Child Obesity Essay Example for Free

Child Obesity Essay America has it’s share of problems just like any other country throughout the world, but there is one issue in particular that has been a growing trend for years in America. Today’s topic of issue is child obesity, this is a huge problem in America and it seems to continue to grow in numbers. Child obesity is the highlight of my research, but due to lack of time there will only be an explanation of just one of the many issues with child obesity in America. So the question that the researcher has decided to research is: How does child obesity occur in America? After doing a lot of research, the author figured out that there are so many reasons that cause child obesity. Being obese has many risks associated with it like: diabetes, high blood pressure, trouble breathing, trouble with sleep and increased chance of heart disease. These risks stress the importance of preventing or managing child obesity. As we all know child obesity is very serious problem in America but like most problems there are ways that could either prevent child obesity or managed the child’s weight if they are already overweight. The author of this research topic decided to do a descriptive research to gather information for his topic. He basically collected data that was useful to answer the question for this topic from various reliable websites/sources. There are different issues that causes child obesity or obesity in general, like: some parents spoil their child and feed them anything the child wants with no limitations, some parents do not watch what their children eat, also parents just let their kids sit around and play videos games instead of making them go out to run around and play and some children cannot help it because obesity runs in their family. However, the author wanted to focus the attention of his audience on the question: How does child obesity in America occur and how can it be prevented or managed? Now according to American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, â€Å"the causes of obesity are complex and include genetic, biological, behavioral and cultural factors† (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2010). The Mayo Clinic considered child obesity â€Å"particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start children on the path to health problems that were once confined to adults, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol† (The Mayo Clinic, 1998-2011). The author believes those extra pounds come from the person eating more calories than their body actually burns. Obesity in childhood can be caused by things like: â€Å"poor eating habits, overeating, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, stressful life experiences, low self esteem or depression† (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2010). But those are only a few of the ways that could cause child obesity leading up to their adulthood. Just because a child is carrying a few extra pounds does not mean he/she is overweight or obese, some people have larger body frames than others† (The Mayo Clinic, 1998-2011). Not all children even adults are obese by the looks of their outer appearance; it could very well because they larger than normal body frames or as a lot people like to call it â€Å"big-boned†. If a parent is worried about whether their child is overweight or not, they could always visit their doctor who will measure their child’s body mass index (BMI) and compare the stats to other children of the same sex and age range. The Mayo Clinic says â€Å"Although there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, most of the time its caused by kids eating too much and exercising too little† (The Mayo Clinic, 1998-2011). According to American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry obesity in childhood can be caused by things like: â€Å"poor eating habits, overeating, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, stressful life experiences, low self esteem or depression† (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2010). If parents would take more control of what and how much their children eat, that would alleviate some of the causes of their becoming overweight. Being aware of what their children eat is important for their child’s health because one of the main causes for child obesity, parents not being aware. The author obviously is not saying to starve or deny the children food, but do not feed the child too much to the point where it is effecting the child’s weight and overall health. Parents that do such things are harming their kids and either they are in denial about it or they do not realize it. lso parents should not let their children become â€Å"couch potatoes† laying in front of the television playing video games all day, they should have them go outside to play and run around, it helps with their child’s overall health, but even that has limitation due to safety issues that has developed over the years. The author also suggested the parents should keep thei r children active by signing them up for recreational sports such as basketball, baseball, and soccer or flag football. Obesity could also be part of that child’s family history, that is something the child cannot help but they can manage their weight so it become out of hand and become heavier than they have to be. Also they should not use their family history as an excuse to eat unhealthy or overeat. Even though they may be overweight due to family history, they could still manage their weight. People can help the issue of over feeding their child versus a child that cannot help their weight because of it running in their family. The author suggests the parents should be more specific on how much they will give their child to eat at certain time of the day, basically having a set schedule for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. His reason for suggesting this is because a person who actually has control over their weight can control what they eat and when they eat and since we are speaking on child obesity, it is the parent’s responsibility to control that. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says â€Å"Obese youth are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese youth had at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem† (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,2011). Having stressful life experiences could also lead to low self esteem which can in turn lead to a person not caring too much about themselves and begin to harm themselves by â€Å"stuffing† themselves with food. We see these type of issues in schools, where children tease others about things in general which lower that child’s self-esteem, that in turn would lead to that child wanting to that child doing many things including eating entirely too much. But besides school there are other instances where people get their confidence lowered by general life experiences, again this happens everyday where the child or people in general would just hide themselves in their houses from the world because they feel no confidence with themselves. They should seek advice from reliable people they can trust and keep themselves around positive people who would give them encouragement to get past their condition and not let it hinder them from doing anything they want. To conclude, I would like to piggyback on a few things. First, child obesity or obesity in general can be managed even if the individual does not have a family history, which should not be an excuse to eat more than a person is supposed to. Today’s main question was: How does child obesity in America occur? Again, according to American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, â€Å"the causes of obesity are complex and include genetic, biological, behavioral and cultural factors† (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2010). Child obesity is can be caused by a number of things, but the author/researcher only used a few of the causes like: â€Å"poor eating habits, overeating, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, stressful life experiences, low self esteem or depression† (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2010). Poor eating habits, overeating and stressful life experiences to a certain extent can be managed in order to either prevent or manage a child’s weight gain and overall health. Also â€Å"Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem† (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). â€Å"Although there are some genetic and hormonal causes of childhood obesity, most of the time its caused by kids eating too much and exercising too little† (The Mayo Clinic, 1998-2011). A lot of this happens because of the children’s parents letting them overeat and not having them exercise and staying active as much as they should. If those parents would just control what their children eat and how much they eat, that part of the cause of obesity can be practically eliminated. Lack of exercise can also be managed, parents should not let their child be a â€Å"couch potato† but have their child go out doors to play and run around with friends because that could help with their child burning off calories that they may have added from eating, it also helps with their overall health.

