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Nick Quillen

Professor Flores

30 April 2019

ENG 1250.B53

Obesity Epidemic in the United States

Before you start reading this paper put down that salty bag of chips or the sugary

beverage that you love because I’m going to be talking about childhood obesity in the United

States and the wide spread causes and effects that it has on the health of children. Caring so

much about the problem about obesity because seeing how it can affect family and friend’s lives,

by changing the way someone lives their life has made a lot of people passionate about the topic

of lowering the rate of childhood obesity. It can have a wide range of effects such as mentally by

causing depression with how they can’t do the same things they once could when they were not

overtaken by obesity or feeling down because of not seeing themselves fitting in. Through my

life with having a passion for health and wellness, guiding one of my childhood best friends out

by helping him loose about 40 or 50 pounds and seeing his life change by not being obese has

changed his life for the better. In this research, using a variety of sources such as scholarly

articles, interviews, books, documentary and finally websites were all used doing this research.

Jumping into the topic with clearly defining the terms, causes, how parents playing their part,

physical and mental effects, how the government and other organizations have done, ways to

improve, an interview with my mom and finally wrapping it all up with my conclusion. I believe

with childhood obesity numbers rising each year they are many reasons to blame for it with less

activity, the food children are consuming, socioeconomic factors and many that I will dive
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deeper into and clearly explain it all. With “1/3 of children will experiencing obesity in the

United States and with these high number it will just trickle down into adulthood” If nothing is

done about it (Mckoy, James). With this alarming rate of childhood obesity in the United States

people need to be conscious of their child’s health due to the harmful effects that comes with it.

OBESITY DEFINED
Many people throw around of the terms obese, overweight and many others but how can

someone tell when they are considered obese. According to Harvard school of Public Health they

state that obesity is being heavily overweight and the most proven way to find this out is the BMI

scale which takes ratios of one’s height and weight ratio (“Genes Are Not Destiny.”). Finding

someone’s BMI will be a more accurately how overweight one is than simply just weighing your

self and not taking your height in mind will be important and not comparing yourself to someone

that is shorter or taller. A healthy BMI depends among men and women which has many

independent and dependent variables, but a healthy BMI will be between “25.0 and 30” with any

higher than this is considered obese and to seek help immediately (“Genes Are Not Destiny.”).

Childhood obesity rates are increasing rapidly each year, and everyone is questioning what is

causing this and what it can do it a human body. Also, the school of public health they state that

globally there has been a “60 percent increase in obesity from 1990 to 2010” (“Genes Are Not

Destiny.”). But the issue is in the United States because the wide range of obesity but in the “U.S

we have one of the highest rates among of all the wealthier countries” (“Genes Are Not

Destiny.”). What is causing the U.S to experience the increase from just 20 years ago, is it an

increase of processed foods or less physical activity? With the fast-past world that the United

States is today are they pushing their weight and health to the side this all goes back to being

more aware of one’s health and also one’s child’s side effects that are just pushed to the side.
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CAUSES
Think of some misconceptions about children that are experiencing obesity that has been

going on in the United States. Many could come to mind such as the saying that children will

grow into the heavy weight they have, and they are just waiting for their growth spirt? Some

children might actually grow into the weight, but most won’t and even if a child does than their

diet and activity levels won’t magically change. Who is to blame for that child becoming obese

at a young age, the parents or themselves? Many causes have been connected to why the

numbers are rising in the United States among children. In the book How Food Works by DK

proves the one reason of childhood obesity is in fact connected to the diet and nutrition

consumption. Children are consuming at the highest rates of processed foods holding little to no

nutrition. What children consume is what fuels their brain to grow and for the brain to properly

function in the classroom and all-around life. Each day they are “50 million people that decide to

consume fast food and prepared or processed foods like meals, snack foods, canned foods and

frozen ingredients in the United States” (How Food Works). These foods might be fast and

cheaper than fresh foods, but they are really “high in sodium, sugar levels and many more” (How

