In order to live a healthy life, it is important for one to be educated on how to do so. It is hard to educate young children on what is considered healthy especially when it comes to making the right choices for food. Therefore, the parents should be educated enough to know what is nutritional and what is not for their children. In 106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney by William Speed Weed from Popular Science, they talk about how much knowledge an average American has about "science." Science includes many things including learning about nutrition. When it comes to childhood obesity, being educated about nutrition is very important. This helps with the diet that should be carried on especially for someone who has a risk of obesity whether it is a child or an adult. The key thing to a healthy diet is to be able to understand what certain things mean especially when it comes to different advertisements which claim that their product is healthy. Some food may be healthy, but thinking of the long term maybe not so much. When it comes to making the right choice your children and yourself, it is important to think outside of the box because what you see could be temporarily true, but not necessary healthy in the long run. As the book mentioned, even when it comes to going grocery shopping, it is important to understand words in the nutritional facts because it can say "healthy" on the package, but it could not be healthy.
According to Popular Science, Americans are not being educated enough about how to evaluate food and how to make the right choice. This issue has been taken into consideration by government officials and healthcare officials. Many political leaders are forcing parents and children to start eating healthy such as Michelle Obama. Along with that school officials are also in the process of making school cafeterias healthier by removing vending machines. As parents, role models, and ideals it is very important for children to follow right foot steps. If parents set a healthy guide line for children then childhood obesity rate has a chance of being decreased. Along with eating healthy, other factors also play a role in decreasing childhood obesity like the past blogs have mentioned. Childhood obesity is a major issue and it is creating future health problems and therefore everyone should try to their best to contribute in decreasing childhood obesity.
Resources:
Weed, William Speed. "106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney." Popular Science264, no. 5 (2004)
I completely agree with Popular Science, I think it's really important for people to be educated on things that affect their well-being and health. The problem with this day and age is that a lot of people rely too much on their doctors to tell them what they are doing wrong. Although a doctor is there to help you understand the importance of health and nutrition, it is also your own responsibility to make sure you are eating correctly and exercising correctly. It is incredibly important for people to understand that they must take an initiative in learning about the harms and benefits of things regarding their own well-being.
ReplyDeleteI agree that advertisements are very misleading and one needs to understand that if a product claims to be healthy it may not be true. Parents and children need to take the initiative and educate themselves on what is "healthy" to eat for the long run. Decreasing childhood obesity can be accomplished by understanding what is healthy and good fuel for the body. Following the right foot steps and observing what parents eat, shapes the minds of children.
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