“Should Fast Food Chains Be to Blame for Childhood Obesity”

Should stiff aliment chains be to blame for infantishness obesity? As defined by dictionary. com obesity is the condition of being weighty increased luggage com weakenment weight caused by excessive accumulation of fat. fleshiness is determined by the level of BMI (body mass index). agree to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BMI is calculated from a childs weight and height, and is comp bed to a chart that tells you what is on the normal ranges.As you can see, children do not rightful(prenominal) wake up one mean solar twenty-four hour period and mold themselves stalwartness, there has to be any(prenominal) kind of warp that is making them that focal point, whether it be the diets they eat at home, or what they eat while with friends. This is not a look that should be set outn lightly. Who should be blamed? whatever people intrust the p bents ar to blame because they should try their children with wellnessier meal choices at all snips. Others believe the influence extravagant victuals companies live with with the media and advertising is too great and children would rather induce a happy meal that arranges with a work than have a wellnessy cooked meal from home.The way of living has changed drastically from the 1970s to the present. Back in the 1970s mothers were more(prenominal) in all probability to be home describers and had the era to dedicate to homemade meals three times a day. Nowadays, women are more likely to take part in careers and therefore live more feverish lifestyles. People are busier than ever and most of the time it is much easier to drive by a fast intellectual nourishment restaurant and pick up dinner party than to slave in the kitchen after a immense day at work. Fewer family meals are eaten unneurotic now (less than 5 a week of 21 meals) than in the years past (King, 28).The fast food business has boomed in the recent years overdue to this and they tend to advertise mostly to kids victimisation iridescent advertisements with their favorite cartoon characters and reel them in by providing a toy along with a refined hamburger and greasy French fries. Being an obese child can have many effects on their health, both physical and emotional health are impacted greatly by being overweight. Some children are never taught proper ways to cope with their emotions and have is what they turn to make them line up better when nothing else is handout right.Obese children tend to misplace from low self-esteem and may develop eating disorders in their quest to become thin. Obese adolescents are more prone to emotional and behavior problems and excessively more likely to develop psychopathologies during both adolescence and maturity date (Willette, 565). Overweight children are at risk for more diseases than children within their normal weight. Adult diseases, much(prenominal) as type 2 diabetes, are being diagnosed in 8-and 9-year-old children (King, 28).Some parent s rely on television system and video games to fall out their children entertained after a long day because they do not have time to take the children outside to play. Health concerns such as undernutrition, deficiency of physical activity and increased incidence of chronic diseases are more common in low-income and minority youth (King, 28). Everywhere we turn we are bombarded by advertisements for some type of fast food restaurant. Billboards, television commercials, radio ads, and print are just some of the media used to get the message to people to come out to their restaurants, and use catchy slogans with animated characters.It is no secret these ads are mostly advertising to children and teenagers. In 2002, it was estimated that annual sales of food and beverages to young consumers exceeded $27 billion. Advertisers have recognized that young consumers are a valuable market and have begun to advertise at a time to them. Food and beverage advertisers collectively spend$10 billion to $20 billion annually to pass by children and youth, and more than $1 billion of that is spent on direct media advertising to children (Willette, 565). Children are more likely to be influenced by these advertisements, especially when it involves something they think is cool.These advertisements are mostly found on channels such as nickelodeon or Disney channel. It is very demanding because there is no way to avoid these advertisements unless you break down yourself and your children to a cave. Parents have an important effect on their childrens development because they are the ones who raise their children from day one. If a child is raised eating healthy foods they are more likely to keep making those choices as they grow older and pass those habits on to their children. Bad eating habits can be passed on as well.Some parents simply dont know how to make healthy eating choices themselves, and it affects them and their children around the waistline. Parents should ra cecourse by example they should not only advertise their children to eat healthy, but also do the homogeneous themselves. So why are parents blaming fast food chains for their children obesity? Well, because no one wants to work themselves responsible and it is incessantly much easier to point the palpate at someone else. No parent wants to be seen as the reason for making their child overweight and want some type of reassurance that their parenting efforts ave not all been ineffective. Parents also are the ones that pay for the fast food and provide it for their children, so it cant in full be the fast food companies fault, right? Children are acquittance to be children and they are going to always want what is not good for them, but the parents have some control over what they choose to nutrition their child, and it should be done even if it requires them to spend more time in the home. In conclusion, the media is always going to have a big impact on the lives of everyone especially children. Childhood obesity is a health epidemic affecting many children in this res publica today.Parents are the ones who give guidance and should work challenging to teach their children healthy eating habits. Fast food companies use advertising and many other things to seduce children but at the end of the day, companies need to make money. So the blame game parents are using needs to stop. Fast food is not going anywhere and the parents should be the ones being held responsible for their children not fast food companies who have no intercourse to these children.Works cited Kaiser Family Foundation Releases Report on Role of Media In Childhood Obesity. Pediatric Nursing 30. (2004) 165 academic hunt club Complete. EBSCO. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. Willette, Amanda L. Where Have All the Parents at peace(p)? Do Efforts to Regulate Food Advertising To quash Childhood Obesity Pass Constitutional drum up?. Journal of Legal Medicine 28. 4 (2007) 561-577. donnish Search Co mplete. EBSCO. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. King, Nancy, and Dayle Hayes. Shame, Blame and the War on Childhood Obesity Confronting the Real Problems, Identifying the Positive Solutions. strong Weight Journal 17. 2 (2003) 28. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 18 Apr. 2010.