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Shiqi(Krystal)Lin
Rhetoric 105
Professor Hays
24 April 2016
Addressing Increasing Trend of Childhood Obesity in the United States
Fast food consumption has increased the percentage of overweight children in the United
States at an alarming rate. Today, Childhood obesity is the one of the serious public health
concerns among parents in the United States and there’s no chance to slow it down or stop it
unless an action has taken. However, the fast food corporations and their non-stop marketing
have targeted children as their main customers. Those marketing techniques include using toys
for promotions gift, television advertising, in-school marketing, providing coupons and the taste
of the fast foods. These influences could lead to the growing epidemic of the childhood obesity,
which compromises the future health of the United States population. Obesity in childhood
doesn’t only mean the children are having unhealthy weight, rather it causes a wide range of
serious complications and increase the risk of cancers. Thus, the United States government
should call for the efforts to prevent childhood obesity and reduce children’s fast food
consumption.
As we’ve known that the prevalence of childhood obesity has risen greatly over the
world, especially in the United States. Therefore, the hypothesis that fast food consumption is
one of the factors which causes children to be obese has been made. To prove this, I would
analyze my scholarly sources regarding to the situation of childhood obesity in the United States.
Nowadays, fast food has become the most popular food of the children in the United
States. However, fast food is usually in high calories and offer little or no nutritional value.
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According to the National Household Survey, it examined the associations between fast-food
consumption and measures of dietary quality using between-subject comparisons involving the
whole cohort and within-subject comparisons involving 2080 individuals who ate fast food on
one but not both survey days. (Bowman) The survey has taken place in the United States. As the
result of this survey, the children who ate fast food are more likely consume more calories a day
than the ones who didn’t. Children who ate fast food, compared with those who did not,
consumed more total energy(187kcal), more energy per gram of food(0.29/kcal), more total
fat(9g), more total carbohydrate(24g), more added sugars(26g), more sugar-sweetened
beverages(228g), less fiber(-1.1g), less milk(-65g), and fewer fruits and non-starchy vegetables(45g). Surprisingly, children who ate fast food are more likely to have poorer diet quality than the
one who didn't. Obviously, the statistics which the survey provided are the evidences to support
that consuming fast food causes an adversely affect to the children in the United States.
Additionally, consuming fast food might also increase the weight of the children.
Children are considered as overweight if their body mass index(BMI)is between 25-29 and
considered as obese if their BMI is above 30. (Niemeier 849) Because of the children have
consuming too much nutrition-poor fast food, they are taking in way more calories than they are
suppose to have. This can lead to a high body mass index(BMI) and obesity. Research shows that
over 9919 adolescents (71.3%) are participating in an experiment about whether the fast food
consumption is associated with weight gain during the transition from adolescence to adulthood,
2835 adolescents (28.7%) are classified as overweight. (Niemeier 849). This is almost every one
in three people is obese in this experiment. I personally think that this result is definitely showing
that fast food consumption could increase the weight gain from adolescence to adulthood.
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Over the years, fast food corporations spend huge amount of money on advertisement.
However, they have targeted the children as their main customers. During 2002-2004, Exposure
to 100 incremental Television ads for sugar-sweetened carbonated soft drinks was related to a
9.4% rise in children’s consumption of soft drinks. (Andreyeva 233) Research shows that
exposure to food adverts promotes consumption. In the United States, children spend most of
their free time on watching televisions. Children viewed about 2.4 hours of televisions per day
with only 9% children watching television for less than 1 hour. (Andreyeva 233) However, the
majority of food commercials viewed by children are for nutrition-poor and unhealthy food. The
fast food corporations try to catch children’s attention to the advertisement of soft drinks by
promoting special event, giving out coupon and toys. According to Andreyeva’s report, the
elasticity at the mean value of regular CSD advertising implies that a 100% increase in sugarsweetened CSD advertising was associated with a 6.5% increase in children’s consumption of
soft drinks. (233) As a result, the higher exposure to television advertising for fast food causes a
higher consumption of soft drinks and fast food in children, which increase the risk of obesity.
Higher consumption of soft drinks is not only causing children to obese, but might lead to
excessive energy intake. Small changes in energy intake result a big impact in obesity risk. For
example, the daily consumption of one can of a regular carbonated drink over a 10-y period in a
constant environment theoretically will have the potential to result in 50kg weight gain. (James)
Children should always record the amount of energy intake daily in order to avoid in-taking
excessive calories per day. According to James’s report, with each increased serving of sugarsweetened carbonated drink, body mass index and frequency of obesity increased. The odds ratio
of becoming obese increasing 1.6 times for each additional sugar-sweetened drink consumed
each day. (np) 1.6 doesn’t seem like a large number, however, 1.6 times each day means that
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over a year, the odd ratio would be 584 times larger. A few number data cause a huge difference.
