That Happened!

New York - Childhood obesity is becoming a huge epidemic in the United States. According to statistics, obese children as young as ten years old had the arteries of people who are aged forty five. They also found that these obese children had heart abnormalities that greatly raise the risk of heart disease. This was found by doing ultrasounds tests of the childrens’ hearts and arteries.

About one third of children in the United States are overweight. One fifth of children in the United States are classified as obese. This is a shocking health statistic.

Doctors used ultrasound tests to measure the thickness of the major neck arteries in seventy overweight and obese children whose ages varied from ten years old to sixteen years old. Almost all of those children who were tested had abnormal cholesterol and many of these children were obese.

There is serious health complications associated with childhood obesity. You can have an abnormal enlargement of the left atrium, which is one of the chambers of the heart. This can lead to serious health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and heart rhythm problems.

Something needs to be done to stop childhood obesity. This is a serious problem. Many children consume a lot of junk food every day. Nutrition needs to be a top priority in schools and when children are at home.

Children need to eat a balanced diet in order to stay healthy and maintain a healthy weight. Children should have their eating habits strictly monitored to make sure that they are not consuming too much junk food.

Being a parent is an important job. Part of your job is trying to keep your children as healthy as you possibly can. Boxed and prepared foods are convenient but often they are not very healthy foods to feed your family. Meals can be healthy and quick at the same time. You can make many meals like salads with chicken, pastas, and other healthy meals that are very easy and inexpensive to make.

School lunches also need to be healthier. Many children eat pizza, chicken patties, hot dogs, hamburgers, sloppy joes and many other fattening meals when they are going to school. School lunches need to be healthier and focus more on the five food groups. They should also ban sugary soft drinks, sodas, ice creams, and candy from schools. There should be no junk food on school grounds because children need to learn healthy eating habits.

Children with good eating habits usually become adults with health eating habits and lifestyles. If people are healthier then health costs are lower and this helps the economy because insurance costs will be lower for people seeking health insurance.

If you have children please make sure that they are eating healthy food. It is important to stop childhood obesity to prevent further health complications. We need to protect our children’s health and well-being, their lives depend on it.