In the Details :: Personal Narrative Writing Papers

In the Details I started taking a fiction class at just the right moment in my life. It was a genre I had never been good at, and had even been afraid of since that day J.C. laughed at my pathetic attempt to write a short story about a lesbian returning home to the South, only to be welcomed by a non-accepting mother, who all but condones it when a man rapes her to teach her how a woman is supposed to be. Of course, it was an awful story, but it was agony to write. The dialogue was so forced, as I tried to spell it the way I heard it in my head, tried to capture inflections and drawls and pauses. In the end, it read more like a cartoon, and no one could empathize with my character when she got drunk, got in his truck, and didn’t scream for help or fight him off. The plot was thin, none of the characters had any motivation, and the devices I tried to use were not working. I learned then that fiction had these elements for a reason. In order to craft a good story, I had to learn to use the tools. In essays and poetry, all these things had never seemed important to me. They were usually crafted because of an idea, and I could execute that idea without worrying about literary devices or symbolism, or other large concepts. My sole needs for my writing had always been voice, subtlety, and sometimes, alliteration. Fiction was much harder than I had previously thought. It wouldn’t be until the spring of 2001 that I would try my hand at it again. I decided that spring to take an introductory fiction class at a community college. By that time, I was actually making a living as a writer (albeit a technical writer), and I was comfortable in every other aspect of my writing, but I was still afraid of fiction. It must have come at just the right time for me. Within a week after I joined the class, I was downsized at the company I had worked at for two years. My whole department was just not needed anymore, although we were the only ones writing the training for new employees. So, with nothing but time in my day between Internet searches for new jobs and calls to recruiters, I began to write some stories.

Methodism, the most astonishing eruption in the eighteenth century history of religion, was an anomaly

