Obesity Essay.
Instructions: The academic essay Assignment in this unit will be a written, cohesive argument for the change in your community or workplace that you have been writing about throughout the course. The Assignment should take the form of a persuasive academic essay, in which you will provide reliable evidence from at least four sources to support the argument for change that you are advocating. You will also need to address a counter-argument or misconception about your topic within the essay, as the ability to do so is a key component of a strong argument.
– Thesis statement for battling childhood obesity: Incorporating physical activity into an academic school day, and ensuring healthy food, as well as healthy living education, should help battle childhood obesity. While at the moment academia imposes a sedentary day, with promoting physical fitness it can help to fight childhood obesity, and later in adulthood
Your persuasive essay will need to meet the following criteria:
APA 6th Edition format for the document, including an appropriately formatted title page and References page
– A thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph
– Well-developed paragraphs that include evidence from sources to support your
argument for a specific change in your community or workplace
– Four reliable sources should be cited within the text of the Assignment; at least one of the cited sources should be either a book/ebook or a periodical article, preferably from the Kaplan Library.
– All cited sources need to have full citations on a References page (except for any interviews you conduct, which only require in-text citations)
Standard American English and a formal tone throughout the writing
– Only the third person point of view should be used
● Opens with a compelling introduction and ends with a conclusion that effectively wraps up the essay.
● Includes a logical persuasive thesis statement at the end of the introduction paragraph that advocates an argument for change.
● Supports main points effectively and clearly in the body paragraphs (no logical fallacies, outside sources used to support arguments where appropriate).
● Skillfully refutes counter-arguments or misconceptions without ignoring data that contradicts the thesis.
● Meets or exceeds 1000-word minimum (not including title or references page).
● Shows original thought.
● Paragraphs are well-developed, coherent, and logically organized.● Cites at least four reliable sources and includes at least one book and/or periodical article.
● Sources are cited in-text and on the references page, except for personal communications, which are cited in-text only.
● Sources are appropriate for an academic audience.
● The style is appropriate for an academic essay (stays in third person, for example).
● Sentences are engaging to read as well as clear, concise, and precise.
● Project is free of serious errors, including sentence structure errors; grammar, punctuation, and spelling help to clarify the meaning by following accepted conventions of Standard American English.
Solution.
Obesity
Introduction
Obesity is referred disorder in where an individual’s body accumulates the excessive amount of fat that increases the chances of the person developing diabetes, heart problems, as well as high blood pressure. Arizona is among the seven states in the United States that has the highest level of childhood obesity rates. The weather conditions in Arizona seem to have a direct correlation to the increasing rates of obesity (“Beverage Consumption and Risk of Obesity among Native Americans in Arizona”, 2004). Facing or battling childhood obesity is not impossible, but it will take the entire community to be involved in the change. When it comes to change, there is often a high chance of resistance that comes with it but with time, change is inevitable. Choosing a healthy lifestyle and opting to be physically fit enables the community to reduce the high rates of obesity both in children and by extension to the adults (Hoeger, Turner, &Hafen, 2002).
Our society has a great misconception about obesity. The misconception of obesity is a reason that will also make children more susceptible to obesity. One of the mistakes that people often seem to say is that they are gaining weight because their metabolism rate is low. This perception is false given the fact that the more an individual gains weight, the higher their metabolism rate. Such mentality causes individuals not to do anything about their weight because they assume it is not in their power to do much about it thereby gaining more weight. Another misconception about obesity in our society is that parents often assume that their children will often outgrow the excessive weight that they have gained through their childhood years. This assumption is relevant to the kind of diet that the child is having and his activity levels. The ideas is a misconception because a healthy lifestyle is a habit that one will need to develop which makes the child have a high chance of becoming obese even in their adult years.
The other misconception of obesity is the fact that people assume that to lose weight, one can get an easy and quick fix. Various books and articles online encourage people to take herbal tea and other pills that will help them to cut weight within a short period. Even if losing weight drastically would happen, there is a high chance that the individual will gain twice the amount of weight within a short time. This is false information because to lose weight it is important for an individual to work with a proper diet and effective programs that will encourage lifestyle changes.
Given that obesity increases the likelihood of people having diabetes, high blood pressure, and significant heart problems, it is important to come up with various ways to reduce the chances of diabetes. Various steps can be taken to educate the children as well as the greater community on obesity. Knowledge is power, using this as a key statement, it is, therefore, critical for the society as a whole to understand concepts on obesity, causes, effects as well as the remedies. The community should also be informed and taught about the various myths and misconceptions about obesity alongside their facts. This information gives the community a higher chance of being able to tackle obesity on a greater scale.
Childhood obesity can be handled by ensuring that children have the proper diet and also sufficient exercises. Playing video games and watching television all day while snacking especially during holidays is an easy way for one to gain weight and become obese. Children should be discouraged from playing video games and watching television for long hours. Parents should encourage their children to have more outdoor games such as bicycle riding or skating. Outdoor activities encourage exercises which enable the children to be more physically active thereby burning any excessive fat that if accumulated could have caused diabetes.
To be able to tackle the problem of obesity, we have to battle it both at home and in the various schools. In the United States, thirty-four of the states have established soda and a snack tax. McDonald has begun having healthy food options in their menu that include salads and snacks. To encourage kids to keep active, Nike declared a $50 million program that would be running for about five years. The program is called the “Let’s Move! Active Schools” which is intended to ensure that the children will include physical activity in their daily lives. The agenda of this program is to have the youth and young children to have an active lifestyle.
Having a healthy lifestyle from childhood can enable an individual to have a healthier longer life (Bragg & Bragg, 2004). Since most of our children spend most of their time in schools, it is important to have programs that will enable the children to be aware of health and obesity. These programs will empower the children at a young age to have a chance at living a healthy lifestyle. Educating the children on the importance of healthy lifestyle will have a direct impact on the children’s livelihoods. The schools can have a curriculum that incorporates physical education programs, sports event competition that every child should participate in at least one sport, classroom subjects on health and after school programs. These programs are intended to ensure that the students are physically active.
Nutrition is another important aspect that the school can be able to utilize on by the school offering healthy food options. Children love to eat yummy foods such as chicken nuggets, cheese, pizza, and neon-orange macaroni. Most of these particular foods that children seem to find to be enticing are very high in their cholesterol and fat levels. We should try to make known to our children healthy food that increases their long-term health and wellness. The school can plan in the budget to purchase and prepare healthy meals that will have a direct effect in encouraging children to have healthy eating habits by having vegetables in their diet. The school should encourage healthy eating habits further by offering natural fruit juices instead of sodas thereby removing unhealthy food practices.
Sedentary behavior which is seen as a time that children spend while watching television or playing video games increase a child’s susceptibility to obesity even through to adolescence(“Sedentary Behaviors and Youth: Current Trends and the Impact on Health | Active Living Research,” 2016). The amount of time that you and children spend on sedentary activities has increased more with time. Individuals and children are required to spend up to sixty minutes time of exercising every day. Sadly, most individuals do not make to meet this goal but instead, spend most of their time engaging in a sedentary lifestyle that does not help them but do contributes to weight gain problems more.
In conclusion, obesity is a
significant problem in Arizona. The community to tackle this issue will need to
accept first that there is a problem within the community, especially among our
children. Obesity is a lifestyle disease that if not handled can lead to a
health condition that has serious complications such as diabetes, heart
problems, and high blood pressure. Obesity can also affect a child due to the
society belief on the definition of beauty to be skinny. Schools together with
the community as a whole can be able to curb this by encouraging the young ones
to exercise and have physical activities incorporated in their lifestyles.
References
Beverage Consumption and Risk of Obesity among Native Americans in Arizona. (2004). Nutrition Reviews, 62(4), 153-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2004.tb00038.x
Bragg, P. & Bragg, P. (2004).Bragg healthy lifestyle. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Health Science.
Hoeger, W., Turner, L., &Hafen, B. (2002).Wellness. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
Sedentary Behaviors and Youth: Current Trends and the Impact on Health | Active Living Research. (2016). Activelivingresearch.org. Retrieved 21 April 2016, from http://activelivingresearch.org/sedentaryreview
