Childhood Obesity in L.A. ---Xinwei Yan

Content Definition of Childhood obesity Trend of childhood obesity reasons OF childhood obesity in L.A. effects OF childhood obesity in L.A. how TO PREVENT CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Childhood Obesity It is concerning too much fat in the children’s bodies. There is an example from Soumya Karlamangla. As she reported, “a 10-year- old boy of average height — about 4.5 feet tall — who weighs 102 pounds would have a body-mass index (a measure of weight and height) higher than 95% of his peers, and therefore be considered obese.” (Karlamanglla, 2015)

Childhood obesity The rate of childhood obesity is still increasing because parents and children make the wrong food choice.

Trend of childhood obesity From this chart, more and more American children got obese as the year increased. Children Aged 12-19 years old show the fastest increase. Source from Ogden, et al., 2002a; CDC, 2003

This graph shows overweight and obesity among different ages in America. After 1976, all lines illustrate a dramatic increase. Source from CDC, 2003.

reasons OF childhood obesity in L.A. Lacking of P.E. Class Eating a lot of junk food Too much fat intake Large amount of calorie intake Participating less physical activity

effects OF childhood obesity in L.A. Physical and mental problems. Depression Type 2 diabetes Cardiovascular Digestive disease

Example of disease caused by Obesity Type 2 diabetes is increasing in children. It will develop for some years. As CDC mentioned, about 75,000 Americans die because of type 2 diabetes every year The girl in the picture suffers from type 2 diabetes, and she is getting her sugar blood report.

How to prevent childhood obesity Walking environment Creating safe walking path More public spaces for doing activities Improving Healthy Environment Increasing the amount of exercise Walking or cycling to school Taking P.E. or dance class • Doing Physical Activity • Limiting Watching TV Avoiding eating when children watch TV NO watching advertisements. • Food Sector Adding logos of nutrition Reducing tax fee for healthy food

“Healthy eating out” campaign This campaign aims to prevent obesity from adults and children. It tries to train chefs to make healthy food. It provides some advice of healthy food for customers, such as fruit and vegetables instead of french fries and soda drinks. No fried food and soda drinks showing in the Children’s menu. Over 700 Subway restaurants join this campaign.

L.A. County focuses on training child care providers L.A. County department of Public Health costs more than 6 million dollars. It trains 6000 child care providers in 500 workshops. They study the analysis of food nutrition and provide healthy food for children.

Campaign against childhood obesity in l.a. It encouraged to change food environment. It pays more attention to improve the quality of nutrition of food. It also suggests to eating healthier and do more exercise. People should avoid soda, sports, and juice drinks. Drinking more water instead of unhealthy drinks.

Children influence their family A mom, called Azucena Santiago, always make healthy food with her children. In the school, teachers educate them to choose the food that contains more nutrition. Thus, children also help their mom prepare fresh vegetables at home.

rEFERENCES Abram, S. (2017, August 28). Why food portions matter for children’s health in L.A. County. Los Angeles Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.dailynews.com/ Cedars-sinai Staff. (2017, Jun 5). Students healthy habits inspire the entire family [blog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.cedars-sinai.edu/students-healthy-habits-inspire-entire-family/ Dehghan, M., Akhtar-danesh, N., & Merchant, A. T. (2005, September 02). Childhood obesity, prevalence and prevention. Nutrition Journal, 4(24). Retrieved from https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-4-24 Fernandes, D. (2014, April 22). LA county to train child care providers to curb obesity epidemic. Retrieved from http://www.scpr.org/ Institute of Medicine. (2015, August 19). Childhood obesity in the united states: facts and figures. Retrieved from  http://www.nationalacademies.org/ Karlamangla, S. (2015, October 11). L.A. county launches campaign against childhood obesity. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/ Los Angeles Times. (2017, April 14). With rise in childhood obesity, corresponding increase in type 2 diabetes seen in young americans. Retrieved from http://ktla.com/ Youdim, C. A. (2016, October 18). Lack of health education leads to a rise in obesity rates. the hill. retrieved from http://thehill.com/blog/

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