Whose Fault Is It Anyway?

Whose responsibility is it to ensure the obesity epidemic is reversed? Schools, Parents, Government, Community and/or the media. What can be done? Discuss using examples from the article and any other information you can bring to the discussion. Everyone should play a major part in ensuring the obesity epidemic is reversed. Parents play the most vital role in this. As a parent it is your job to make sure to bring up your children correctly this doesn’t mean just giving them an academic education it involves making sure they are healthy, getting regular exercise and have an understanding of nutrition.

Parents are the key to start the ball rolling in maintaining healthy dietary habits for their children, if this isn’t done correctly by the parents their children will most probably end up being overweight as teenagers, ‘long term consequence of childhood obesity is its persistence into adulthood, Once a child is overweight or obese it is unlikely that they will spontaneously revert to a healthy weight, predisposing them to the health concerns’(World Health Organization 2000, Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic, WHO Technical Report Series 894).

Parents need to understand that they are the role models for their children; if they do not eat correctly and do not exercise their children are most likely to follow in their footsteps. A survey done in 2007-2008 on the obesity epidemic in Australia the results were that in ‘2007-08, 61. 4% of the Australian adult population were either overweight or obese, and 24. 9% of children aged between 5-17 were overweight or obese’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008, National Health Survey 2007-08, Cat 4364. ). Kids need to have a more active lifestyle, the issue is now days kids entertain themselves with technology such as computers, television and the Xbox. Parents need to spend time encouraging their children to be more physically active, by doing this they also need to become more physically active. Simple things such as taking their children for a bike ride, taking them to the park, playing a game of sport with them.

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They need to put more focus on encouraging their children to be outdoors. Every little bit of physical activity will make a difference to the child’s wellbeing. Schools, The Government, The Community and the media can all make a difference in making sure the obesity epidemic is reversed. Schools can make sure their students get a minimum of 30 minutes daily exercise, they can help educate the children on nutrition and correct dietary habits and can provide healthy ptions in their canteens, ‘Only a quarter of Australian high school students eat the recommended four or more vegetables a day’ (Canberra times article- Battle of the bulge, Peter Jean). Media at the moment shows fast-food advertisements at least 4 times during an add brake. Children who are sitting on a couch watching TV are being brain washed by fast-food commercials, there for only wanting to eat fast-food such as MacDonald’s. The Government can control the media and controls the schools. They can make changes to the schooling curriculum to add more daily exercise.

They can put a stop to the excessive fast-food advertisements that fly across our TV screens. As a community we all play a vital role in making sure children are healthy, this involves weekend sports, and community run sporting activities for young children and even adults. But this will change nothing in reversing the obesity epidemic if parents don’t start to take responsibility for their children and start by giving them the correct dietary needs and regular fitness to kick start their healthy life style.

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