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About National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month
Children , United States
Ends: Sep 30, 2024
DESCRIPTION:
Most of our food today is prepackaged, loaded with sugar, salt, and other things that make it taste good. Convenience has created a culture where 30% of adults are obese and 50% overweight. Worse, childhood obesity is now a norm, with 20% of children classified as such. Fat cells, once created, never disappear. They shrink or expand. These children have set themselves up for diseases that usually occur in middle age with a slowing metabolism, including diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Childhood obesity has become an epidemic and shows no chance of slowing.
Because of this, President Obama created National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month in 2011. President Trump did not continue the month, but the CDC and other government entities continued to observe it.
GEN X KIDS VERSUS GEN Z KIDS
Going to school in the 1970s and 1980s, out of 1500 students, maybe ten were obese. Fat kids did not exist, for the most part. And yes, back then, we used the word fat. We played outside; computer games barely existed (we did have Pong and later Space Invaders and Pac-Man). To play them, you went to the arcade or pizza parlor and played standing up. We had Twinkies, candy bars, ice cream, and cookies, but most cakes and cookies we ate were homemade, not store-bought. Sweets were made with natural ingredients rather than fructose, extra sugar, preservatives, and trans-fats. Potato chips, soda, and treats were for special occasions, like when we had a babysitter, but not an everyday thing. Meals were homemade, not prepackaged, even though increasingly, both parents worked. We walked to school and were limited to two hours of television a day after homework. Bedtime was by 9 pm until high school.
Yes, there was that annoying health food kick from the hippie movement Dad bought into for a couple of years in the mid-1970s. I still won't forgive him for spiking my orange juice with that horrible brewer's yeast or trying to convince me carob tasted like chocolate (eh...no). At school, we had an apple dispenser; candy and soda dispensers did not exist. It was a different time; overall, you didn't see fat kids.
Fast forward 30 years. Rarely do you see children playing outdoors. Few walk to school, and you can always tell when the school year starts because your commute is twice as long with all those parents dropping their kids off.
This month is about getting kids back to a healthy weight through education, increased activity, and better nutrition.
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