Blog Entry 15 Final In Class Essay

Kevin Loayza

Final-In Class Essay

ENG101

                                 What Doesn’t Kill You Only Gets You Fatter

Obesity is a one of the most controversial issues in the United States. Obesity can be very tough on children due to the fact that children are the most vulnerable in such situations. I believe the reason for the vast increase of obesity in children in the United States comes from the lack of parental nurturing. Parents should take full responsibility when it comes to keeping their children in healthy standards. Parents obviously don’t have bad intentions and don’t mean to cause health and image problems on their children. It’s just that parents lack the knowledge and education on obesity. Parents need a different approach when it comes to keeping their child healthy and fit.

Most parents would argue that fast food chains who market these meals to kids are the main cause as to why their children are obese. I would believe that most parents don’t want to recognize that due to their lack of advice their child isn’t in healthy standards. Most parents don’t realize that fast food is cheap and unhealthy. This is a contributing factor to the amount of obese children in the United States. It’s not the fast food chains fault that they want to make more money off your children; it’s your fault as parents to guide your child on the right direction. You just don’t leave your child to wander off on his own; you have to show them the way. It’s like teaching a child to walk. You guide him but you never leave him out of your sight knowing the consequences that perhaps he/she can injure themselves. Same goes for keeping a healthy and positive diet in order to prevent any consequences from happening, in this case obesity.

Parents should also stay fit themselves. This gives an example to the child as to why being fit benefits. The child most likely is motivated to stay fit probably because ‘he wants to be just like daddy”. . A lot of it can also be because some parents don’t have the discipline to eat right themselves so they don’t push their children to. That’s why it is as important for the parent to motivate him/herself in order for the child to acknowledge that staying fit is the right way to go. Children usually look for an admirer. They want to be like somebody and in most cases they want to be like their parents. So if the parent is obese, this influences that child to be obese as well and vice versa. I would encourage parents to guide themselves first so then they can have some experimenting to do on their own and then afterwards would the parent encourage the child to maintain a certain nutritional balance/diet.

Parents can simply acknowledge to their children on the many dangers of being overweight and why it is the wrong direction to go. It’s kind of hard to convince a child not to eat junk food because of how cheap and tasty they are. According to CDC, childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Could this be because families don’t have homemade meals as much as before? Many families have both parents that hold careers and simply don’t have time to cook. A child may not have much homemade meal’s as before, but a child can stay healthy if he stays active rather than sit all day on a couch playing video games. A well intentioned parent can maintain control over these fast food companies. My mother for example, every day will make my younger sibling a lunch meal because she is well informed that the school food can have a lot of unhealthy options. As an obese child at age 12, I was largely influenced by my father who is much overweight than average. I basically developed the same eating habitats as my father, but it was my mother who influenced me that I wouldn’t be around for long if I kept eating what I was eating. My mother would take me out for a jog in the morning, refusing to go, I felt a spark of motivation one day that told me I can do it.

It’s the simplest encouragement of a parent that helps convince his/her child that he/she can do it. Parents need to stop blaming fast food companies and be strict in maintaining a healthy fit child. Parents need to be take responsibility and take some time out of their lives to ensure that their child is healthy. Parents need to inform themselves on the dangers that obesity can have.