Childhood Obesity Outbreak: a Challenge on Parenting, Problems, and Inference

In today's time, people come across many things that have both positive and negative impacts on their lifestyle. Some of the impacts come with their solutions but sometimes it becomes out of control. People love to eat and eating habits determine our health diagram in a good and bad way. Both, eating less and more than needed have a negative influence on lifestyle and health. People have less control over diet and especially children are becoming obese in their early ages. Yes, it is about the challenge. The obesity challenges. One of the main obesity challenges is faced by children. Child obesity is a more serious issue to be considered because people want to stay fit and healthy but for that, proper diet and food should be considered which is more difficult to attain by children nowadays. People are now more concerned about food's 'Taste' but ignoring its 'Effect' on their health. This Research created an important argument to understand factors associated with obesity. Child Obesity can affect children physically, emotionally, and their self-esteem. It can also affect their academic performance and can bring their morale down. The academic article 'Banning Junk Food' written by Leah McLaren is based on the outbreaks of obesity, challenges faced by people especially the young generation and the overall perspective on how to deal with this kind of 'Dare'. The main subject of the article is to represent an idea that of what should a child or parent consider healthy for each other. 'One major problem with a junk-food ban is it is not always clear which should be classified as ‘Bad' and which are okay for the kids to consume.' (McLaren 429). The author describes what is 'Choice' and the audience can clearly understand the meaning of the word 'Bad'. McLaren used this perspective to explain various 'good' and 'bad' aspects related to junk food. This essay is going to create a positive argument incorporated with McLaren's precision that how junk food creates a problem that people ignore initially and when things go out of control, how people act than to do whatever it takes. Also, this essay uses McLaren's ideology of 'Improper' understanding of parents towards their child's health to explain how child obesity 'Challenge' within and how important is for parents to differentiate between a good meal and a miscellaneous meal for their child. Although it also states some valid solutions to this problem.

There are several factors that create a challenge for both parents and children. First, McLaren at the beginning of article heads towards the mentality of parents about their children through which children often do not give attention towards what is healthy eating and what is unhealthy. McLaren states an example of 17 years old student at Winston Churchill High School in Lethbridge Alta, named Keenan Shaw, who gets suspended for selling Contraband soda pop on school property which was banned under 'Nutritional guidelines' (McLaren 428) of the school. When school administration come to know they gave Shaw a warning, and when Shaw refused to it, they suspended him. After suspension Shaw complaint to a reporter about this and his mother also indigent, saying that 'while she understood the need for rules suspension seemed a bit harsh. Besides, she liked the idea of her son ‘being an entrepreneur'' (McLaren 428). The Author high lightened the fact of 'Misleading strategy of parents' author states, 'Bracketing for a moment the fact that actively praising your child in public for selling banned substances probably is not the wisest parenting strategy' (McLaren 428). Now, parents have an important influence in shaping their children. Parents have a big impact on the family environment where meals take place and the types of food children eat. Here, the Author's point of view is simple but deep. Banning junk food at schools may help in increasing healthy dieting rate for children, but it is also the responsibility of parents to take care of what and when their children should eat a portion of healthy food. 'Nutritional guidelines' (McLaren 428) should be mandatory according to McLaren's idea this helps to concentrate on what type of food kids are consuming. This means offering students food that might be decent for them and their health. However, most of the time parents unable to give attention as one of them or both being busy in work, it is hard for them to give proper care in accordance with their children's diet. As a child eating can be a favorite thing to do and watching it banned or getting away from habit allures most of the children to do it more, not taking them away from junk food. But, in McLaren's view 'It is no exaggeration to say that when it comes to dietary health of North America youth, we are in the middle of outright crises' (McLaren 429). This is also explained by Wendy Campbell under her article of Epiderma of obesity. She brings out a statement that 'Canadian children and teens are not so well nourished as they should be' (Wendy 190). She also explains how feeding children can be challenging. They can be picky eaters. They may change their food according to the taste children prefer. They may 'Refuse' vegetables and fruits, insisting ketchup top everything. However, all these behaviors are normal, yet as parents, there are right ways and wrong ways to respond. Parents can help their kids push through these periods with healthy habits intact and by supporting them because first of all, parent's support for their child is necessary and that is all a child need. This can be a good approach towards good parenting towards their children's diet which might seem a little difficult in the initial phase.

