Childhood Obesity

This topic has always interested me and when I looked it up, I was amazed. Childhood Obesity has been a recent and growing problem throughout the world. In the United States alone, 1 out of 3 children are considered overweight. My opinion on why this is happening is because of junk food and new technology. Children who eat junk food gain an extra 150 calories a day. Children around the ages 11-18 visit a fast food restaurant 2 times a week. Studies show that children consume around 29-38% of their food from fast food places which could add anywhere around 6 pounds! Fast food is not the only reason why children are becoming obese, new video games and t.v. are a big cause. Kids younger than 6 watch around 2 hours of TV a day and teenagers get around 4 hours a day and this is not including the computer and new video games. Some of the risks of being obese can be deadly. High blood pressure, which can cause heart attacks from hypertension, high cholesterol, and asthma are all risk of becoming overweight. Asthma alone kills 11 people every day and 4,000 people die every year. My opinion on this topic is that children should be having more home cooked meals, spend only one hour watching TV a day, and spend at least 2 hours playing outside. Go for a walk, jog, run, play some sports, try to join a school club or team, or just have fun playing with your friends. Now after reading this, go outside and go play!