Therefore, in order to prevent children to be obese, we have to lower the consumption of soft
drinks.
Because the sizes of food portions, especially of fast food, have increased in parallel with
rising rates of overweight, health authorities have called on fast-food chains to decrease the sizes
on menu items. (Young 248) Portion size of foods has a great impact on determining the
nutrition of the food. If the portion size of foods is excessive, then the energy intake from the
food would also be excessive. According to Young’s observation, fast food portions in the
United Sates are larger than in Europe. (248) This is an evidence interprets the reason of why fast
food consumption increases the rate of childhood obesity especially in the United States. In
1955, for example, the company’s only hamburger meat weighed 1.6oz; today’s largest portion
weights 8.0oz and is 500% larger. Its largest soda was 7.0fl oz. in comparison to today’s 32.ofl
oz. size, and 457% larger. And today’s largest portion of French fries weighs 6.0 oz. and is 250$
larger than the 2.4oz. size in 1955. As the statistics show, the portion size of the fast food has
increased substantially from 1955 to recent. There’s definitely a relationship between portion
sizes, calories intake, and weight gain. Children would obtain more calories and gram of fat if
they consume higher portion sizes of food. Given that, the government should call on the fast
food corporations to reduce portion sizes to prevent children from those unhealthy foods.
One of the selling point of the fast food market is the low price. Due to its low price, the
schools start to purchase fast foods as the students’ lunch meals. Advertisements for unhealthy
foods also appear printed on school lunch menus, and fast food companies sell their food in
schools either directly, at their own stands, or indirectly, through the cafeteria. (Andrea 2259) I
personally think that the schools are responsible for children’s health care. How could the
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children prevent overweight if the school is providing fast food for the children? Fast food also
contains a large amount of chemical additives and often lacks accurate nutrition labeling.
(Andrea 2259) Given that, it is absolutely another new detail which supports that fast food is
nutrition-poor and rise the risk of childhood obesity. Fast food has become popular as the people
started addicting to it and the market started growing. According to Andrea Freeman’s report, in
thirty years, the fast food market grew almost twenty times: from six billion dollars in 1970 to
over 110 billion dollars in 2001. One in four Americans visits a fast food restaurant every day.
(2259) Andrea also mentioned how the fast food market expands globally. For the purpose of
preventing childhood obesity, the school should stop purchasing fast food as students’ lunch
meals and this action would definitely slow down the growth of fast food in the United States.
Who would hold the largest responsibilities to children’s health? Obviously, the parents
would be the ones who take care of the children. The ways that fast food marketing reaches
children through their parents by attracting the parents to either purchase for their children or
allow them to eat. For example, the children of parents who consume fruits and vegetables do the
same. Likewise, the children of parents who consume large amount of fast food may also do the
same. (Grier 235) This reflects on how parents influence children’s eating habits and food
consumption. Although a lot of parents understand the effect and disadvantage of consuming fast
food, they still choose to purchase fast food as family meal due to the laziness of cooking.
According to Sonya Grier’s research, research on intergenerational influences demonstrates how
information, beliefs, and resources are transmitted from one generation to the next and implies a
particular mechanism by which parents’ attitudes and beliefs related to fast food affect children’s
fast food consumption. (Grier 235) It highlights that because the parents are the role model of
their children, thus, the children might develop their attitudes toward fast food in a wrong way
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due to their parents’ influence. In addition, parents definitely should be responsible for the
increasing trend of childhood obesity that caused by fast food consumption.
Having discussed about the increasing trend of the childhood obesity in the United States,
it is important to note that even high school students are suffering overweight. In the Youth Risk
Behavior Survey from 2003 to 2013, It shows that the percentage of high school students who
were obese has increased steadily in the United States. (CDC) The research is from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, which is very informative. The raw data in this source
provides the percentage of high school student who were obese for every states. Most of the
states are between 10%-14%. Only a few state has only 0%-9%. Almost 10 states have 15%19%. (CDC) In the comparison to other years, there’s a small change in percentage for every
single year. For the purpose of this raw data, it provides a way to illustrate the situation of the
increasing trend of childhood obesity more realistic and easy to comprehend.
Identification of modifiable behaviors is important for pediatric weight management and
obesity prevention programs. (Ford 10) Unhealthy lifestyle may lead children to diabetes, high
blood pressure and other complications. All behavior/lifestyle risk factors were framed as
unhealthy behaviors in our analyses so that a higher percentage of each behavior reflects a higher
percentage of children in that group with that unhealthy behavioral or lifestyle risk. Analyses
pertaining to behavior and lifestyle risks were restricted to the 98.7% of the cohort for whom
information was available for at least five of these nine behaviors. (Ford 10) Frequency of
breakfast, family meals, unhealthy snacking and beverages, fruit/vegetable intake, sleep, onscreen time, and exercises are the factors which would have great impacts on childhood obesity.