The eighteenth century is commonly viewed by historians as a period of decline for the Anglican establishment which suffered increasing losses in its authority over local parishes and failing to respond adequately to the changing society of the early industrial age and challenges over the nature of religion and its role in the lives of individuals. In the 1740s, Samuel Wesley and his sons began to preach outside the confines of the Church, advocating a more voluntary approach to religious devotion and encouraging increased involvement of laymen in the work of the parish. Methodism was effectively born out of societies set up to integrate the church into the community, but in carrying voluntarism to its logical conclusion, argues Gilbert, such a movement would naturally come into conflict with the establishment by offering an alternative to the prescribed methods of religious practise and undermining the ministerial authority and organising machinery of the Church. Although the Wesley family were conservative Tories and John Wesley, who was to become the leading Methodist figure, always expressed a keen desire to remain within Anglicanism, he told a inaugural conference in 1744 that Methodism would either leave the whole church or â€Å"be thrust out of it† Whether the Methodists were in essence a radical or conservative group was at the time, and remains a much debated topic. In an essay on Methodism, Dissent and Political Stability2, Gilbert argues that it was in fact both. Methodism was a means of taking a stand against prescribed religion and the status quo of social organisation through the withdrawal of status respect and assertion of freedom. Methodism was in effect a radical means of political and social protest in an era of new ideas and social instability, epitomised abroad by the violent revolutions in France, and yet the movement was unobtrusive in its politics and the moderate nature of this radicalism had a stabilising effect on society, acting as a â€Å"safety valve† that contained tension and helped avoid the polarisation of opinions. Looking at the religious history of other European nations, Methodism is quite the anomaly, a dissenting movement, cast out of the Anglican Church that eventually serves to prop up the traditional order. Weakness in the Anglican establishment dated back to the reformation, which had been a break away from authority from Rome, but had also meant an increase in secular authority over the ecclesiastical, through the judicial courts, some tithe taxes and rights of patronage. Though the clerical influence in national politics and in local parishes was still strong, it was no longer as an independent body, but in conjunction with secular authorities. Loss of influence in the upper echelons of power, with monarchs of differing faith on the throne and the abbots losing their majority in the Lords was coupled with strain on authority in the parishes through lack of adequate funding or dynamism. The demographic boom of the late eighteenth century and the breakdown of the traditional parish based organisation of ancien regime society with the increase in manufacturing towns left many outside the network of pastoral oversight, as Ward notes, this and toleration laws paved the way for eager dissenters to exert influence3. However, the first half of the century is more commonly characterised by a mood of religious apathy. Numbers attending Anglican services were declining, but Gilbert argues, Protestant dissent was also in a state of atrophy in 1740. Looking at statistics, this could be seen as a dramatic turning point in the history of religious dissent, but it must be remembered that after new toleration acts were passed it became necessary for all groups to register, nevertheless, this was a period when old dissenting movements were being surpassed by the new evangelicals, who could serve the community where the Anglican church could no longer cope. Naturally there was a certain discontinuity of dissent, with different traditions declining and growing in different patterns across the country. The chapel movement was one that responded to local needs, in some areas lay societies along evangelical lines were even encouraged by the local clergy, but the most prominent groups inevitably sprang up where the church was least effective and inevitably would become a source of conflict with the establishment. The evangelical revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was above all a popular movement, and with no central driving force, it is difficult to define the limits of the movement. Dissenters within the orthodoxy of the Church had existed before, but a newfound zeal, enthusiastic conversion methods and a more coherent programme now developed into a single, if multiform, religious phenomenon. Although there were divisions between Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Independents, they were not fundamental. All relied on lay preachers and the centrality of village communities to spread their message of voluntary piety, based around the family and spiritual equality, whereby all could receive salvation through faith and good works. Methodism can perhaps be characterised by its system of connexion networks that linked dissenting groups across the country. Wesley had hoped to unite his movement through the Anglican ministers and in 1764 had sent fifty letters appealing for a unity of purpose, but receiving only three replies, realised he would have to unite and organise his followers outside the clergy. The strength of the movement however, was not in a system of alliances, but its dynamism. Methodism was a movement that spread rapidly through expansionist missionary societies, and Wesley's followers breached the movement further away from the church by demanding that its preachers should be able to give communion. A 1793 conference voted that members of a society who were unanimous in their desire to receive the sacrament from their preacher might do so. Ward questions whether this was a case of the preachers following the flock, or the scheming of radical ministers to use the Methodist congregations to spread their radical political ideas. Samuel Bradburn was one such minister who introduced ideas of unbounded liberty and the Rights of Man into his sermons, but he shunned Kilham, an even more defiant political Methodist, casting doubt on any suggestion of a central political aim. In the 1790s, social tensions were reaching boiling point. Evangelical societies attracted dissenters at all social levels, even at court, where many independent politicians, clergymen and intellectuals deserted George III and headed a campaign as a Unitarian group for reforms to free trade and end slavery, believing in free enquiry and social progress. Among the lower social orders there was a backlash against the increasing number of dissenters and riots broke out, prompted by food shortages but also calling for â€Å"Church and King† and were largely unhindered by the clergy and magistrates of the old order. It is important to remember that while the growth of evangelical movements was significant, it still only affected a small proportion of the population, with many remaining ambivalent towards new ideals of piety and man others choosing to remain firmly within the Anglican fold. For some, traditional means of expressing discontent were still favoured. Davidoff sees the Evangelical movement as a largely middle class phenomenon. This was a rapidly expanding social group that needed to form their identity. He argues that a sense of religious belonging was provided by the various evangelical movements became a part of middle class culture and the success of the movement can be credited to its ability to fill this need. Traditional church practise did not involve participation from the lay community, and while the middle classes were a group with little political power, there role was gradually becoming more like that of the traditional gentry, as Lords devolved their duties in a practise of stewardship. Dissenting evangelical groups formed a basis of a middle class community as well as a middle class culture. The religious focus is undeniably meritocratic in tone; that salvation was open to all through their own piety. Davidoff also believes that there was a notion that this piety could give individuals strength to bare hostility from others, as the new middle classes may well have faced in the years of hardship and social tension at the end of the eighteenth century. The central importance of the family crossed denominations, another middle class value. The ideal was of the home as a moral haven from the amoral world of the business market. This haven was created by women, who were viewed as naturally more pious than men. The concepts of masculine and feminine were being transposed into more distinct social roles, each with their own responsibilities. Men were the material providers of the family and women's role was to create a moral home for her husband and children, domestic seclusion was a moral ideal and some serious evangelicals even shunned the pleasures of sport and the theatre in favour of this domesticity. Women did have increased prominence in church life, in some denominations they could even be ministers, but overall, the new movements were still male dominated. In some areas women may even have lost influence, where before they could have performed duties of clerks where necessary, roles were now more often formalised into those that were acceptable for women and those that were not. The evangelical community gave the middle class a forum to profess their beliefs and help to form their own culture and community. Dissenting groups were most prominent in new manufacturing towns and much of their establishment can be seen as benefiting the middle classes. They set up church schools and welfare societies, seeing their community almost s an extension of their family that need to be provided for. Schools were central to the evangelical movement, supporting the middle class love of reading and reflection as alternative entertainments. Indeed it was often the case that the school came before the chapel, as was the case in Bollington, a manufacturing town in the Northwest. Although initially non-denominational, the school soon became dominated by the Methodists. But importantly, the erection of such public buildings was not decided on by the preachers, but went before an appeal to the town, in tune with democratic principals. The practise of the Sunday school was an important means of gaining support among the locals, as many sent their children to work in factories at an early age and this would still give them a chance to learn to read. The work of evangelicals within their communities through charity and education may have stunted working class resentment, but Davidoff asserts that they still tended to stay away from Church. Gilberts sees the evangelicals as targeting the lower echelons of society, corroding the image of the lower orders as simple minded and maybe thus giving cause for concern to the ruling classes, but it is probable that these are two differing views of what was essentially the same social group, seen as the lower orders by contemporaries, but viewed by some historians, in the pattern of social evolution, as the emerging middle classes. The end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries saw a demographic boom, centred around new manufacturing towns. It was the early years of the industrial age and the changing structure of society had new needs that the state and church could not provide for. Looking abroad for a point of comparison, French society, with its firmly established monarchy and church was thrust into a violent revolution that was to remove both. In England, the less powerful position occupied by the monarchy and church could be seen as perhaps what saved them from a similar fate. Dissenting movements had been allowed to develop that were then to serve as a moderating force. There was much confusion in the late eighteenth century as to Methodists and their significance. The movement grew further and faster than other evangelical societies, and what Smyth called â€Å"Christian godliness without Christian organisation† in 1795 was attacked by others as having too much organisation and followers were subject to too much pastoral oversight, threatening the formation of a radical political force. 5 Indeed, Sidney Pollard and Robert Southerly were of the view that revolution was imminent. With hindsight, historians like Halevy have argued that there was nothing for the state to fear in the rise of Methodism, but contemporary powers would not have been able to see the larger picture of changing society and the development of a middle-class and so the movement may have been forced into its unobtrusive political stance where perhaps more radical beliefs were deep-seated. Jabez Bunting, a radical Methodist figure after the death of Wesley, saw the movement as wide, but not deep. He was relatively apolitical, but was keen to preserve the liberties that Methodism had benefited from in the face of conservative reaction to social tensions and revolution in Europe. But the evangelical revival, viewed with historical hindsight is indeed a political movement, the energies of the chapel communities were a force that resisted to reactionism and later advocated reforms, but after 1850 the dynamism of the movement had dwindled, as the social tensions of the age eased.

