Obesity and the Media
Melissa Lopez
Issue date: 3/6/09 Section: Opinion
Obesity is becoming a major issue in today's society. Because the issue is growing so rapidly, experts seek answers as to why. Some say technology and the media play a large role in this growing epidemic.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates in children have more than doubled since the 80s and tripled in adolescents. A report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation points out that factors obesity include: the decline of afterschool programs and athletic activities, the increase of unhealthy snacks and sodas at school, the rising number of fast food restaurants and the increasing number of highly processed, high-calorie, high-fat grocery items. All of these play a role.
In my family our eating habits have definitely become less healthy than when I was a child. Our level of activity has decreased as well. My parents used to be in volleyball and bowling leagues, and went to roller rinks, but how many of us do that now? Granted, sports trends change with time, most young people today don't go on dates to the local roller rink, most towns don't even have one anymore. But where do they go now?
Here's where the media steps in. Instead of going outside to play, (yes New Yorkers, even in the winter), kids today are spending an average of five and a half hours a day with the media (according to the same study). This is an average, but aside from school and sleep this is where a bulk of their time goes. In 1985 a study in the scientific journal Pediatrics showed that "only prior obesity had a larger independent effect than television on the prevalence of obesity." The disturbing fact is that people of all ages are playing videogames, spending time on the internet and watching television much more than they were in 1985. It is much more available to them now because technology has advanced.
I was born in 1983, and year-round when we got home from school my siblings and I went outside to play. In the winter it was sledding, snowman building and basketball at the elementary school. Spring was making muddy messes playing in the stream behind our house, chasing each other around the house and baseball at the school. Summer brought four hours of swimming a day, riding bikes and playing tag, camping and hiking, family picnics with kickball, volley ball and more swimming. Fall was much the same as summer, but with less swimming and more soccer at school.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates in children have more than doubled since the 80s and tripled in adolescents. A report by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation points out that factors obesity include: the decline of afterschool programs and athletic activities, the increase of unhealthy snacks and sodas at school, the rising number of fast food restaurants and the increasing number of highly processed, high-calorie, high-fat grocery items. All of these play a role.
In my family our eating habits have definitely become less healthy than when I was a child. Our level of activity has decreased as well. My parents used to be in volleyball and bowling leagues, and went to roller rinks, but how many of us do that now? Granted, sports trends change with time, most young people today don't go on dates to the local roller rink, most towns don't even have one anymore. But where do they go now?
Here's where the media steps in. Instead of going outside to play, (yes New Yorkers, even in the winter), kids today are spending an average of five and a half hours a day with the media (according to the same study). This is an average, but aside from school and sleep this is where a bulk of their time goes. In 1985 a study in the scientific journal Pediatrics showed that "only prior obesity had a larger independent effect than television on the prevalence of obesity." The disturbing fact is that people of all ages are playing videogames, spending time on the internet and watching television much more than they were in 1985. It is much more available to them now because technology has advanced.
I was born in 1983, and year-round when we got home from school my siblings and I went outside to play. In the winter it was sledding, snowman building and basketball at the elementary school. Spring was making muddy messes playing in the stream behind our house, chasing each other around the house and baseball at the school. Summer brought four hours of swimming a day, riding bikes and playing tag, camping and hiking, family picnics with kickball, volley ball and more swimming. Fall was much the same as summer, but with less swimming and more soccer at school.