Video Review
The video ‘Obesity in Children’ by Nashville Public Television talks about the obesity rate reported in children. The video commences by stating the number of obese children in Tennessee, whereby every two out of three children suffer from the condition. The video claims that this number represents the sixth-highest rate of obesity in the United States. The possible causes of this condition in children include more extended hours of watching television and inadequate physical activities. According to the video, most children spend at least three hours a day watching TV. Six in every ten children do not engage in physical activities (0:35). Also, the rate of obese children differs according to their race, where white children record lower obesity cases than black and Latino children. In (0:46), the Latino children weigh almost double the white weight, as the black children weigh more than double as the whites. The weighty values are dangerous since they could make the children live shorter lives as compared to their parents.
The video gives a story of a young girl, Olivia, who was very active at her younger age, but her weight and height disadvantaged her to continue with normal life activities. Her mother, Wendy Smith, says that she could link poor eating habits to the condition because she is a single mother, and she needed advice on a better diet for her daughter. Thus, with a nutritionist’s help, she changed her children’s diet eliminating most of the sugars from the diet. She had to introduce her children to the change and involve activities that would make it fun to consume lower calories to motivate her family. However, Olivia was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes nine months after changing her diet. The doctor claimed that the condition would have been worse if the girl had not changed her diet earlier, which supports the claim that what we feed on affects our health conditions. Jonathan Gitlin, a physician, says that type-2 diabetes was very rare in children in the late ’80s and early ’90s, unlike currently where children are often diagnosed with this type of diabetes due to obesity (5:58).
Almost 37 percent of Tennessee children are confirmed as overweight or obese, with some counties recording up to 52 percent of the obese cases. However, the condition is most likely to occur in children whose parents suffer from the same disease. Furthermore, the video claims that the obesity rate in 2004 was not more than 30 percent in any county, but currently, 8 of the counties, mostly in the Southeast, have recorded more than 30%. The higher rates are despite common factors like population size, socioeconomics, education, and income distribution. Thus, a better explanation could be the difference in the food taken, whereby the Southerners use non-nutritious food often as a means of gathering and celebration. Joe Thompson claims that obesity is an epidemic that is significantly affecting people’s way of life and the economy because the affected adult citizens are unable to deliver well in their workplaces. The disease has also led to high medical costs, which are estimated at 145 billion per year. The ability to flatten the curve for obesity in Tennessee alone could save the government a total of 700 billion dollars a year.
There is a high possibility that most kids suffering from obesity will carry the condition forward to adulthood. Consequently, they have a higher risk of contracting other diseases like diabetes and heart disease. Obesity is mostly asymptomatic at the early stages, and it affects the heart and blood vessels and may lead to other conditions like asthma. Other related conditions to childhood obesity include high blood pressure, sleep apnea, early puberty as well as hardships in exercising physical activities. Besides, it could lead to social isolation and stigma among the affected children as they are looked down upon by their peers. For instance, Gaby was always chosen as the goalkeeper because she was taller and more significant than other children in her soccer team. However, she later accepted herself and started practicing more.
The leading cause of obesity is genes since they affect the impact of the environment on someone. In the video, Roger Cone states that genes take a very long time to change, and that is why it is carried on to generations. Also, the balance of calories taken into the body is another major cause of obesity in children. Most stores stock their snacks so that they are directly targeting children through cartoons on the packages and bright colors to entice children into buying. The changing environment has reduced the number of children walking or biking to school from 48% in 1969 to only 13% in 2009. The reason behind this is that development in infrastructure has made it hard to walk through the street, and thus, most people opt to drive across the roads, thus reducing physical activity. Wealth difference is also a factor in that the poorest people do not have much to spend on excess food, and therefore, they do not consume extra calories that could cause obesity. Controlling the condition requires it to be maintained from childhood because it will be harder to control eating behavior when the child is already grown up. According to the video, various schools and personalities have started to create awareness of the healthy lifestyles that would help exercise and minimize obesity cases.
In summary, there is a significant rise in the cases of obesity in children from the early years. The leading causes of this condition are the changing lifestyles of most people in Tennessee and other areas in the United States. For instance, urbanization made it difficult for people to walk or ride bikes across streets; instead, everyone prefers to drive due to the congested buildings in the surrounding. Other factors include changes in eating habits, whereby most children are being fed with ready-made food, which contains lots of calories. Also, there are lifestyle changes where many children prefer to watch televisions for more extended hours rather than engage in physical activities. Therefore, the inactivity helps in accumulating more calories in their bodies, leading to obesity.
The condition’s effect is a rise in cases of chronic diseases such as heart conditions, diabetes, and asthma in children. It could also lead to social isolation among children because they are left out in most activities carried out by their peers due to their condition. Consequently, there is an increased strain on the economy due to the high cost of medical covers to maintain diabetes cases. Thus, the government, parents, and other responsible stakeholders should put adequate measures to combat the disease. Some of the discussed steps include parents controlling what their children feed on at home. Also, schools should reschedule their diet to offer lesser calories to the students. The government should encourage activities such as exercising by creating conducive environments to walk and practice bike riding. Also, the already obese children should be encouraged to do more physical exercise to control their condition and avoid it progressing to adulthood, which is hard to reverse. Finally, the grocery stores should start packing their foods so that it is not so enticing to the children to prevent the excess intake of calories and encourage a healthy feeding culture.