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Childhood obesity who's to blame?
- 1. Childhood Obesity Who’s To Blame? Mikayla Zuckerman SSC 356: The Politics of Food Spring 2020
- 2. The Issue ➔ Childhood Obesity rates are consistently on the uprise ➔ Socioeconomic status does play a role in obesity rates Picture Source: https://stateofchildhoodobesity.org/adult- obesity/
- 3. The Dimensions: The Parents ➔ Unhealthy foods are cheaper and easier to make ➔ Medical assistance ➔ The parents themselves lack information on what is healthy vs. what is not Pictures Source: https://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/bl og.asp?post=what_20_will_buy_at_the_ drivethru_and_at_the_supermarket
- 4. The Dimensions: The Government ➔ Corrupt healthcare system ➔ Obesity discrimination ◆ Pediatricians shaming ◆ Pediatrician advice not in line with child/parent access to make changes ➔ School lunch ◆ Children are allowed to choose their own meal Picture Source: https://allthatsinteresting.com/school- lunches
- 5. The Dimensions: The Government ➔ Restrictions on the amount of sugar per single serving ➔ Restrictions on mass production of products under larger companies ◆ Coca Cola ◆ Pepsi ➔ Restrictions on marketing Picture Source: https://marketingland.com/the-brand-storytelling- genius-of-the-coca-cola-santa-254285
- 6. The Dimensions: The Parents & The Government Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- 7. Alternative Viewpoints Blaming the Parent: ➔ Your children should not have a choice ◆ Keep only healthy snacks in the house ◆ Plan all meals ahead of time rather asking your child what they want ➔ Attend yearly checkups ◆ If your child is at risk for obesity ● Get diet counseling ➔ Spend more time with your children ◆ Pay more attention to what they eat ◆ Limit time of playing video games/watching television ◆ Enroll them in sports or physical activities outside of school ➔ Practice healthy eating in your own life
- 8. Alternative Viewpoints Blaming the Government: ➔ Prices amongst healthy food vs. unhealthy food should not be so drastic ➔ School lunch should be more mandated ➔ Control marketing of unhealthy foods/fast- food establishments ➔ Provide more assistance to families to aid in the purchasing of healthy foods Picture Source: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/belli-f2013- eng1101/2013/10/16/despicable-me-2-mcdonalds-happy-meal-global- commercial-2013/
- 9. My Position The parent is more at fault then the government ➔ Genetics ➔ Shop the perimeters of the store ➔ Practice healthier eating in own life ➔ Limit time spent watching television and playing video games ➔ Make home lunches ➔ Provide options for meals but be sure they are balanced ➔ Teach moderation ➔ Promote children exercising
- 10. Works Cited “Adult Obesity Rates.” The State of Childhood Obesity, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Sept. 2019, stateofchildhoodobesity.org/adult-obesity/. Bokat-lindell, Spencer. “What's the Right Way to Reverse the Obesity Epidemic?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Sept. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/opinion/obesity-weight-treatment.html. “Childhood Obesity Facts.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24 June 2019, www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/childhood.html. Harvest, Just. “Let Them Eat Cake: Why Food Stamp Bans On Junk Food Are Misguided.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 5 Apr. 2017, www.huffpost.com/entry/let-them-eat-cake-the-misguided-food-stamp-junk-food_b_58c81d09e4b022817b291777. Klass, Perri. “Helping Children Learn to Eat Well.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/26/well/family/helping-children-learn-to-eat-well.html. Lockyer, S. and Spiro, A. (2019), Socio‐economic inequalities in childhood obesity: Can community level interventions help to reduce the gap?. Nutr Bull, 44: 381-393. doi:10.1111/nbu.12410 Pearson, Elsa. “OPINION: Obesity Is Linked To Food Insecurity. SNAP Cuts May Make Both Worse.” NPR, NPR, 16 Dec. 2019, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/12/16/787793287/opinion-obesity-is-linked-to-food-insecurity-cutting-snap-benefits-may-worsen-bo. Sellgren, Katherine. “Parents 'Not Wholly to Blame for Child Weight Gain'.” BBC News, BBC, 20 Nov. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/education-46262619.
Editor's Notes
- Hello everyone, my name is Mikayla Zuckerman and today I will be presenting on the debate of Childhood Obesity but more specifically diving into who is to “blame” for this problem. For my presentation I focused on the debate between blaming parents vs. blaming the government. By the end of my presentation I will share with you my opinion which I have formed after doing research on this topic and then allow you as well to make a more informed opinion and educated decision on who you feel is more to “blame” and hopefully get some new information you can take with you long after this presentation.
- The Issue: According to the CDC, data from 2019 showed that children aged 2-19 obesity prevalence rate was 18.5% and obesity affected about 13.7 million children and adolescents. The CDC also conducted research on children and adolescents obesity rates in accordance with socioeconomic status. This proved that there was about a 10% increase of prevalence comparing those of higher household income vs. those of lower household income. The picture I have shown illustrates the childhood obesity prevalence of each state within the United States. As the graph shows childhood obesity rates among states such as; Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, West Virginia, and a few more represent some of the highest rates in the country. Among these purple states, they also happen to be some of the poorest states in the country which is clearly no coincidence. Now that you have more of an understanding on what this problem is and how drastic it is affecting our population I can begin to explain either sides of this debate.
