Obesity in America is becoming quite a large epidemic. Everyone knows that obesity is becoming more and more of a problem. Especially with children, childhood obesity in America is the highest that it has ever been, childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. A study has shown that 20% of children between the ages of 6-11 are obese. While you may think that is not a lot, that is quite a significant amount, at least 1 of 4 kids is dangerously overweight.
So who is to blame for this? The restaurant chains such as McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, or the parents who choose to take their kids to these places. It is a well-known fact all across America that those fast food restaurants are extremely unhealthy for people. If you eat their at least once a day, every day of the week, you will quickly start to gain weight.
But there is no way around this. Those restaurant chains promise fast and cheap food. There is the problem, cheap. Studies show that most families on low incomes are more than likely the ones who will go to these fast food corporations, to get cheap food for their families. And will they go there just once a week? Of course not, it is cheap good tasting food. They will go there maybe 4 or 5 times a week. I know this from experience. This used to be my family, my step dad didn’t have a job and my mom was sick. And I was an overweight child. And none of that changed until my mom left my step dad and got our lives together and now we rarely go out to eat at these fast food restaurants.
What I just stated once again, is another problem that I can’t stress enough. Fast food is CHEAP. And healthy food is extremely expensive. Right there is another reason why it is the lower income families that go to these restaurants. The way it should be, is that healthy food should be the cheapest and easiest food to obtain, and if you wanted a treat of a fast, fattening food, you should have to pay MORE money for it. But it will never be that way because that is just not how our American society works. If the healthy food were cheaper, then the lower income families would be able to afford healthy food for their families and childhood obesity would not be such a huge epidemic like it is today.
If healthy foods were cheaper, it would promote all around healthiness. Obese children have more health issues than some adults do. They have many more cases of diabetes, heart issues, and breathing problems than children their age should have to deal with. Then once this arises, the low income families can’t afford to take their children to the doctors to have them looked at either because they can’t afford it or they don’t have health insurance to cover it. If fast food restaurants were not as cheap as they were, and healthy foods were not as expensive as they were, we would be living in a much healthier environment.
So who is to blame for this? The restaurant chains such as McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, or the parents who choose to take their kids to these places. It is a well-known fact all across America that those fast food restaurants are extremely unhealthy for people. If you eat their at least once a day, every day of the week, you will quickly start to gain weight.
But there is no way around this. Those restaurant chains promise fast and cheap food. There is the problem, cheap. Studies show that most families on low incomes are more than likely the ones who will go to these fast food corporations, to get cheap food for their families. And will they go there just once a week? Of course not, it is cheap good tasting food. They will go there maybe 4 or 5 times a week. I know this from experience. This used to be my family, my step dad didn’t have a job and my mom was sick. And I was an overweight child. And none of that changed until my mom left my step dad and got our lives together and now we rarely go out to eat at these fast food restaurants.
What I just stated once again, is another problem that I can’t stress enough. Fast food is CHEAP. And healthy food is extremely expensive. Right there is another reason why it is the lower income families that go to these restaurants. The way it should be, is that healthy food should be the cheapest and easiest food to obtain, and if you wanted a treat of a fast, fattening food, you should have to pay MORE money for it. But it will never be that way because that is just not how our American society works. If the healthy food were cheaper, then the lower income families would be able to afford healthy food for their families and childhood obesity would not be such a huge epidemic like it is today.
If healthy foods were cheaper, it would promote all around healthiness. Obese children have more health issues than some adults do. They have many more cases of diabetes, heart issues, and breathing problems than children their age should have to deal with. Then once this arises, the low income families can’t afford to take their children to the doctors to have them looked at either because they can’t afford it or they don’t have health insurance to cover it. If fast food restaurants were not as cheap as they were, and healthy foods were not as expensive as they were, we would be living in a much healthier environment.