Curbing child obesity

In my senior six vacation, I worked as a cashier at a fast food joint. I spent every day watching ‘well-fed’ children walk in and order for their daily chips and drumsticks with a milkshake meal. Now for some people (and I can’t say just how sad this makes me) obesity is a sign of ‘good eating’ or wealth. They assume that a fat kid represents money. Now sure, if they can afford fast food everyday then they’ve got to have money, but at what point will they realise just how badly they are damaging their child’s health? Jessica N. Kemigisa, a working mother of two, says women these days literally stuff their kids with food thinking being chubby means they are adorable. “Adorable is like chubby cheeks and some tires around the neck, not a flabby belly and breasts when you are only six years old! I once saw a girl who looked well into her teens and her mum was screaming at her to finish her cheese burger. I was so shocked when the pool attendant told me later that she was only seven years old.” Another confession “I once advised my older sister to work out with her 10-year-old daughter and she snapped. She said she was not going to torture her child with unnecessary workouts and that it was only baby fat, it would go away with time. The girl is fourteen now and bigger than ever, which makes me wonder if she still thinks it is baby fat,” says Aline Barungi, a 27-year-old events planner. A couple of weekends ago, I noticed a family of about five when I went for an afternoon swim. My only consolation was the fact that they were there to swim but I was quickly saddened when after a few minutes, plates of pizzas and chips and God knows what else piled onto their table. I also noticed two, much slimmer kids on the other side of the pool laughing when one of the ‘wider kids’ tried to wear her costume. Now, I know it is not my place to worry for these kids and I also don’t expect them to eat broccoli and Brussels sprouts on an afternoon out, but judging by their weight and the speed in which they gobbled those pizzas, fruits and veggies aren’t something they see very often. Plus, the way the other kids laughed and whispered to each other, was something I’m convinced happens a lot, even at school. According to www.policymic.com, after an open letter to LeBron James asking him to reconsider his endorsements with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s and an article decrying Beyoncé’s recent $50 million contract with Pepsi, some people said that children today are obese because their parents aren’t doing a good job controlling their children’s diets and coaching them to more active lifestyles. Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem, according to www.cdc.gov. Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, can lower the risk of becoming obese adults and also help in curbing its related health risks.