Nurturing Healthy Habits
In data collected by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 1988-1994 13% of children were classified as overweight and 10% were classified as obese. In 2017-2018 16.1% of children were classified as overweight and 19.3% of children were classified as obese. The rise of obesity in children and adolescents is extremely alarming; obesity is a chronic disease in which a child's body mass index (BMI) is at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex (CDC). BMI is a way to measure obesity by looking at weight relative to height and is used worldwide (CDC). Obesity is connected with an increased risk of having other health conditions such as, high blood pressure and high cholesterol (which increase the risk for heart disease), type 2 diabetes, breathing problems (such as asthma), joint problems, and gallstones and gallbladder disease (CDC). Due to the fact that the number of obese children has quadrupled that means that the number of children who have to deal with these health problems has also quadrupled and will also continue to grow if nothing in their lives changes. As a result, proper education should be provided to children in schools, so they can have the tools necessary to make well-informed nutritional decisions now and in adulthood.
Obesity plays a very important factor in the mental health of children. In their article “Childhood Obesity: Causes and Consequences.” Sahoo, et al conducted research where they looked into the physical, psychological, and social effects that childhood obesity can have on children. The researcher writes, “Discrimination against obese individuals has been found in children as young as 2 years old. [...] These negative social problems contribute to low self-esteem, low self-confidence, and a negative body image in children and can also affect academic performance.” (Sahoo, et al). This finding shows that obesity has reached children as young as 2 years old and that they are facing prejudice from their peers at this young age. Furthermore, this finding shows that obesity goes far beyond children's physical health; they also negatively impact their mental health. This research illustrates why change that leads to a decrease in the number of obese children in the United States is imperative.
As the CDC observed, the number of obese/overweight Children has increased heavily over time. In the late 1980s to the 1990’s the obesity rates were not as prevalent as they are today. In the past, children were more active and did not live sedentary lifestyles like most kids do today. The increase in internet access has led a lot of children to gain weight since they are not burning a lot of the calories they are consuming as a pose to in the 1980s-1990’s. According to the CDC children and adolescents aged 6-17 should be doing 3 types of activity for at least 3 days a week. Aerobic activity, which consists of 60 minutes or more where children should be walking, running, or taking part in any activity that makes their hearts beat faster, muscle-strengthening, which can be an activity like push-ups, and bone-strengthening which consists of running or jumping. Many schools do not teach these physical activity guidelines and much less enforce them. With long school hours where children are sat for the majority of the time it is clear that the majority of children do not meet the physical activity recommendations unlike children in the 1980s-1990s. Paired a school curriculum that does not prioritize nutritional or physical activity education. It is clear that there needs to be some change in the current curriculum being taught in schools.
Emily Werner, a researcher in kinesiology, conducted a study on a college campus where 71 students were randomly selected and asked general questions about their knowledge of the nutritional guidelines. 91.5% of the students were aware that some type of nutrition guideline existed; however, only 23.9% of them were able to recite a recommendation correctly. Likewise, when asked about physical activity recommendations a majority of them were aware that some type of recommendation existed with 67.6% of students being aware, in spite of that only 26.8% of students could accurately recite them (Werner, et al). This research, depictics that there was a relation between the lack of knowledge adults have of nutrition and physical activity to their BMIs, due to the fact that the majority of participants had a BMI that would label them overweight or obese (see Figure 1).
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Figure 1: Courtesy of Journal of American College Health This data comes from Werner's research which shows the link between the lack of knowledge about the nutritional and physical activity guidelines and an unhealthy BMI among adults. |
This data is highly alarming because many children look up to adults for guidance on what to eat. The habits of the adults in these children's lives contribute a tremendous amount to how children behave. Elaine Elliott conducted a study in Newark, New Jersey in which 37 adults consisting of parents and teachers were paired up with 37 children aged 3-5. Over the course of 4 weeks, adults attended weekly 45-minute sessions where they were educated on healthy eating and physical activity. The results of the study showed that children's fruit and vegetable consumption increased by three servings from an average of one to five servings a day which was reported at the beginning of the study. Additionally, the amount of takeout that children were consuming decreased to an average of two days a week (Elliott et al). In sum, when adults are educated on the principles of healthy living they can live a healthy life which in turn causes children to also live a healthy life. As previously mentioned obesity rates in adults have been increasing which poses a major threat to the health of children when they aren’t portraying a healthy way of living.
