The Growing Issue With Childhood Obesity - 1237 Words

The Growing Issue With Childhood Obesity Carmen Solivan- Amengual American Public University The Growing Issue With Childhood Obesity Although childhood obesity is a serious issue, there has been a great decrease over the past decade, thanks to research on childhood obesity and programs that help decrease the number of children and adolescents who are overweight. Childhood obesity can have long term and lasting effects on the overall well-being of a child, including cardiovascular disease, high risk for development of diabetes, and other health issues for children and adolescents. Over the years, there have been several research done on childhood obesity and because of the research, several programs have been developed, so that childhood†¦show more content†¦The consensus on how to improve childhood obesity, is to increase the time spent daily on physical activity and to improve healthy and nutritional eating habits in children and adolescents. One research that focuses on reducing the number of children who are obese, is called The Childhood Research Demonstration Project (CORD). CORD’s main goal, on how to prevent childhood obesity, is to find out if interventions between the pediatric health care and the community, can reduce obesity in children and adolescents. CORD’s ultimate goal is to find out if children and adolescents can loss weight by increasing their physical activity and by eating fruits and vegetables, and drinking healthier beverages. Programs Already Available to help Prevent Childhood Obesity There are several programs available to help prevent childhood obesity. Programs like Fit Kids, Just for Kids, and Action for Healthy Kids are good programs that focus on helping children and adolescents stay healthy and increase their physical activity in school and childcare settings. Fit Kids is an afterschool program that promote healthy and active lifestyles, among children and adolescents, through youth fitness groups and with nutrition advice. According to fitkids.org, â€Å"By offering increased opportunities for physical activity among children, we hope to inspire an early love of sports and fitness that will serve as the foundation for a healthy