In Caucasian Americans, 31.9 percent of male children and 29.5 percent of female children are obese. Obesity is having a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 30, or in the 95 percent growth percentile. In African- Americans 30.8 percent of male children and 39.2 percent of females are obese. For Mexican-Americans, 40.8 percent of male and 35 percent of females are obese. In the past thirty years, obesity has almost doubled in children. Of these obese children, seventy percent of them had risk factors for cardiovascular disease. These numbers are alarmingly high. Whose fault is this? The child’s parents or guardians.
Children who have no obese parents have a seven percent chance of being obese, kids with one obese parent have a forty percent chance of being obese, and kids with two obese parents have an eighty percent change of being obese. Children who grow up in environments in which unhealthy choices are being made are more likely to make those unhealthy choices themselves.
Most parents are very reluctant to put their children on diets. One parent says, “Most kids who diet will get caught up in diet mentality and spend years; years they should be enjoying life, worrying about calories, fat grams, carbohydrates and the scale.” However other people disagree. Children who eat healthy are more likely to have healthy habits when they are teenagers and adults. If all children learned healthy habits at a young age, it would greatly decline America’s high obesity rates.
A diet is defined as, “Food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health.” Therefore, everyone who eats and drinks is on a diet. Dieting is NOT counting calories, or Jenny Craig types of diets. While those are TYPES of diets, they are not dieting in itself. Dieting is a lifestyle. Dieting is the food a person chooses to eat, and how much they exercise. Dieting is so much more than what most people thing. These parents MUST learn the real definition of dieting before the next generation suffers even more from obesity, and start putting their children on healthy diets. The difference between a healthy person’s diet and an overweight person’s diet is that the healthy person will eat mostly wholesome and healthy foods that are enriched with nutrients, vitamins, and that are low in calories; whereas an overweight person will eat mostly junk food that is high in calories, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, and not a lot of nutritional value.
Parents should have their children on healthy diets. Not anything extreme such as Weight Watchers, but wholesome diets. Children should be eating good foods that are low in calories but high in nutritional value. Children today are eating too many carbohydrates and oils, and not enough of other very important food groups such as vegetables, fruits, dairy, and healthy meats/proteins. If parents truly care for the health and well-being of their children, instead of buying them unhealthy, high-fat foods, they need to give them healthier foods.
Toleration of unhealthy eating can affect a child’s self-esteem. Society spreads an image that “Skinny” is the best thing you can be. Children easily compare themselves to others, especially when they become teenagers. These overweight children (now teenagers) strive to achieve the goal of becoming a stick-thin teen. This leads the teenager to do extreme diets, such as starving themselves, which can lead to eating disorders.
More negative health issues that concern children and teenagers are pre-diabetes, a condition in which the levels of glucose in the blood, which may develop further into diabetes, diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure, thyroid disease, gallbladder disease, gallstones, osteoarthritis, gout, sleep apnea, asthma, and even cancer. However, if a child is at a healthy weight, he or she is much less likely to develop these terrifying health conditions.
Parents need to make sure their children are exercising more. With the increasing development of electronic toys, more and more children are deciding to play video-games instead of outside. The average American child (of 2012) spends 44 hours each week in front of a screen, about 6.2 hours a day, and only 4-16 minutes outside! Parents need to limit the amount of time children play on electronic toys, and start increasing the amount of time children spend exercising. Exercise is also very beneficial for children. Children who play outside will fall asleep easier, be less anxious, and be less likely to develop ADHD or ADD. Children who exercise will be able to make decisions, problem solve, follow rules, and exhibit better self-control.

Parents of overweight children and teens need to be educated on how to raise their children to be on healthy, nutritious diets. Classes should be provided to these parents so they can start to make a difference in their child’s life. Expecting parents should also be taught how to raise their child on a healthy diet because the easiest way to lose weight and become healthy is to never become unhealthy in the first place. It is these parents’ responsibility to raise their children on healthy diets, and with some help, these parents can raise kids who will know how to be fit and healthy their entire lives.