Sugar
30-11-2005, 03:53
I know there is no competition anymore ,but i wrote this feature story for one of my courses and i wanted to share it with readers
Obesity is threatening our children's
Health
Ten years ago, the normal life a child would live will be to go to school, play with friends and back home to do home work. However, nowadays in the 21st century things has changed, children no longer exercise enough they spend their time playing video games ,watching TV and eating junk food. As a result, in the recent years the number of obese children have increased, which threaten their lives, and increase the chance of having heart diseases and diabetes in the future.
To identify the obese child Dr.Mahmoud shams specialized in pediatric said " An obese child is one who weight more than 20 percent of his ideal weight ,and this can be extremely dangerous on his/her life." However, who do we blame, the parents, food manufactures or the TV commercials that attract children to eat more junk food. Samar Abdullah, a mother and a housewife said "TV commercials attracts my son, and when we go out he keeps crying he wants to eat McDonald's, and unfortunately sometimes I do buy it for him."
An obese child not only will suffer from diseases in the future, but also will suffer from low self-esteem and depression especially if his friends at school teased him/her about the weight. Dr Shams said" The obese child will try to avoid people, and not socialize or play with other children at his age." Studies show that if one parent is obese, there is a 50 percent chance that the children will also be obese. However, when both parents are obese the children have an 80 percent chance of being obese. Thus, parents should take care of their children if they noticed any change in their weight, Ryahm Ahmad a mother said" I noticed a again in my daughter weight, so I let her participate in activities after school like swimming to encourage her to drop the weight off ,and we started a low-calories diet"
Moreover, the school must play a role in advising children to choose the healthy food to eat like fruits and vegetables, and encourage them to do regular exercise Dr. shams said" Parents should not eat food like chips or junk food infront of their children and prevent them from eating, they should be a role model for their children" He added, the family must change their eating habits, and encourage their children to eat healthy food.
On the other hand, Governments should put strict rules on food companies to stop advertising Junk food to children, and increase awareness of the dangerous of obesity on them. For instance, the UK food commission made a report about why food marketing to children needs to be controlled, and the report claims that food advertising expenditure is $40 billion, and that for every $ 1 spent by the world health organization on preventing the diseases caused by western diets, more than $500 is spent by the food industry promoting them.
To avoid having an obese child, parents should take a step forward and help their children to overcome this problem ,they must encourage their children to exercise more and participate with them, moreover, to start a low-calories program full of healthy and nutritious food.
Obesity is threatening our children's
Health
Ten years ago, the normal life a child would live will be to go to school, play with friends and back home to do home work. However, nowadays in the 21st century things has changed, children no longer exercise enough they spend their time playing video games ,watching TV and eating junk food. As a result, in the recent years the number of obese children have increased, which threaten their lives, and increase the chance of having heart diseases and diabetes in the future.
To identify the obese child Dr.Mahmoud shams specialized in pediatric said " An obese child is one who weight more than 20 percent of his ideal weight ,and this can be extremely dangerous on his/her life." However, who do we blame, the parents, food manufactures or the TV commercials that attract children to eat more junk food. Samar Abdullah, a mother and a housewife said "TV commercials attracts my son, and when we go out he keeps crying he wants to eat McDonald's, and unfortunately sometimes I do buy it for him."
An obese child not only will suffer from diseases in the future, but also will suffer from low self-esteem and depression especially if his friends at school teased him/her about the weight. Dr Shams said" The obese child will try to avoid people, and not socialize or play with other children at his age." Studies show that if one parent is obese, there is a 50 percent chance that the children will also be obese. However, when both parents are obese the children have an 80 percent chance of being obese. Thus, parents should take care of their children if they noticed any change in their weight, Ryahm Ahmad a mother said" I noticed a again in my daughter weight, so I let her participate in activities after school like swimming to encourage her to drop the weight off ,and we started a low-calories diet"
Moreover, the school must play a role in advising children to choose the healthy food to eat like fruits and vegetables, and encourage them to do regular exercise Dr. shams said" Parents should not eat food like chips or junk food infront of their children and prevent them from eating, they should be a role model for their children" He added, the family must change their eating habits, and encourage their children to eat healthy food.
On the other hand, Governments should put strict rules on food companies to stop advertising Junk food to children, and increase awareness of the dangerous of obesity on them. For instance, the UK food commission made a report about why food marketing to children needs to be controlled, and the report claims that food advertising expenditure is $40 billion, and that for every $ 1 spent by the world health organization on preventing the diseases caused by western diets, more than $500 is spent by the food industry promoting them.
To avoid having an obese child, parents should take a step forward and help their children to overcome this problem ,they must encourage their children to exercise more and participate with them, moreover, to start a low-calories program full of healthy and nutritious food.