Now, as this challenge faced by children and parents, it leads to several problems economically, personally and in a family. 'The numbers are well- known but still starling. A third of Canadian's five to 17-years old are ‘identified as overweight or obese' '(McLaren 429). The author explains how a habit transfers into a child from their parents and when a habit turns into an addiction, how it creates a problem not only to one generation but also to their next generations. This seems quite often that children, whose parents are fat and obsessed, would also turn fat from the beginning of an early age. It is not necessary that parents are trying to fatten their kids up with junk food and fast food, said McHugh the pediatric psychologist, in his article within Canadian writer's workplace. 'Rather, it has to do with convenience and lack of meal planning' (McHugh 97). For instance, he reviewed that 'Common problem is it gets to be 6 p.m., and Mom looks at Dad, and Dad's looking at the kids, and everyone is wondering what to eat that night. If the solution is to drop by the fast-food restaurant around the corner, it becomes a habit and routine', McHugh said. 'You'll do it until you make an active decision that you won't do it as often' (102). The question arises while discussing in the article that, when you are dealing with a child that is young how to approach a parent to let them know that this is really serious, and they need to really take charge while at the same time not scaring them? From both McLaren and McHugh's approach ideas, it is appropriate to inform parents exactly what kind of health consequences a child can encounter and let them know this is not a cosmetic issue this is a medical and health issue. 'I know plenty of parents who would much rather see their kids drink an occasional sugary drink than a diet one filled with artificial sweeteners. '(McLaren 429). It is a thing of commitment because the problem is not only obesity but also about acting on it by parents, by an individual and that is more challenging when come to give a commitment to not to do what we are fond of. Many parents will act right away but some parents take a denial or a resistance, some parents think their kids will grow out of it but if they are already 8 or 9 and facing obesity, that is no more baby fat and at same time not putting too much burden on the parent as well as kids because the main motive is to make child healthier and also to make the child feel better. The problem might not seem big enough initially, but it has branches that every parent and kid come across by 'Resisting' the ways that can lead to a healthy lifestyle. This also proves McLaren's point, stated by an Academic writer and physician Glover, he states under article New Treatments Needed to Stop Obesity Epidemic, Leading Physician Tells Arab Health Congress. (2018) that, 'huge problems sometimes produce an irrational paralysis of the imagination '(Glover, 1986, p125-44).

Talking about inference and solution to this problem, McLaren says, 'I agree in the theory of banning junk and parent control, but I wonder about the execution' (McLaren 429).

It is vital for the parents to be persistent and patient when they implement any kind of dietary changes or literally any kind of changes and not to support a child in their unhealthy doing as in case of Keenan Shaw that mentioned earlier in accordance with McLaren's argument (427). With respect to recommendations that a parent can use to improve this whole challenge is 'first diet itself', according to Glover (132), looking at the fruits vegetables a child eat. Not a huge variety but a better resourceful every day. 'Secondly, 70 percent kids do not get enough calcium and iron so making sure they get some dairy products in form of milk which is easiest and cheapest rather taking energy drink' (Glover 132). Low fats or fat-free products are missing in most of the diets. Also, protein loading breakfast plays a significant role in upholding body for the entire day. 'Eating breakfast every day also allows a child to do better work in school and to create a better focus' (Glover 133). Adding up to it, the main thing child can do is participating in enough physical activities and that is a missing nutrient in most kids and most kids are not getting enough activity. Active for 60 minutes a day is enough according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Keeping kids less inactive is more valuable than keeping them away from the screen. According to McHugh, if a child wants to listen to music that is okay but get involve them in preparing a meal for them while listening to music. That will keep them moving and will make them a part of family activity that is more valuable than doing a formal or expensive. A place full of mountains and greenery like Kelowna, parents can go for hiking with their kids have some snakes in that way, parents can have little control over kids and kids can have itself.

Hence my both primary and secondary resources worked parallel to explain this big challenge child obesity and how to control and resist to rely on junk food to save people from collapse in family issue and health issues by applying simple and effective suggestions given by various authors. However, McLaren in his article ended up with a statement that portrait a work towards a culture where junk food is understood to be unhealthy and unrealistic, also a good understanding of parents towards child's health, not all, but who resist from consequences. 'A world in which enterprising opportunities like Shaw simply wouldn't be able to find much of a market.' (McLaren 429)

Work Cited

1. Campbell, A.W. (2018). The Epidemic of Obesity. Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, 24(1), 8–11. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.okanagan.bc.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=127382043&site=eds-live&scope=site
2. Licinio, J., & Wong, M.-L. (2019). Invited talk: Is the increased exposure to antidepressants a key contributor to the obesity pandemic? Obesity Research & Clinical Practice, 13(1), 19. https://doi-org.ezproxy.okanagan.bc.ca/10.1016/j.orcp.2016.10.010
3. Leah McLaren, 'Does banning junk food make it more alluring to kids, 'The Globe and Mail (19 September 2014). Reprinted by permission of the author.
4. McHugh, B. (2016). The Childhood Obesity Epidemic. Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society, 22(2), 94–98. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.okanagan.bc.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=116184386&site=eds-live&scope=site
5. New Treatments Needed to Stop Obesity Epidemic, Leading Physician Tells Arab Health Congress. (2018). Operating Theatre Journal, (330), 18. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.okanagan.bc.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=128429467&site=eds-live&scope=site