There is a “disease” out there. It is infecting the young, the adults, and even the elderly. The “disease” is obesity. I should not call obesity a disease; it is a problem, but not a disease. We claim obesity is a disease because we want to say “I am infected with obesity,” when in all honesty we have made the choice to be lazy, to not exercise, and to not eat healthy foods. There are different body types for every individual body. Now, I say individual bodies because every body is very different. Some have a high metabolism, others not so much, and you have people that stress out about certain things and those who are bored to death, that they tend to eat. Then you have people like me who are just naturally big. Big, as in I have a large body frame. I could make many more of these observations about people, but let’s get to the heart of the matter. Obesity is a problem, especially in children ages 7-17 and even in adolescence, and this problem must be fixed.
Obesity is a major problem and it will be a problem in the long-term of children. The long-term effects are even worse. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults, and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, Type 2 Diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. One study showed that children who became obese as early as age 2 were more likely to be obese as adults. To me that sounds pretty horrible. We need to figure out the solution for obesity.
How do we answer or “cure” this problem? Well, there are a lot of solutions that almost everybody has tried. People have tried working out. Others just went on a diet to reduce their calories and fats intake, and surgery. According to the CDC there should be a salad bar in the cafeteria and the children should learn about healthy food like fruits and vegetables and other foods that have very few calories. What we teach the kids is not enough; they need more physical activities to prevent them from obesity.
Childhood obesity is a major problem in the U.S.; schools need to provide more physical activities to students. The more kids can exercise, the more they are prone to have a healthy life. According to the CDC, children will not have to worry about cardiovascular diseases, or any other disease like diabetes or having high cholesterol. It is proven that children who have regular activities are able to have healthy bone and muscle growth. The CDC has also said that the more activity a child gets, they are more likely to have a healthy lifestyle. They will have lesser chances to develop depression, and have little anxiety and stress. Not only do physical activities increase their well-being and bone and muscle growth, but they can also improve their self-esteem.
Physical activities not only help build muscles and self-esteem in children, but it also helps them academically. Children will be more focused and disciplined from the activities. What the children learn physically reflects in the classroom. With more physical activities in schools, children, can be able to be more focused on their academics. Some studies have shown that when people exercise they are able to be more focused on their studies and can sometimes think clearly. Because the nervous system is being stimulated and the blood is pumping to the brain and is helping the brain be more active and enthused to do more work. I sometimes try to do something just to stay awake for some classes. Some kids try to stretch and do something to keep their mind alert. My point is that doing more physical activities could potentially help kids, not only lose their weight, but also be able to be more intelligent in their studies. Who would have thought?
Physical activities should be in schools, but we have physical activities in schools, don’t we? Yes, but we need more. What schools provide nowadays is very basic. We have football, golf, cross country, volleyball and cheerleading for the fall. Then we have basketball, wrestling for winter. Finally we have track and field, baseball, and back to golf. There should be more physical activities because there are other sports. Schools could get more involved with international sports. For example, when I was in New Zealand I was able to play rugby with some of the kiwis after the wrestling tournament. It was very fun! Hard, because I had no idea what was going on, except to get the ball and run far and pass it back before you were tackled. Children would love to learn new sports. I know some people who could train martial arts classes or hire someone to teach dancing. There can also be some weight training and cross-fit classes. Just give more variety to kids. I was big. During my junior high school life I was plumped size. I was athletic but round in the midsection. But I had a horrible diet and I love food. Healthy or not I was going to eat it. It wasn’t until wrestling season that I wanted to cut my weight down. I had found my “cure” for my obesity. That sport helped me. So parents, convince your kids to do a sport, or play with them and do something outside they really like. Teenagers, even though it sucks hard to do a sport, do something that does not involve sitting down and doing nothing. That goes for adults too. Do what they do in movies and get a pickup game going.
Reader Comments(0)