Food Works). With these meals packed with lots of simple sugars,” the average for Americans

intake of sugar is around 22 teaspoons and not the average of 10 teaspoons recommended daily

intake” (How Food Works). Later in this research will come the effects of the poor nutrition

because during the young years of a child’s life could result in many health side effects growing

such as type 2 diabetes but why do they continue to eat these unhealthy foods instead od the

fresher healthier option? In a study done by North Carolina State University 3rd year medical

students where they had a questionnaire consisting of 30 questions selected to parents about the

topic of food and nutrition and found parents say they can not find time out of the busy work day

to find time every night and will sometimes go to more convenient meals such as fast food or
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frozen meals (Cooke, Natalie K). The fix for the problem of not having time could be pre paring

the meals in advance and preparing them that night when sitting down together for dinner. It

could be people finding excuses to indulge in the high fatty meals and then enjoying their free

time and relaxing. The second part of the medical student’s questionnaire they found out that

parents aren’t knowledge about eating healthy and all-around health. If these parents are not

aware of their own health choices, are they capable of making health decisions for someone else?

Resources such as web pages online, books and classes have been accessible for everyone, but it

comes out to deciding for oneself if they want to learn about its healthy eating.

Fig. 1. represents some of the causes and effects in childhood obesity in the U.S

PARENTS PLAYING A ROLE

Childhood obesity and general obesity have been linked to many other causes other than

poor nourishment. Harvard school of public health brings up the fact of how parents can have a

large effect on the child and one way is that in a Boston area study following “2,000 pregnant

women during the pregnancy found that women who did have an excessive amount of weight

gained during pregnancy which results in their children being 4 times more likely to be obese at

the age of 3” (“Genes Are Not Destiny.”). These parents are setting their children up for facing

medical issue odds before they are even born. Another because has been connected to is the
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amount of television that a child watches because of the commercials promoting sugary foods

and them having a lot of sit time. On these commercials “The Weight of the Nation: Children in

Crisis” states that the cereal companies and other company are targeting children and making

them want that food (Mckoy, James). This has been an active debate in” Washington about

whether or not to limit the targeting on children, but nothing has come from it but it’s still in the

process” (Mckoy, James). So, with being said the art of parenting in the United States needs to

address how the parents can set their children up for success when it comes to managing their

children’s health.

ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

Where one lives at in the United States can help or put a tough burden on someone. The

Harvard Health Services talks about what country you live in can actually promote unhealthy

eating because of not having the proper resources for success (“Genes Aren’t Destiny”). But in

the United State they have many disadvantaged communities and towns that are facing the same

issue has these countries are facing. When you don’t have the proper funding to go grocery

shopping for the essential needs someone might turn to fast food or the cheapest option. Which

was already brought up why fast food and the most convenient meals aren’t the most beneficial

for anyone but when someone is starving you might choose that option. In the city of Dayton in

Ohio they are parts of the town experiencing the effects of being a part of a food desert. In

simply terms a food desert is when you can’t buy or it’s difficult to find and purchase fresh

nutritious foods. Having past classmates in my sociology class, which for the class the

assignment was to go to a grocery store 2 miles or less from your home and take pictures of the

following such as vegetables, meats, access to milk and other items. With seeing the results

within pictures some students had pictures of spoiled red meats that were brown and also not
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having access to fresh vegetables. Hearing them talk about this issue can be disheartening

because of having to ride the bus for 1 hour each way and then can’t purchase everything

because you have to carry all the groceries home from the bus. The corner stores in the food

deserts are marked up processed foods or fruits that are not the safest to eat. In this project a

fellow classmate videotaped address the owner of the spoiled meats and as a result he started to

throw it out once he saw that she was videotaping. Also, when someone doesn’t have 3 plus

hours to go to the grocery store, they might settle for some snacks for the corner store or fast

food which will result in gaining weight because of the food being high in fats and others like

sodium. How can the community of Dayton change this way of living so they can lower their

obesity rate and have to face the harmful side effects that will come next?

PHYSICAL EFFECTS/HISTORY
Parents are acting in a way of out of sight out mind until the side effects of their child’s

weight catches up to them. In Child obesity has been linked to many physical and mental side

effects. First in the book How Food Works states that the medical side effects comes with heart

disease which causes on average killing “600,000 Americans”. A human heart is not made to

send blood throughout the whole body when you are heavily obese without failure due to

working too hard which causes heart disease. Obesity has been proven to be the “second leading

killer with tobacco being the first to people under the age of 70”(“Genes Aren’t Destiny”).

“Deadly diseases, cancers, diabetes’s, a handful amount of different cancers, economic cost,

depression and quality of life or just a few effects that come with someone gaining excess

weight” (“Genes Aren’t Destiny”). The one related disease related to obesity has been proven is

“type 2 diabetes and this is when fat cells throughout the body make hormones and other

substances fire inflammation which it can cause the body to be less responsive to insulin and
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change the way that the body handles carbs and fats which will lead to high blood pressure then

potentially diabetes” (“Genes Aren’t Destiny”). A healthy diet of have any kind is a start to

knock down some pounds which will be talked about later in the research of what a healthy diet

or meal looks like to cut down the weight. Increasing your” BMI into the stages above 30 will

increase your chances of high cholesterol and inflammation in one’s body which has been linked

to cardiovascular disease” (“Genes Aren’t Destiny”). Within “cardiovascular disease you

increase your chances of having a stoke, in which Harvard’s Public found out that people that are

obese have a 64 percent chance of having a stroke” (“Genes Aren’t Destiny”). There hasn’t been

any studies on having strokes at a young age but the fact that obesity goes into adulthood If no

changes are happening that when you are adults that could be at a higher chance. It comes down

to wanting to see your children grow old and become the healthy adult that many people aren’t

seeing in the United States. One can not wait until it is too late to notice these effects and regret

the past decisions made.

MENTAL EFFECTS
Obesity can cause many physical effects and medical conditions but the one that doctors

can’t tell you until you speak up are the effects of depression connected to obesity. They are

many “symptoms that come along with serve depression which some are depressed mood,

feelings of guilt or worthlessness, thoughts of death, changes in sleep and appetite” (“Genes

Aren’t Destiny”).With children they can be down on themselves throughout school because

bulling by their classmates not accepting them for who they are which can cause them to

worthless or thoughts of suicide. Depression can affect your appetite by connecting food to

happiness and that child doesn’t have anything to make them happy they can settle for food

which turn into overeating. With all this being said about mental illness do schools have enough
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resources to help these children to help those who are being bullied inside and outside the

classroom?

GOVERNMENT HELP
With the harmful effects just discussed throughout this research someone might ask has

there been any organizations or has the U.S government acted on this problem of childhood

obesity at all? All the back in the “year 2000, the cost on the country because of obesity was an

eye opening 117 billion dollars” (Reeves, Gloria M). They are direct and indirect cost for one

being obese, “direct cost being health, laboratory and radiological tests, and drug therapy which

can add up fast and indirect cost being value of lost work, insurance being more expensive for

employers and studies showing lower wages being connected obesity” (Genes Aren’t Destiny).

In the” United States the USDA found that 94 percent of schools failed to meet USDA standards

for healthy school meals” and which will lead later in this paper to the effects in the classroom.

“Michelle Obama created the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act which gave more options for free

school breakfast for those who qualified for them but also changed up what they served the

children during the school day” (Mckoy, James). With Michelle Obama seeing first hand how

big of an issue this was which resulted into doing something which needs to happen more often

with this issue. Presidents leave office and guidelines and focuses change and the country has

seen a negative change in nutrition for children since then.

OBESITY IN THE CLASSROOM

In the documentary by HBO “The Weight of the Nation: Children in Crisis” talked all

about the changes that she brought for the school system throughout such as making chocolate

milk fat free and making it mandatory to serve vegetables twice a week and a fresh fruit (Mckoy,

James). With these changes sounding wonderful and an improvement for the schooling system
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but they are many down falls to this such as the “schools considering potatoes a vegetable which

in return can serve the children French fries as a “vegetable”” (Mckoy, James). “They went into

an elementary school in the city of Madison, WI where they wanted to look for themselves what

the children were being feed and asked the teacher in the school how they felt about this

problem. Several of the teachers brought up how school cafeteria are centered on time efficiency

with having to serve hundreds of children in a short period of time” (Mckoy, James). The

teachers are seeing more behavioral and attention problems during the school day due to poor

diet and not being feed the right foods for academic success (Mckoy, James). Mass production

and getting warm is the key for success for school lunches but is it the key for success for the

children?

ORGANIZATIONAL HELP

With programs around trying to help lower the young generations to overcome obesity

and one organization is the National Football League. The NFL created the “NFL PLAY 60” in

this program they aim to get kids to have 60 minutes of active exercise per day. This program

was coordinated by the National Dairy Council with working with the NFL with the goal of

shinning a positive light on being active and in design to help lower the obesity number in

America (“First Study to Measure Effectiveness of NFL PLAY 60”) In this study by the

University of Vermont they measured the effectiveness of the NFL Play 60 program and how it

showed a positive result of childhood obesity (“First Study to Measure Effectiveness of NFL

PLAY 60”). In this study done by The University of Vermont the study showed a positive result

on the helping of lowering the number of children that are obese (“First Study to Measure

Effectiveness of NFL PLAY 60”). In a study done by 100,000 students who participated in the

program between 2011 and 2015, Schools that implement the program found to decline obesity
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levels and found larger gains in the percentage of youth that achieved national health standards

for aerobic fitness between 2012 and 2015 (“First Study to Measure Effectiveness of NFL PLAY

60”).

The NFL Play 60 program wanted to make a change in children throughout but wanted to

know how to catch these children’s eye and make them want to join. Back in the research paper

about the discussion about children watching a lot of television and the sugary cereal companies

directly marketing them, the NFL Play 60 did the same exact thing. They caught the young kids’

attention by marketing it with the biggest National Football League superstars at that moment

(“First Study to Measure Effectiveness of NFL PLAY 60”). They had commercials with these

superstars playing around with children and then giving a message at the end about playing 60

minutes a day and If you are kid that looks up to these superstars then that kid will listen and

follow in their footsteps.

HEALTHY EATING

With research proving the point that nutrition and the food that children consume has

shown that it is the leading factor in causing obesity. So, with this proving, what does a child

need to eat and what does a healthy meal look like for a child? A balanced meal includes protein

such as lean meat or soy products for those that can’t digest meat well and choose to be vegan. A

few servings on fresh fruit daily with fruits you have to make sure that they don’t include any

added sugar. Vegetables at every meal such as broccoli or carrots, with vegetables you have to

watch out for added butter which could put your daily fat’s above where one child’s

recommended fat counts be at for the day. Grains such as whole grain bread or oats and dairy

including low fat products such as milk or cheese (Mayo Clinic Staff). They are many ways to

limit children’s calories like cutting added sugar foods such as corn syrup, but fruits have natural
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sugar which is okay for consumption (Mayo Clinic Staff). Another way is replacing saturated

fats such as red meat and replace them with nuts or avocados (Mayo Clinic Staff). It will be very

important to have your child overeating but at the same not under eating because of them

needing the fuel to grow and develop into a strong healthy adult. With proper nutrition at a

young child/toddler has been proven to be important so one’s child isn’t set up for type 2

diabetes or any type of health problems. As a 2 or 4 year a child should be eating about 1,000-

1,400 calories throughout the day and fruits and vegetables at 1.5 cups of both (“Mayo Clinic). If

ones child finds it hard to consume the proper number of calories than you can have a reward

system like taking a trip to the local park which in return will be beneficial because of eating

their fruits and veggies in and burning off the calories and getting vitamin D from the sun.