Given that, a healthy lifestyle could prevent children from many complications and overweight.
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Children with obesity are not only suffering unhealthy weight, but also with many
complications due to the family factor and limited opportunity for physical activity. Family
factor is one of the influences which increase the risk of childhood obesity. Eating family dinner
seems to decrease television viewing and improve diet quality (less saturated and trans fat, less
fried food, lower glycemic load, more fiber, fewer soft drinks, and more fruits and vegetables).
(Ebbeling 482) The children consume what kind of food for family meal depends on their
parent’s choice. If the parents choose to consume fast food as family meal, then their children are
more likely to have a high risk of obesity. Children who have limited opportunity for physical
activity may suffer from overweight. This could lead to many complications like Type 2
diabetes, poor self-stem, asthma, gallstone, flat feet, high blood pressure, and even cancers.
(Ebbeling 482) Among children from Mexico City, obesity risk decreased by 10% for each hour
per day od moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. (Ebbeling 482) In order to prevent obesity,
parents have the responsibility to choose healthier family meal for their children and encourage
them to do more physical activity.
The conclusion of my research is that the fast food consumption has increased the
childhood obesity in the United States over the past years, and would continue to increase in the
future. This dramatic increase places the future of the American children at an extremely
dangerous position. The increase of the fast food consumption is nearly out of control and it is
one of the major factors which causes the children to be obese. However, there are methods to
prevent the childhood obesity from growing. The government should call on everybody to reduce
the fast food consumption in order to prevent obesity from children. Hopefully, these would help
building a better society for our next generation.
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Work Cited
Andreyeva, Tatiana, Inas Rashad Kelly, and Jennifer L. Harris. "Exposure to Food Advertising
on Television: Associations with Children's Fast Food and Soft Drink Consumption and
Obesity." Economics & Human Biology July 2011, Vol.9 ed., Issue 3 sec.: 221-33. Web.
Bowman, Shanthy A., Steven L. Gortmaker, Cara B. Ebbeling, Mark A. Pereira, and David S.
Ludwig. "Effects of Fast-Food Consumption on Energy Intake and Diet Quality Among
Children in a National Household Survey." Pediatrics Jan. 2004, Vol.113 ed., Issue 1 sec.
Web.
Ebbeling, Cara B., PhD., Dorota B. Pawlak, PhD., and David S. Ludwig, MD. "Childhood
Obesity: Public-health Crisis, Common Sense Cure." The Lancet 10 Aug. 2002, Vol.360
ed., Issue 9331 sec.: 473-82. Web.
Ford, Margaret C., Nancy P. Gordon, Amanda Howell, Cheryl E. Green, Louise C. Greenspan,
Malini Chandra, Grant R. Mellor, and Joan C. Lo. "Obesity Severity, Dietary Behaviors,
and Lifestyle Risks Vary by Race/Ethnicity and Age in a Northern California Cohort of
Children with Obesity." Journal of Obesity 14 Jan. 2016: 1-10. Web.
Freeman, Andrea. "Fast Food: Oppression through Poor Nutrition." California Lew Review Dec.
2007, Vol.95 ed., No.6 sec.: 2221-259. Web.
Grier, Sonya A., Janell Mensinger, Shirley H. Huang, Shiriki K. Kumanyika, and Nicolas
Stettler. "Fast-Food Marketing and Children's Fast-Food Consumption: Exploring
Parents' Influences in an Ethnically Diverse Sample." Journal of Public Policy &
Marketing Fall 2007, Vol.26 ed., No.2 sec.: 221-35. Web.
James, J., and D. Kerr. "Prevention of Childhood Obesity by Reducing Soft Drinks."
International Journal of Obesity, Vol.29 ed.: 54-57. Web.
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Young, Lisa R., and Marion Nestle. "Portion Sizes and Obesity: Responses of Fast-Food
Companies." Journal of Public Health Policy 2007, Vol.28 ed., No.2 sec.: 238-48. Web.
"Youth Risk Behavior Survey." Centeres for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
Niemeier, Heather M., Ph.D., Hollie A. Raynor, Ph.D., Elizabeth E. Lloyd-Richardson, Ph.D.,
Michelle L. Roger, Ph.D., and Rena R. Wing, Ph.D. "Fast Food Consumption and
Breakfast Skipping: Predictors of Weight Gain from Adolescence to Adulthood in a
Nationally Representative Sample." Journal of Adolescent Health Dec. 2006, Vol.39 ed.,
Issue 6 sec.: 842-49. Web.