Effects of Media on Childhood Obesity

Effects of Media on Childhood Obesity
ENG122 English Composition II

Effects of Media on Childhood Obesity
INTRODUCTION
      Childhood obesity rates in America have been on a steady climb over the last 30 years. The Nemours Foundation (2009) report indicates that one in three children is now classified as obese.   Children who are living with obesity are at great risk of severe medical conditions that will follow and haunt them throughout life. Diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are just a few of the problems these children could face later in life. Childhood Obesity is defined by the Mayo clinic staff (2010) as “a medical condition that occurs when a child is well above the normal weight for his age and height.” Weight gain occurs when there is an excess intake of calories above the daily expenditure of energy needed to burn those calories. Sedentary behavior is one cause of this offset. In children sedentary behave becomes a habit that will follow them into adulthood and become a lifestyle that is difficult to shed.
      The percentage of obese children in America due to sedentary behavior is directly comparative to the developmental time line and rise in popularity of electronic entertainment media. As gaming consoles, televisions, computers, and cellular telephones have become more, affordable, available and popular with children the sedentary behavior these devises promote has replaced the more physically active play that dominated children’s social lives in the past. Television also has an additional hazard that is often overlooked in obesity studies, advertisements of sugary foods often zero in on children who pressure their parents to supply them with the cereals, fast food and snacks that are then eaten while the child watches the very programming or uses other electronic media that keeps them in a static state where fewer calories are burned.
      It is important that research of this current trend is conducted and analyzed in order to identify...