Given this link between lack of nutritional awareness in adults and being overweight from Werner's study and the important part adults play in children's nutrition as shown in Elanie’s study. It highlights how critical education about nutrition is. Teaching health guidelines needs to be the priority, by not educating children, a cycle form in which children stay obese. To illustrate, if children are never properly taught about healthy guidelines they carry that lack of knowledge into adulthood where once they can make decisions for themselves they will have nothing to base their nutritional or workout habits on. Furthermore, once they have their own children it is expected that their children will follow the example parents set. A study was conducted where schools took part in a program called Shape Up Somerville (SUS) which prioritized nutritional education and physical activity programs in schools. A researcher writes, “Their work showcased the effectiveness of nutrition education and physical activity programs, positioning schools as pivotal environments shaping children’s behaviors and paving the way for Healthier lifestyles” (Palit et al). This proves the effectiveness of educating children on what healthy living is like and shows why this education is crucial.
Adrian Rangel Sosa is a 15-year-old boy who was able to turn his life around after being overweight when he was younger. By the time he turned 14, he was told he was labeled as overweight and was told that he was at risk for high blood pressure and diabetes by his doctors. Figure 2 shows Adrian’s weight chart which shows his weight chart from when he was younger. As it shows Adrian was in the 97th percentile according to his “Weight for Age” chart which would have placed him as obese. Being in the 97th percentile means that he was at a weight greater than or equal to 97% of children of the same age and sex. He started losing weight and is now closer to the 75th percentile which puts him at a healthier weight than he was before. While he is still overweight according to the chart it is mainly due to the muscle he has put on as a result of going to the gym and working out.
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Figure 2: Sosa, Josefa. Photo of Adrian’s weight chart. 2024. Personal photograph, digital image. This is an image showing Adrian’s weight chart that shows his weight loss progress. |
To better understand what Adrian's eating habits were like as he was growing up which led to him being overweight I interviewed his mother. First, I wanted to establish what she knew about nutrition. She said, that eating should be balanced, but she could not provide any accurate nutrition recommendations for children later in the interview saying “I say that from what I knew, children had to eat, let's say, what is like the fist of a child's hand, that is the amount that they had to eat according to me, according to what I came to learn. That children could not eat more than what they could grab, what could fit inside the fist of the child's hand.” In order for someone to gain weight they need to be consuming more calories than they are burning. In their article “Childhood Obesity: Causes and Consequences.” Sahoo writes, “This in turn inevitably results in weight gain, as the amount of calories consumed exceeds the amount of energy burned.” In other words, the volume or amount of food someone is consuming does not matter as much as how calorie-dense the food is. The amount of physical activity someone is doing is also very important to whether or not the person will gain weight. By conducting physical activity your body uses up energy and that energy comes from calories thus doing a lot of physical activity you burn calories. You gain weight when you consume more calories than you burn the calories become fat and that is where the weight gain comes from.
An important thing to consider is that the only way that someone gains weight is by eating in a calorie surplus. Meaning that someone is consuming more calories than they are burning. Josefa said “We didn't go out and since they almost stayed at home and I didn't take them out, logically everything they ate stayed with them and they didn't burn the calories they had to burn. I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that the children spent more time indoors because I didn't have time to take them to the park to play, to run,” If her children were overconsuming calories then getting outside and doing physical activity would have helped burn off calories but since they lived a sedentary lifestyle pair with their eating habits Adrian became overweight as a result. This interview shows that while Josefa’s knowledge of nutrition might be flawed she has more of an understanding of how much physical activity impacts people's health but only being knowledgeable in one topic is not enough knowledge to provide a big impact on someone's health once again reiterating that providing people with an education in physical activity and nutrition is vital.
Aside from Adrian, there have been multiple cases in which people have overcome childhood obesity. One case is a woman named Mary who shared her story with ‘Shift Recovery by Acorn’ a site that publishes stories of how childhood obesity affects people. During ‘Childhood Obesity Awareness Month’ which is in September. Shift Recovery by Acorn is a website that works to help people who suffer from food addiction and tells stories of other people to share the toll obesity has on people both mentally and physically. She highlights the toll it had on her social writing “Throughout my school years I was subjected to daily teasing, mocking, jokes, stares from people of all ages, bullying on the playground, exclusion from gym teams and being ostracized by my peers.” She later writes “The internal scars of growing up as an obese child are, to some extent, still with me, and I continue to experience ongoing healing as a result of the daily actions that I am guided to take.” ”This again illustrates the effect being overweight has on children and why it should be seen as a serious matter not only because of the effect it has on their physical health but also because of the social and mental effect it has on them. This shows that even now as an adult Mary continues to live with the mental torture she was put through for being obese as a child.
