Childhood obesity is a serious problem because as parents try to figure out how to get their overweight son or daughter to lose weight, they often find dieting and enforcing a vigorous fitness routine doesn’t work well if at all. One sad trend is that despite knowing the health consequences of being overweight, children are still eating unhealthy foods and becoming less and less active as technology is readily available.
Many factors are influencing the trend of children becoming overweight in the US. One factor parents should definitely consider is how the social environment can be a negative or positive place of reinforcing healthy eating habits and being fit. For example, one might look at how the fact that many public schools are poorly funded and receive offers from vending machine companies to get thousands of dollars in exchange for placing their machines in the schools.
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These machines often carry high calorie and nutrient deficient foods (or junk foods as we all know it), and because they are fast to eat and sweet tasting, many kids fall victim to consuming them daily. While some might argue that it is a personal decision whether or not to consume these foods, one must recall the fact that children and teenagers are still growing and often incapable of making the right decision all the time. This inability to often make the right decision for oneself, is why parents must consider how even the school environment can be a negative place for healthy eating habits.
In nutrition, vending machines serve as an especially dangerous exposure for children for many reasons. Everything in this country is fast paced. For example, many schools have a very short lunch break which leaves children just enough time to properly eat a healthy lunch and have time leftover to socialize through play or other means. This is a huge temptation for our kids because they will likely desire to quickly fill up on high calorie foods and sugary beverages so they can go outside and play or socialize with friends.
So, for as long as obesity trends are becoming worse and children must attend school, it is up to parents to try to structure their environment as much as possible so as to leave little room for them to give into their temptation. A positive environment for a child would be surrounding them with people who are all having fun by being active naturally. A summer fitness camp for kids fits this description perfectly because as a positive environment, it will reinforce being active as a natural way to have fun. At the same time it will also provide your child with a structure that prevents them from consuming junk food on a regular basis. They will be having too much fun to think about eating junk food!
