs eating habits is very likely to cause immense ructions. I personally do not hold the opinion that each parent should arrange a childs meal without any form of delicious treats, nevertheless I resolutely believe that something must be done about this germinating dilemma; and quickly. However, many parents wonder, how do you cease your child consuming an abundance of fattening foods without giving them an eating complex for their entire lives? Therein lies the problem; the majority of the parents are aware of their childs situation but are bewildered how to tackle the problem. They feel incompetent, impotent and forlorn regarding this situation; they are desperate for things to change, terrified that this may cause their children to possess many preventable and unnecessary diseases in the not so distant future.

Most women dont stop to think about how voicing their self-reproach over having had a sliver of cake affects their daughters psyche regarding food. Dr. Terese Katz, a psychologist who specialises in eating disorders says, Its the attitude around food that gets transmitted; the anxiety. When a mother states, I shouldnt have had that, she is modeling a self-depriving attitude towards food which is very bad to pass onto children. I admit, if I was a parent I wouldnt be so sure how to embark upon a challenge like this, but I would certainly do my best. Regrettably, in todays society there is an abundance of factors inhibiting children from being healthy. The most abominable of these are of course the television, the lack of space in a childs house to be able to play and of course the proliferation of confectionary. When we are young, our self control is weaker and we dont realise that our parents are keeping our diets healthy for us. An eight year old should not be expected to make their food, it doesnt seem natural. However, there have been many reports of parents over feeding their kids, and losing custody because of the parents neglect of their childs health and wellbeing. An international obesity conference which took place in Ireland revealed that the obesity rate in children aged 5-12 has intensified greatly, approximately one in ten children living in Ireland are classified as obese, one in three being overweight. This sums up to a colossal number of 300,000 children living in Ireland either overweight or obese. What concerns me the most is that if a child is obese, it massively increases the chances of the child being obese as an adult. I was frightened by a statistic I came across which read that 1/3 of parents of obese teenagers think their teenagers weight is fine and 3/4 of parents of overweight teenagers think their teenagers weight is fine. These numbers are on the increase, many of these unnoticed by parents. Even though extensive research is going into health and nutrition, something seems to be missing. If I was in charge I would teach healthy eating in primary schools to children at earlier ages; the first time I heard what a calorie was I was 13 years old. Families should exercise as a group, whether it be walking, cycling or even swimming together. It seems very anomalous to me why families are so reluctant to change their childrens lifestyles.

Over the past few years, weight loss shows have been becoming increasingly popular, even in Ireland. What disappoints me the most however, is the fact that the vast majority of these programmes only deal with adults. We do see the occasional teenage boot camp, where adolescents are hauled against their own wills out of their homes to lose weight. I vehemently believe that there should be a weight loss show dealing with families and how families can transform their lifestyle together and as a team. This would tackle many of the problems I have previously mentioned and change the lives of many families. Parents urgently need advice on how to fix this epidemic, to find a way to help their children without causing any uprising. George Orwell said, We may find in the long run that food is a deadlier weapon than the machine gun. Every day we are bombarded by government campaigns exhorting us to eat healthily- schools bang on endlessly about the five a day. Yet obesity levels keep rising, the result of more sedentary lifestyles, increasing portion sizes, the preponderance of fast-food outlets and of high-calorie, nutrient poor foods backed by seductive advertising campaigns. Many parents carp that the root of the problem lies with the childs grandparents turning up with delicious treats, sumptuous cakes and delectable chocolates. This feed awakens cravings in children, parents too. The United States Department of Agriculture with the aid of the health conscious First Lady Michelle Obama, announced that there will be adjustments to the National School Lunch Program for the first time in 15 years as part of the implementation of the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act in the United States. The changes come at a time when reports about childhood obesity are at an all time high, which has implications for global health for generations to come. Whether or not you're a parent, you can benefit from the new plans. Creating a healthy lifestyle is not about cutting out foods, but broadening the scope of healthy food choices. Childhood obesity is a highly stigmatized condition often associated with low self-esteem and obese children are more often likely than children of average weight to feel sad, lonely and nervous. Studies have shown that obese teenagers experience depression and anxiety. Young

girls feel more negative impacts of being overweight than boys, they are constantly bombarded with propaganda on TV, showing them what they must look like. People can be overweight and healthy at the same time, but there is a fine line between overweight and obese. The growth of the fast food industry has plummeted many families into bad tendencies of having birthday parties in Mc Donalds, or having dinner in KFC. Businesses like this should not be thriving, we as a nation should know better than to waste our nutritional knowledge on oversized hamburgers and greasy curly fries. Films that have crossed our screens such as Supersize Me have had an efficacious effect on people. I have heard people who have seen this film say I will never go to Mc Donalds again or some even said This film just made me fancy another trip to Mc Donalds. Americans are currently spending over $140 billion on fast food each year, Fast food restaurants spent $294 million on marketing messages aimed at children in 2007. A cheeseburger happy meal with fries and a Sprite at McDonalds contains 640 calories, and an enormous 24 grams of fat. This is over half of the 1200 calories children should be eating per day. The standard serving size for burgers, fries, and sodas has more than tripled since the 70s. It is my greatest fear that even films like Supersize Me which are so explicit about the danger of eating unhealthy food cannot have an impact on many peoples lives. All of this just points us to a baffling question, will the critical situation of obesity ever resolve? Will the people of Ireland take control of our own health? A video and print campaign has recently been initiated in Georgia, called Stop sugarcoating it Georgia. Georgia has one of the highest obesity rates in the United States and the advertisements consist of overweight children asking their parents; Why am I fat?. The parents are unable to answer this very simple question to their children, many parents just dont realise the gravity of this situation and how they are culpable for it. Equivalently, Denmarks endeavor to affray the problem obesity is the introduction of a fat tax. Denmark is the worlds first country to pioneer a surcharge on the foods that are high in saturated fats. Dairy products, pizza, oil and other processed foods are now

subject to the tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat. Some consumers began hoarding to beat the price rise, while some producers call the fat tax a bureaucratic nightmare. Nevertheless, some scientists think saturated fat may be the wrong target. They say salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates are more detrimental to health and should be tackled instead. In conclusion, I resolutely admit that we are amidst a problem that is in dire need of addressing as soon as possible. This silent epidemic is escalating so fast, by the time people try to combat a serious action to engage in the problem, I dejectedly declare, it may be much too late. There are many things that can be done in the present time though, increasing awareness of your health and diet would be a vital ingredient. As I mentioned before, teaching to kids how to balance their diet at an earlier age would also have a positive effect on childrens health. I believe this is an inexplicably important issue of today as corpulent children are on a fast track to living this way their entire lives and what infuriates me the most is that this is preventable and reversible as well. We educate our children today about being kind to others, having manners and showing respect to their elders, but if we do not teach children to respect their own bodies I believe this is a bad reflection on society. Oprah Winfrey once said I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself.