Child Obesity: What is the Answer?

Many of us do not want to face the fact that our country has a problem with child obesity. If you watch the news, look around the town you live in, or just read the newspaper you will see how this has become an epidemic. We need to quit saying we do not know what the answer is and just own up to the fact that it is what we feed our children and the bad habits we instill in them about eating and exercising. There is no reason to point fingers at one another we just need to accept the problem and find a solution before the problem gets any worse.

I have found a newspaper article titled, “Risk Cluster Linked to Childhood Obesity”, and it states several warning signs we are to look for and try to help prevent them from happening. There is no doubt we need to find a solution quickly in order to prevent the problem of childhood obesity from getting any larger than it is. There are numerous health issues that go along with childhood obesity and this article discusses it in detail to help us see the warning sign before it is too late.

The first step is a good instructional goal to clarify what metabolic syndrome is, what routine in our lifestyles, and what food intake causes this syndrome. My fifth grade class will determine what activities or exercises we should do to burn up calories and what type of foods we should eat to avoid overloading on calories. This will help the students be able to use problem solving abilities in order to find the answers that we need to solve the epidemic. The students will need to interpret ideas to urge children to foster good eating habits and not ignore warning signs that they are at risk for childhood obesity. The fifth grade students will need to recognize foods that have high calorie levels and be able to recognize exercise or activities that can help children fight off obesity.

The above food pyramid is what students will use to calculate how much of one particular food they are to intake in a days’ time and figure out how many calories each item has in order for them to keep a record. This food pyramid is designed for approximate ages 6-10 and how much of each food group they are to eat in one day. The different food groups are dairy, vegetables, meats, fruits, and grains. This lesson should be kept simple but fun in order to keep the students on track with the desired objective. The students will have the opportunity to create their own menus for all meals; breakfast, lunch, and supper, and they will be required to discuss this assignment with their parents because of the menus and they will need help with purchasing the food items.

I have found a game called Breakfast Detective for the students to play to help them understand about the importance of breakfast. It is a game where you have to search for clues to find the appropriate food you should eat for breakfast. I will add to the game some food items that are not appropriate for breakfast and the students will have to identify the food that is not good for breakfast and discuss why it is not. This will help them with the most important meal of the day and let them decide what acceptable food to eat each morning.

The second step is for the student to select and define the problem in the article. I have identified the problem in the article as trying to find ways to decrease the habitual health situation with our youth.

At this point the students will need to research the different food groups and what children like and dislike in the different groups. This will give them a better perspective on how to help the children with food choices so they may avoid foods that have a tendency to promote childhood obesity and chronic health concerns. Now I will have the students make a list of what they ate today. They will make two columns on their paper and one is titled foods good for you and the other will be foods that are bad for you. We will go over what each student ate and determine if it should be on the good side or the bad side. After we have gone over all the students will we discuss why an item is on the good list or why it is on the bad list. This will give the students a better perspective on what causes the chronic health issues associated with childhood obesity. They will also look at fat burning activities that will help them burn fat if they have had something on the bad list. Some examples I will give the students for good activities are bicycling, jogging, walking at a fast pace, baseball, basketball, and jump rope.

The third step is formulation of the problem we are trying to solve. We need to know how to get the youth to eat healthy and do activities that will promote healthy habits. We may not want to hear this but one good way to help children accomplish healthy eating habits and activities is by the adults taking part in the goal. Showing by example, is an excellent way to show that you have healthy eating habits and spending time doing healthy activities with your children. Take a walk with your children or ride a bicycle to your local park with them. You could play a game of baseball or basketball with them and let them think you lost. While you are exercising stop and eat some packed fruit and vegetables you brought and drink bottled water instead of soda. If they see you doing healthy things then they will want to be like you, because you are their parent.

The fourth step is to provide the source where you found your information on the subject. My source was the Associated Press and it was in the Salt Lake Tribune. You can find excellent information in the newspapers and it is more up to date information because they want to keep newspapers with current information.

The fifth step is the structure of procedure for the way you collect your data. We will continue the activity they did where they had the two columns with good food items and bad food items and for seven days they will have to keep track of what they eat for breakfast, lunch, supper, and snacks. For each day they will have a sheet with the two columns in order for them to list their foods in the proper columns. At the end of the task we will look at their lists and determine if they are on their way to obesity and chronic health concerns. Also they will have listed on a separate piece of paper what activities they did to see if they are burning enough fat to make up for what they have eaten in the past week. If you see the students are on their way to childhood obesity, it would be a good time to discuss what preventative measures the student could take to prevent the negative outcome. It is easier to stop it early then to wait until it is too late.

The sixth step is to interpret the data the students have collected. The students will look over their columns and see what healthy and unhealthy habits they have with food and exercise. Now would be the time to encourage them to stop and think about the food they eat and how they could change their lifestyles to help prevent chronic health issues. Make sure they participate in Physical Education and recess, remind them about the healthy foods and unhealthy foods, and have them think before they eat an in between snack to make sure they have a healthy snack. The data they have collected the past week will have them count up the unhealthy food and healthy food and give the class a total of each column then you could give them suggestions on how to do better or pat them on the back for doing great.

The seventh step is to summarize the information that has been discovered with this project. The main purpose of the assignment was to find ways to prevent childhood obesity and the chronic health issues that go along with the problem and find possible solutions. One answer to the problem would be to get the school cafeteria to only serve food that was healthy for the students and if they brought their lunch instill healthy habits and not allow unhealthy foods. Another answer would be to remind the students at lunch to think about what they eat, make sure it is on the healthy list, and remind them before recess or P.E. how important it is to participate in order to get benefits from exercises. Last you could offer an evening activity for parents and students in order for you to address both of them and go over the results of the assignment to let parents know if their child is at risk of being obese. This would benefit everyone and possibly save a child from a sealed fate that would only lead to chronic health issues.

The eighth step is to list activities which I did throughout my essay. The Breakfast Detective and What did you eat?, that we divided into the two columns. The ninth step was list instructional resources and I listed the food pyramid in my paper to show what the kids went by for the food group assignment.

Resources:

United States Department of Agriculture, (2011), Food Pyramid Picture, Retrieved on August 09, 2011, http://aids.about.com/blpyramid.htm


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