Childhood Obesity Solutions Essay Example for Free

Childhood Obesity Solutions EssayPrevalence of childhood corpulency has increased greatly in the recent years, so much so that the number of children considered overweight by the Centers for Disease Control and measure (CDC) has nearly quadrupled among children aged 6-11 years old (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p.506). Many members of the public, media, and congress have decl atomic number 18d childhood obesity as a major public wellness concern, considering it to be an of import cause and consequence of wider disparities in health (Freudenberg, Libman, and OKeefe, 2010). Director of the division of nutrition, physiologic natural process and obesity at the CDC, Dr. William H. Dietz, went as distant as to say This may be the first generation of children that has a lower life get across than their parents (Roberts Wilson, 2012).Though it is evident steps are needed to be fool awayn to help protect the health and futures of our youth, those with the most power to actually make a visible, long lasting environmental change are the most reluctant to do so. Policymakers have alternate interests in finances that water down their attempts to take charge. Sadly, often times playing the complaisant businesss game takes precedence over the to a greater extent genuine loving problems work. As a Washington Post article so boldly states In the political arena, iodine side is winning the war on child obesity. The side with the fattest wallets. (Roberts Wilson, 2012)Proposals that frame childhood obesity as being an inevitable result of increasing environmental surroundings by unhealthful foods are likewise often neglected by government officials more willing to frame childhood obesity as an individual problem. Indeed it is more convenient to claim providing freedom of choice to individuals who are capable of fashioning their own decisions, emphasizing self regulation, and freeing themselves of responsibility to their nation to lead in financially burly actions.This essay seeks to demonstrate that childhood obesity should no longer be considered an individual cause stemming from life style choices which can be changed through minor effects such as education in physical activeness and nutrition. Unfortunately, this social problems ownership has become the taken-for-granted frame for this problem (Loseke, 2003, p.69). Childhood obesity really is a social problem which is a direct result from our environment, social structures emphasizing fast, unhealthy, frankly JUNK food which is quickly available in any given neighbourhood and continuously marketed through all mediums to increase win to some select wealthy individuals.I will stress that the only solutions met by this pressing incommode have been solely symbolic solutions which have been prematurely praised as they are false attempts to appear trusty to the public, communities, and school systems, while truly remaining loyal to the corporations, who some may very well be held entirely accountable.Within this paper the exploration of three chosen symbolic solutions to date will hold American Governments distribution of the Physical use Guidelines for Americans Midcourse Report Strategies for Increasing Physical Activity Among Youth, the national equity passing of requiring restaurants with 20 or more chains to provide calorie nurture on menus and menu tabular arrays, and lastly, the enhancement of PE considerments for school aged children.The distribution of said guidelines is wrap uped to be important by reviewing the evidence on strategies to increase youth physical activity and make recommendations and to communicate findings to the public. (Rodgers, 2012, p.10) This report focuses on five settings, but in reality only offers strategies for 3 of them. Two settings (Home and Family, and Primary trade settings) received no proposed strategies to increase physical activity among youth, and focused only on areas requiring further enquiry ( p.7).Those settings which did receive proposed strategies were quite obvious suggestions which doubtfully would have any significant impact on physical activity among youth. One such suggestion is to provide teachers with appropriate training (p.5). Although it must be famed that this is non a report distributed solely to decrease obesity among youth, it is distributed to increase physical activity among youth, which is not the same, though admittedly similar.On the webpage this guide is provided, a number of other arbitrary tools can in any case be found. Webinars on online nutrition information, fact sheets, blogs, access to printable posters, and more. Educating the public, educating the parents of youth, and the youth themselves of course is important. At what superlative however will it be supplemented by subdueions on marketing of food and beverages to youth, which this guideline reports is estimated at a whopping $10 billion per year, but shows no indication of wanting t o reduce or restrict this, and can only suggest counterbalancing with media campaigns directed to offset these unhealthy images (Rodgers, 2012, p. 3). One article is more precedent in summarizingDespite this widespread recognition of negative impact of marketing unhealthy foods, the practice insures unabated. (Harvard civilize of open Health, 2012)Mandated menu labelling of calories in some American jurisdictions was passed in 2008, requiring restaurant chains with 20 or more facilities to post calorie information next to each item on their menus and menu board (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1680). This new law was backed by evidence that eating fast food has been shown to increase caloric intake and the risk of becoming obese (Harvard School of Public Health, 2012). As an alternative to restricting what is change in these fast food chains, restricting advertising of these products, or perhaps even zoning restrictions on how many fast food restaurants were permitted to be within a certain range of schools, this new law appears to be the most liberal of solutions, and the most beneficial for the companies selling these high calorie foods.Findings from a health impact assessment are as follows mandated menu labelling at fast food and other man-sized chain restaurants could reduce population weight gain, even with only modest changes in consumer behaviour. (Kuo, Jarosz, Simon and Fielding, 2009, p.1683) As promising as this is, it is followed by a stronger and more realistic assessment stating if nonobese restaurant patrons were more likely to auberge reduced calorie meals than were obese patrons, the impact on the obesity rate could be less than what we account.Because in that respect was no study conducted on the weight of those opting for calorie reduced items, it is difficult to say if this solution is beneficial to the target audience, obese people in these jurisdictions. If changes are being made that is great, but there is no evidenc e to date to support this influencing the rising issue of obesity. It is just another means of basically saying that the government is willing to educate on the food being provided and it is the choice of the individual, to consume or not consume.One solution offered by government recognizes that with the majority of youth go intoed in schools, school is an high-minded place to provide much needed physical activity to students (Rodgers, 2012). In implementation, many state policies require schools to have a PE unit requirement that constrains students to spend a minimum amount of time in PE class (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 508).A study evaluating the effectiveness of such policies revealed that, naturally, a required PE unit is correlated with a higher probability that the student participates in PE (Cawley, Meyerhoefer, and Newhouse, 2007, p. 511). Although this is clearly a positive outcome of enforcing requirements among youth to enroll in PE classes, this sa me study goes on to say that a requirement is correlated with students reporting fewer minutes spent active in PE(p.511). Yes, you read that correctly, specifically 15.1 fewer minutes active in PE for boys, and 3.1 fewer in PE for girls (p.511-512).In conclusion, this report sums up the opposing information by stating that curriculum festering is not significantly associated with the amount of time spent active in PE. As such, the implementation of these programs sounds a lot more effective in theory then it is in practice.All three of these solutions offered by government are certainly steps in recognizing that childhood obesity is in fact rife in our society. These solutions also claim that something can be done to reduce the level of harm to childrens health, and that actions should be implemented in correcting this epidemic. Essentially childhood obesity is a recognized social problem in our society. Unfortunately because the victims, (obese children), are politically powerles s individuals, proposals to decrease the harm attributed to them have been, and will continue to be symbolic.Sadly, effort from interest groups with good intentions can be overshadowed by the social problems game of politics. This excogitation is not lost in an article posted in The New York Academy of Medicine which reads as followsprivate interests generally have more resources and skills than public health reformers to achieve their policy goals, and are more successful in resisting changes than advocates are in implementing them. These structural barriers are a powerful deterrent to simplification childhood obesity. Creating cities where health rather than business concerns take precedence will require new approaches to face and democracy. (Freudenberg, Libman, and OKeefe, 2010, p.761)It appears as though, for now, the social problems game of proposing symbolic solutions for childhood obesity is being accepted by audiences. Since Loseke claims that the goal of social problems game is persuading audience members (p.51), government officials, the players, are succeeding.ReferencesCawley, J., Meyerhoefer, C. and Newhouse, D. (2007), The correlation of youth physical activity with state policies. Contemporary Economic Policy, 25 506517. doi 10.1111/j.1465-7287.2007.00070.xFredenberg, N., Libman, K., OKeefe, E. (2010), A tale of two obescities The lineament of municipal governance in reducing childhood obesity in New York city and London. journal of Urban Health Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 875 doi10.1007/s11524-101-943-xHarvard School of Public Health, (2012), The obesity prevention source toxic food environment. Retrieved from http//www.hsph.harvard.edu/Kuo, T., Jarosz, C., Simon,P., Fielding, J. (2009), Menu labelling as a potential scheme for combating obesity epidemic A health impact assessment. American Journal of Public Health, 999 doi 10.2105/AJPH.2008.153023Loseke, D. (2003), Thinking about social problems. New York Walter deGruyte r, Inc.Robert, J., Wilson, D., (2012, April 27), Special report How Washington went soft on childhood obesity. Reuters. Retrieved from http//www.reuters.com/Rodgers, A., (2012), Physical activity guidelines for Americans mid-course report strategies to increase physical activities among youth. US Department of Health and man Services. Retrieved from http//health.gov/paguidelines/default.aspx