Mary is an example of someone who was educated about food and nutrition and was able to grow from it. She writes:
About that same time I attended my first inpatient food addiction treatment program. I was 34 years old and weighed 340 pounds. While there I discovered that my obesity was a symptom of the disease of food addiction. I worked hard in treatment and wholeheartedly surrendered to their direction. Upon leaving, I continued a multi-faceted recovery journey that lasted well over a year. (SHiFT Recovery by Acorn)
This also highlights that education about nutrition is critical. Mary was obese because she was battling a food addiction. If she had received adequate nutrition education where she was made aware of what food addiction was and the dangers of it she could have received the appropriate support sooner which would have helped her lose weight and improve her physical and mental health.With many people becoming parents without knowing the nutritional guidelines or how much physical activity their child should be doing, parents are putting their children in a position where they don’t know how to live a healthy life. As studies show there is a connection between being overweight/obese and a lack of nutritional knowledge, paired with the fact that children base their behaviors on what they learn from adults there is a cycle of unhealthy living being perpetrated. By not teaching children about food, nutrition, physical activity, and more complex matters such as food addiction, we are depriving them of fundamental knowledge that they will use in adulthood. Providing children with quality nutritional education in schools ensures that children will grow to live healthier lives and will foster a generation that can make well-informed choices that impact their well-being.
Works Cited
Center for Disease Control. About Body Mass Index (BMI). Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, www.cdc.gov/bmi/about/.
Center for Disease Control. About Obesity. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, www.cdc.gov/obesity/php/about/index.html.
Center for Disease Control. Adult Obesity Prevalence Maps. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, www.cdc.gov/obesity/data-and-statistics/adult-obesity-prevalence-maps.html.
Center for Disease Control. Child Activity: An Overview. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/guidelines/children.html.
Center for Disease Control. Childhood Obesity Facts. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, www.cdc.gov/obesity/childhood-obesity-facts/childhood-obesity-facts.html#:~:text=From%202017%20to%20March%202020,percentile%20for%20age%20and%20sex.
Center for Disease Control. Consequences of Obesity. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022, www.cdc.gov/obesity/basics/consequences.html.
Center for Disease Control. Prevalence of Overweight, Obesity, and Severe Obesity Among Children and Adolescents Aged 2–19 Years: United States, 1963–1965 Through 2017–2018. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021, www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/obesity-child.htm.
Elliott, Elaine, et al. “Parents and Teachers as Role Models for Healthy Behaviors in Preschoolers.” Pediatric Nursing, vol. 49, no. 3, May 2023, pp. 135–41. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.62116/pnj.2023.49.3.135.
Northam, Kayla, et al. “The Patient’s Journey in Obesity within the United States: An Exercise of Resilience against Disease.” Life (2075-1729), vol. 14, no. 9, Sept. 2024, p. 1073. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.3390/life14091073.
Palit, Soumitra, et al. “Behavioral Determinants of Childhood Obesity in the United States: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Obesity, vol. 2024, Nov. 2024, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1155/2024/9224425.
Rangel Sosa, Adrian. Personal Interview Conducted by Yesenia Rangel Sosa. 24 November 2024. In-person meeting at Home.
Sahoo, Krushnapriya, et al. “Childhood Obesity: Causes and Consequences.” Journal of Family Medicine & Primary Care, vol. 4, no. 2, Apr. 2015, pp. 187–92. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.4103/2249-4863.154628.
SHiFT Recovery by Acorn. Mary’s Story – Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. SHiFT, foodaddiction.com/2017/09/marys-story-childhood-obesity-awareness-month/.
Sosa, Josefa. Personal Interview Conducted by Yesenia Rangel Sosa. 24 November 2024. In-person meeting at Home.
Werner, Emily, and Heather Hayes Betz. “Knowledge of Physical Activity and Nutrition Recommendations in College Students.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 70, no. 2, Feb. 2022, pp. 340–46. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1080/07448481.2020.1750412.
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