Childhood and Adolescent Obesity
Murphy 1 Childhood Obesity Obesity, a growing epidemic in the United States, defined as “corpulence and the accumulation of excessive fat” (Cohen ix). In children and adolescent, the definition is having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or greater (“America’s Epidemic of Youth Obesity”). Mindy Cohen and Louis Abramson write, “obesity, therefore, is an albatross that must be eliminated early in life” (x). Children and adolescents are both classified within the title of childhood obesity. Between the ages of six and eleven refers to children and between the age of twelve and seventeen refers to adolescents (“Childhood Obesity”). Increasing childhood and adolescent obesity is something that no one with the gift of sight can deny. ... “But America’s weight problem has less to do with holiday binges than with everyday choices and circumstances” (“America’s Epidemic of Youth Obesity”). ... “The increase of obesity in children and adolescents has become a major public health concern in the United States and worldwide”(Wang 903). Many parents cannot identify obesity in their adolescents, because of the age-old adage that it is only baby fat or they will “grow out of” it (“Childhood Obesity”). In the United States children with obesity has doubled in the last thirty years (Finney 87). ... Obesity in adolescents has Murphy 2 been attributed to many different factors; the solutions of diet, physical activity, and surgery can possibly help eliminate this epidemic of obesity in today’s youth. Can genetics be an underlying condition of obesity in adolescents? ... “Mexican-American and African-American children are twice as likely as non-Hispanic white children to have a body mass index of more than 25, the definition of overweight” (“America’s Epidemic of Youth Obesity”). In a genome scan study of childhood and adolescent obesity in German families it discovered that to determine hereditary linkage of obesity that a large study group would have to be studied (Saar 326). ... Recent lawsuit brought up against the fast food industry raises the question of why “super-sized” portions can be a problem within this society (“Obesity Epidemic”). This can be a reason for the large increase in childhood and adolescent obesity.