US School Programs on Obesity Prevention Measures for Children of the 21st Century Essay Example for Free

US School Programs on Obesity Prevention Measures for Children of the 21st Century Essay About one third of American children and 15% of teenagers are overweight or obese. (Obesity, 2009) Many factors contribute to obesity in children including genetics, poor diet, and lack of physical exertion, environment, and uninformed parents. Obesity is an unhealthy accumulation of body fat that threatens the youth of our nation. From the 20th to the 21st century obesity has increased by a factor of four and continues to grow unchecked. Given the nature of our lives and how they have dramatically changed from playing outside to playing video games, from eating homemade food to fast food, and the amount of technology our youth is exposed to currently obesity is at an all-time high. The research will show our nation’s efforts to address the youth of our nation on obesity, causes of obesity, and preventive actions to obesity though school programs. The research will show how obesity is a growing epidemic and what preventive steps can be taken to reduce the number of children affected by obesity. This research study will be limited to children no older than fifteen and focus on the nation’s schools. The research will focus on specific U. S. responses to causes of obesity from society, habitual exposure to food usage by parents, eating habits, and cafeteria programs. With the development of the causes to obesity the research will also show the specific aspects of addressing obesity in children though schools, parents, nutritional education and physical activeness. Research will be conducted in subscription databases, books, journals, and educational institutions based on 21st century data. This study will examine our nation’s preemptive measures in educational awareness, parental awareness, and activity utilization provided by our schools, government agencies, and state officials. Obesity in most cases is correctable by the maintenance of a proper and well-balanced diet consisting of the essential nutrients and the adequate caloric intake necessary to promote growth and sustain the physiological requirements at the various stages of a child’s development. (Pediatric Nutrition, 2009) As children develop there are nutritional needs that must be met and provided for a healthy start to life. Parenting plays a large role in a child’s preventive actions to obesity. The research will address the educational information available to parents and its many sources. Preliminary findings support that our nation is making efforts to educate everyone on the importance of obesity awareness and signs of obesity. The nation develops programs and activity guidelines for schools and strictly enforces their usage based upon an academic value required by the children. The research will show how school programs supporting our children will greatly decrease the likelihood of a child being or becoming obese. Obesity is a national epidemic and if not addressed this issue in will forever dominate and affect our children and their ways of life. Experts from all over the world give time and attention to this ever-growing issue to ensure that our youth who are the future leaders of our world will be healthy and lead active lives. We must make every measure to ensure that our children are given the best opportunities to be healthy by giving them the knowledge and the justification of importance. We as a nation must take the time to educate, inform, practice, and administer healthy choices to our children and to ourselves we will strike a powerful blow to the devastation caused by obesity. The United States school systems are currently engaged in a furious battle against childhood obesity. Childhood obesity is affecting millions of children in America between the ages of 2 and 19 years of age. Obesity is defined as an imbalance between the amount of energy absorbed and energy used, thus resulting in a larger amount of energy coming in than what is being used. The manifestation of this imbalance has many contributing factors that can accumulate or be the direct cause on their own such as genetics, and metabolism. Childhood Obesity is something that we as a nation can change though our school systems. I claim that our schools are the best tools to combat this growing epidemic. Today childhood obesity has public health officials in a state of near panic. About one-fourth of all children from 2 to 5 years old are overweight or obese before they enter kindergarten (Lockhead, 2009). I further claim that our Nation’s school dietary programs must be improved to combat this growing epidemic. Our children are facing life-threating health hazards that must be address. Schools have access to 95% of the children in the United States and this provides a very solid platform for improving the health and awareness within our children. I offer as evidence the recent USDA’s announcement of Team Nutrition Training Grants to improve health of America’s children (USDA, 2010). Team Nutrition is part of the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service that will improve the schools dietary plans by implementing the principles of the Dietary Guidelines for American and MyPyramid. This is a two year program that will provide education and assistance to staff working in the schools cafeteria’s and lunch rooms. The purpose is to make meals as well as independent meal selections healthier for children. Over the course of the grant, information and education will be provided to parents as well. Parents must help adjust and support healthy eating habits at home. Additional evidence to support my argument comes from Tennessee where a coordinated school health program received praise for dropping obesity by 2% from 2000 to 2006. Budget cuts nearly cost the school this wonderful program, but the state health department was able to provided funding. The program of not selling soda or fruit juice in Tennessee schools increased from 26. 