The Effects Of Social Media On Our Life Essay - 1745 Words

It is 9 o’clock at night and you are sitting on the couch watching a soap opera with a bowl of the oiliest chips that creates the most satisfying crunch as you bite down on them. Guilt sends a shiver down your spine as you are wondering why you are living your life this way. You want to become healthier overall, but it just seems impossible in your eyes. Luckily, you are not alone. An issue that almost every woman needs to overcome is finding advice to live a healthier lifestyle. As technology is becoming increasing popular, the use of social media is as well. Because of this, it is easier to share information in a blink of an eye. Using social media to discover advice on how to live a healthier lifestyle is the key to solving the problem of not knowing where to begin the journey. Transitioning into a life of healthy living stands to be one of the most difficult changes to make due to the lack of devotion and knowledge. Because of the circumstances, it comes with, people automatically give up and refuse to try again. Living a healthy lifestyle is difficult which is why people, particularly women, feel discouraged. Focusing on the big idea here, women do not know how to properly live a healthy lifestyle; therefore, they have no idea where to start. Not only this, but questions arise such as, â€Å"Am I doing the right thing? Is this hurting my body more than helping? It is simple to say visit a health professional such as a nutritionist and a personal trainer, but unfortunately,Show MoreRelatedThe Issue Proposal : Social Media1229 Words   |  5 PagesIssue Proposal: Social Media Technology has taken over our world. Electronics devices such as iPads, computers, Surfaces, and Smartphones make it easy for everyone to stay connected to social media. Technology is defined as â€Å"the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry† Online Etymology Dictionary). 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