- I first want to explain the position of why the increase of childhood obesity prevalence is of a result of what is thought to be poor parenting. The year 2020 is much different in terms of parenting styles of the 1900s. It is very traditional nowadays for both parents in the household to be working. Both parents working can often lead to less time home. More often than not parents are looking for a quick easy dinner rather then spending an hour in the kitchen after working all day. The amount of time and effort that goes into making healthy dinners, providing healthy snacks, and educating on choosing healthy options is a large part of the problem but on the other hand lack of money plays a massive role as well. Even in households where both parents are working, there is still a need for medical assistance. I will go into further detail on food insecurity and food stamps in my slides to come but this plays a huge role in why parents are unable to provide healthy options for their children. Often times adults will worry about their kids eating in order to be full rather than to be nourished. This can lead to the parents themselves eating to feel full rather than nourished. The lack of knowledge on the parents end in terms of what to look for on nutrition labels, eating healthy themselves, and promoting activity is unhelpful to the child when it comes to living healthier.
- In terms of the government's position, healthcare is very corrupt which directly correlates to children not receiving the attention they may need to live healthier lives. With the increase in costs of living and surviving as a family, the thought of eating healthy is often last on the minds of parents when it comes to feeding their children. The topic of school lunches has come up often in the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency. While Obama was president there were many movements that were promoting kids to get up and move or to have healthier options for their school lunches. While this did help in some school environments the issue still stands that children are allowed to CHOOSE their own lunch. For me in high school, there was a salad bar, and lots of fresh fruit and vegetable options but there was also always pizza and french fries available everyday. In my experience I either had the choice between a $3 tub of grapes or $2.50 for a generous helping of curly fries. At the age of 15 I still chose curly fries over grapes even with the knowledge of what healthy foods are and how to make healthy choices. Pediatricians often try to educate their patients to make healthier options but often times it is not up to the child. Parents not having access to the funds to provide a healthy dinner are where the problem lies. It’s hard for a child to sit and listen to their pediatrician tell them they need to make healthier choices when they do not even have access to what the doctor is recommending.
- The government is seen to be doing a poor job in terms of regulating of foods that are produced. Nothing is ever set to change ingredients of large brands such as coca cola because that company allows makes such a large amount of money every year. The government can not make much movement in regulating these large companies because of how much revenue they bring in. In the big picture if the amount of sugar in a soft drink was limited or even the use of artificial sugars were no longer allowed, I believe we could expect less prevalence of childhood obesity.
- SNAP benefits play a huge role in the debate of childhood obesity. Pictured above is what is allowed to be bought with SNAP vs. what is not allowed. Some of this is pretty contradictory as mentioned in the article by the Huff Post titled “Let Them It Cake: Why Food Stamp Bans On Junk Food Are Misguided”. The article mentions that SNAP allows buyers to purchase cold potato salad made by the store but not a hot rotisserie chicken made in store. There was plans of potentially cutting out the ability to buy chips and junk food but the government received backlash that it would not allow for people to make their own choices on what they would like to eat. With SNAP benefits there is a common misconception that you can not get fruits and vegetables which is not the case but it is often found that many buyers were purchase more junk food and soda because they can get more bang for their buck.
- The main ideas that involves the parent being at fault can be more generally described as I have stated them in my slide. Among the articles I had read I did feel these were the main focal points that were often brought up.
- On the opposite side of this debate these were the more general ideas that I had found throughout my research that explained why the government is at fault for childhood obesity. I have also added to this slide a picture of what I feel is one of the largest problems in terms of advertising to children. McDonald’s consistently is backed by large corporations such as Disney in order to provide characters in happy meals and provide incentives for kids to collect them all in order to keep coming back for fast food. The government could do a much better job in mandating how wildly popular these commercials for McDonalds are among children. But mainly the argument is that researchers feel the government could be doing more in allowing less of the thinking to be with the child and instead pre decided by school districts, television regulations, etc.
- After researching this topic and compiling data for this project I feel in the argument of childhood obesity the fault lies more on the parents. I do feel my knowledge of nutrition that I have gained through taking courses like this one at MCPHS has also led me to my position on this topic. I first want to focus on a topic that I never mentioned throughout my presentation but that is still relevant and this is the topic of genetics. Genetics can already predispose a child to having obesity without any other problems including financial stability, knowledge, time, etc. Families are responsible after conceiving a child to make healthy choices in terms of what goes into their child's body and I think this should continue up until the teenage years. I think it is important when parents are conceiving and then attending doctors appointments while their child grows and develops that the parent is counseled on what are healthy foods and what is ideal for their child to be eating, as nutrition absolutely makes up a large part of anyone’s physical and psychological health. In nutrition I have learned to shop the perimeters of this store and this would help parents while shopping who may have to take the kids that there is no need to go in the middle aisles as that is where the processed and unhealthy foods that appeal to children are. Whatever the child is eating is also what the parent is eating, there should be no double standard. If this was carried out and practiced upon generation this would flatten the trend of obesity and stop the line of genetics that include diabetes, heart disease, etc. Parents should encourage their kids to get involved in afterschool activities, sports, riding bikes, etc and limit time spent on electronic devices and watching television. I think it is also important to teach to the idea of moderation which is so essential in that practicing extremely strict eating has negative effects where the child will binge when not confined to parental rules or on the other side if the child is not encouraged to eat healthy and instead determines what they eat for themselves this could lead to overeating, etc. I really did enjoy learning more on this topic and i think it is clear that more effort can be made on both sides of the debate but in the interest of choosing a side I still do remain with the idea that the parents could be doing more and are more to blame.