7 percent in 2006 to 74 percent in 2008. And of these schools 64 percent do not sell â€Å"unhealthy items† on school property (McClatchy, 2010). The First Lady Michelle Obama herself also supports and addresses this epidemic on a national scale with her program Let’s Move! addressing Brock Elementary School. First and foremost, were working with all of you to get fresher, more nutritious food into our schools. And we believe that one of the best ways to do this is through the HealthierUS Schools Challenge. This program has spurred schools all across the country to raise their standards and transform their classrooms and cafeterias into healthy eating and learning labs for their students. Thats why weve set a goal of doubling doubling the number of schools that participate in the HealthierUS Schools Challenge by June of 2011. And we want to add an additional one thousand schools in each of the following two years as well. In order to reach that goal, were making it easier for schools to apply by moving our application online, and letting districts apply for all their schools with just one application. Were making it easier for them to succeed by providing better technical assistance and by connecting them with professional chefs through our Chefs Move to Schools program. Already, nearly 1,800 professional chefs have signed up to give nearly 1,300 schools the expert advice they need to meet this challenge. And when schools do succeed, were making that victory just a little bit sweeter, with new cash rewards. And Ill be inviting representatives from each award-winning school to a reception in their honor at the White House. Finally, were working to increase participation in our school lunch program by two million eligible children, and to get another three million kids signed up to start receiving school breakfasts by 2015. Because I think we can all agree that no child in America should be starting school hungry each day. No child should be going without the basic nutrition they need to learn, grow and succeed, in school and in life. But I want to be clear: we cant do any of this unless we pass the Child Nutrition legislation thats before Congress right now. This bi-partisan legislation supports critically-needed investments to help millions of children get the nourishment they need to be healthy. The Senate has already acted. And I hope that the House of Representatives will do the same by the end of the month so that we can get it signed into law. But of course, we all know that healthy eating is only half the battle. Experts recommend that children get at least 60 minutes a day of activity. But we know that many of our kids arent even coming close. Thats why another key component of Lets Move! is to get our kids moving, to find new ways for them to get and stay active and fit. One of the key benchmarks were working to meet is to double the number of children winning the Presidents Active Lifestyle Award. To earn this award, students need to engage in physical activity five days a week, for six weeks. And the idea is for this to become habit-forming. We want to show them how good it feels to be active, so that theyll stick with it long after those six weeks are over. Well be working with afterschool programs and with athletes like Drew Brees and Dominique Dawes to promote this program. And to show everyone how much fun it can be, in the coming weeks, Ill be working to earn an Active Lifestyle Award myself. And I want kids all across the country to join me. Ill be recording my progress online, so if I start falling behind, I hope youll all send me some emails to shame me into getting back on track! So thats some of what were doing to support your work in our schools. And I hope that in the coming months and years, all of you, and schools all across the country will become even more involved in Lets Move!. I hope that more schools will get their kids working toward those Active Lifestyle Awards. Even if you sign up just one class, or just one club, if those kids enjoy it, theyll tell their friends, and soon others will want to join in. I also hope that more school districts will set a goal for themselves of having a certain number of their schools become HealthierUS Schools each year. And I hope that schools will work to help get each other involved as well. Theres no limit on the number of schools that can become HealthierUS Schools. Theres no limit on the number of kids who can get an Active Lifestyle Award. Were all in this together, and everyone can win. So if your school has already met the HealthierUS Schools Challenge, then I hope youll reach out to other schools and help them meet it as well. If youve found an exciting new activity for gym class or a way to get kids to try new foods in the lunchroom, dont keep that a secret share it with other schools, so that their students can benefit too. Thats what were trying to do with our website, Letsmove. gov, where weve posted all kinds of tips, recipes, and information that we wanted to share with folks across this country. In the end, these are the efforts that will make the difference in our kids lives. And all of you are the folks who will determine whether we can solve this problem once and for all. Our First Lady has taken a proactive stance to combat obesity through our schools and has provided incentives and resources to ensure that this epidemic is brought under control. I believe these facts are supportive of the U. S. school programs being present to prevent obesity in our children. These facts show that steps are being taken, however much more awareness to parents and children must be provided given the Nation’s childhood obesity rate. Our schools have been targeted by our government to address our youth we have taken small steps as a nation to address this problem. The evidence shows that programs are being put in place to assist and support the education of children and parents. In conclusion the condition of obesity in our nation is at an all-time high. Our children within the U. S. have a 95% attendance rate to schools. Given that this institution of education is the focal point to which we are able to educate and inform on a mass level it will provide the grounds to combat this epidemic of obesity. Schools can and will be provided the resources necessary to educate and inform both student and parent about the preventive measures to obesity.