INTERVIEW
I interviewed my mom Kim Quillen, who has raised me and my sister and in fact owning

her own home day care service for the last 25 years. In those years she has watched a vast variety

of ages and types of children. The purpose of this interview was to see how I was brought up and

if the concern of obesity was ever brought up or worried about throughout the early years of

childhood. Also, the driving purpose was also to see what she feeds the children she watches,

from watching these kids from before 7 am to 4:30 in the afternoon, almost 75 percent of the

calories consumed are under her watch so just wanting to know how she feels about nutrition and

sugary foods. With the gap in between my childhood compared to the kids she watches her right

is a wide gap of years and wanting to know if there has been an increase in heavier children and

if the parents are doing anything about it. This interview was done without ever talking about

talking childhood obesity or about previous research so there was prior knowledge or biased put

on her. To start out this interview, just asked about her basic thoughts about childhood obesity

and how she thinks one can change this issue for the best. She finds it be a big issue and feels
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and if the number of children that are obese are rising in the last decade or so. How she raised

me, and my sister was not to worry about the issue of obesity but always had it in the back of her

mind because making sure we were always active and involved in many sports and most

weeknights we sat down as a family and a healthy hearty dinner. She didn’t restrict us heavily on

the sugary treats because of the thought of growing up and not indulging and binge eat all the

foods that were heavily restricted. With not worrying because she prepared herself ahead of time

by looking into the topic of how to properly nourish a child and the steps to do so.

With the question of has there been an increase in obesity among the children you have

watched now compared to the past and do the parents restrict what you feed them? She sees a

trend in parents caring more about what the child eats in the first year of there life more then not

caring really much at all and the parents don’t really bring it up. I think they trust my mom

because with how many years she has been doing it. My mom answered with how she feeds

them by serving a quick breakfast in the mornings or they eat at home in the morning and for

lunch she serves a protein such as turkey with a fruit like grapes or oranges with gold fish or

pretzels and always water or milk instead of juices with high levels of sugar depends on the day

and really not dealing with any kids with the problem of obesity at the moment. When she does

deal with obesity in children their parents are normally overweight almost every time. She ended

the interview with just bringing up the point of the amount of time children are spending their

electronic devices compared to when I was growing up and thinks that this might be one of the

leading causes in the rising rates of obesity in children and adults. This interview proves that

with knowledge about this topic as a parent can lead to a healthier child than being not being

aware of the nourishment that is recommended for a child. This interview hits on the showing the
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effects of screen time compared to physically playing and burning the stored calories with how

she has seen the increase of screen time across the children she interacts with daily.

CONCLUSION-MY THOUGHTS

After reading this research paper one might want to know what my opinion about the

Obesity Epidemic in the United States. First the causes of obesity starts with diet, a poor diet with effect

your whole day by not giving you the energy you need for activities and they state that inside the

Wisconsin school system. The fix to this is teaching the kids about this topic at a younger age, in a health

class or gym. The scary part of it is how with the extensive funding from the government and

organizations around the country have not resulted in any type of decrease among kids. I’ve said it once

before, but it starts with the parents and If the country doesn’t notice that they will be a continued

increase among these heavily overweight children.

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Work Cited

“Childhood Obesity. Infographic.” Junior League of Minneapolis, 29 Apr. 2013,

https://jlmadvocacy.com/2013/04/29/childhood-obesity-infographic/

Cooke, Natalie K., et al. “Medical Students’ Perceived Educational Needs to Prevent and Treat

Childhood Obesity.” Education for Health: Change in Learning & Practice (Medknow

Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd.), vol. 30, no. 2, May 2017, p. 156. EBSCOhost,

http://sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=

edb&AN=125354284&site=eds-live

“First Study to Measure Effectiveness of NFL PLAY 60 Program Shows Positive Results on

Youth Fitness.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 17 Jan. 2017,

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170117135920.htm.1 April 2019

“Genes Are Not Destiny.” Obesity Prevention Source, 11 Apr. 2016,

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/genes-and-

obesity/

1 April 2019

How Food Works: The Facts Visually Explained. DK, 2017.

Mayo Clinic Staff. “What Nutrients Does Your Child Need Now?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo

Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 15 June 2017

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/in-depth/nutrition-for-kids/art-

20049335
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Mckoy, James, et al. “The Weight of the Nation: Children in Crisis.” Top Documentary Films,

11 July 2012, https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/weight-nation-children-crisis/ Accessed

April 2019

Quillen, Kim. Personal interview. 30 March. 2019.