Is That Sugar-Free?

With the obesity epidemic growing in the U.S. everyday, it is hard to not look at how it is effecting one of, if not the most, influential target group today: children.

Children see thousands of advertisements everyday filled with messages about junk food, sodas and video games. This $11 billion dollar industry is only part of the reason why children are currently one of the most inactive groups of people in America.

Now advertisements are not the only thing to blame in looking at why children are fatter, lazier and overall less healthy than ever before. Cutting of funds for P.E. programs across the country have played a huge part in the epidemic. Without funding for physical education, children have no time during the school day to release energy, boost their metabolism and burn off any calories they may have consumed during the day.

There is also the effect of parents on their children. Kids learn from what they see around them and use what they are provided. If a child's parents lead unhealthy lives and provide their children with unhealthy food, the end result is an unhealthy child.

But a new factor has come into the blame circle, particularly in the past couple of years. Media. Not only are children bombarded with advertisements on TV, the radio and online, but they are also filled with images that promote negative body types as well as media telling children who are at an unhealthy weight that they are simply outcast and not normal.

After looking at these factors, one question needs to be answered. What changes first? There are people who support changing one factor over another. My answer would be to change them all.

Take out junk food and soda from schools, change advertisements and work with companies to develop healthier snack options, provide educational information for parents to help them change habits at home and cut out the negative media. I know it's a lot to ask, but when type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol are problems that 10 year old children are having to deal with, changing four influential factors may not be too much to ask.