Ivan Tello

Armbruster
Wellness Fair
April 14, 2016
Taking Down Obesity
America is constantly changing. A lot of differences between the time of today and time
of the past. Obesity is a condition that is increasing in Americas population and more worryingly
in the growing children and teens of today. Worried parents should be asking themselves, what
can my child eat or do to steer clear of obesity and live a healthy life? Obesity is a big problem in
todays 13-19 youth and needs to be resolved by examining natural solutions such as reviewing
their dietary options, physical exercise duration a day and constructing a plan that incorporates
both.
Adding apples to your menu of the day helps you dietarily reduce your chances of your
obesity and reduced its impact on people with it already. (But also watch all the other stuff you
eat, apples won't magically help you without help from your own self-control.) When it comes to
the benefits of apples, Neil writes, According to the DGA, eating fruit, which is a relatively
low-energy food, in place of higher energy foods may help lower overall energy intake; however,
the effect of fruit consumption on weight or weight loss is controversial. Fruit provides a wide
array of nutrients, including nutrients of public health concern, such as dietary fiber and
potassium, as well as other shortfall nutrients, like vitamins A and C and folate. Many of the
health benefits seen may be due to these nutrients or to the phytochemicals found in fruit.(Neil,
Paragraph 2). Neil provides us with another apple fact, he writes, Fruit provides us a low-energy
snack as well as several other combinations of nutrients. Fruit sounds like the perfect

replacement for those other processed, high-energy snacks. Approximately 35% to 50% of total
fruit intake by children 9 to 18 years comes from 100% fruit juice, which makes a positive
contribution to overall diet quality, and has been associated with increased intake of whole fruit.
However, most children fail to meet the fruit recommendation (Neil, Paragraph 1). There are
other forms of consuming fruits and fruit juice is one of them. Its actually consumed a lot in this
form by children 9-18. It may be easier to just drink fruit juice, but even then most children fail
to take in the amount of fruits they should be eating. Apples (Malus domestica) are the second
most commonly consumed fruit in the United States (US), with 65% of the apple crop consumed
as fresh fruit and 35% as processed apple products (e.g. applesauce or apple juice).
(Neil, 3). Not only is diet a great way to maintain good health, physical activity and exercise also
keeps your health in track,especially on a consistent basis.
Physical activity is necessary for the body and without it, you increase your sedentary
behavior (especially those with moderate to severe sleep apnea), where too much of it harms you
and leads to obesity. Physical activity has been defined as "any bodily movement produced by
skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure,"30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical
activity 5 days per week (or a total of 150 min/wk) has been recommended to maintain health
and prevent chronic diseases (Igelstrom, 9). Physical activity five days a week can do great
things for the body. It doesn't have to be high intensity. As long as you moderately and
consistently maintain an exercise rhythm during the week, youll have good health. Igelstrom
writes about this circumstance, At present, there are no recommendations about how much
sedentary time is considered acceptable for maintaining health and preventing illness, but there is
at least research indicating a negative impact on health with every daily 1-hour increase in
sedentary time,(Igelstrom Paragraph 42). Getting too much sleep is equally a problem as not

getting enough sleep. Its not really healthy to sleep-in on your off days. Too much sleep
increases your time of doing nothing at all with your body. Do nothing at all is exactly what you
dont want to be doing. That extra hour of sleep and doing nothing may feel good, but your body
was better off without that hour. Patients with OSAS may have daytime sleepiness and difficulty
concentrating, which, in turn, may contribute to decreased physical activity and increased
sedentary time. We, therefore, consider such patients to be clinically important from a behavioral
sleep medicine perspective. However, these patients are not frequently targeted by clinical
physical therapists, at least not with regard to strategies for enhanced physical activity and
reduced sedentary time (Igelstrom, 12). Sleepiness during daytime or just a lack of sleep can
increase your time NOT participating in physical activity. Simply put, seek medical help if you
have trouble sleeping and if you just dont get enough of it, catch up on it so your time away
from the gym doesn't add up excessively. Teens should prioritize and take care of their
responsibilities quickly and efficiently so they can join a sport or just participate in some sort of
physical activity that demands intensity. Now that we know the benefits of a healthy diet and the
right amount of exercise, we can look for ways to incorporate both, while teaching developing
children how to make the right choices when it comes to these factors.
Many kids and teens are eating at an age where their cognitive function doesn't help them
understand when they're hungry or just bored. They want to impose interventions for those kids
in these young years so they can make smarter and healthier eating options. Avant informs us on
the growing epidemic; she writes, In the past 30 years, obesity has more than doubled in U.S.
children and quadrupled in adolescents. In 6- to 11-year-old children, obesity increased from 7
percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 2012, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention,(Avant, Paragraph 1). As children and teens grow and mature, they might tend to

ignore the barrier of actually being hungry and eating because they feel like it. In younger
children, their cognitive control is yet to be fully developed so they tend to eat whenever they
seem hungry. Parents should help children and young adolescents from an early age to not tie
together their emotions and eating habits. Scientists at the Agricultural Research Service Western
Human Nutrition Research Center (WHNRC) in Davis, California, are studying how stress and
emotions shape behavior patterns in people. They have found, for the first time, a direct
relationship between experiencing an emotional state (positive or negative) and snacking in 3- to
6-year-olds. They also found that cognitive control is significantly associated with the
relationship between overeating and emotions (Avant, Paragraph 4). In an observational study,
Laugero and Joy Rickman Pieper, a University of California-Davis (UCD) doctoral student at the
time, conducted several experiments to examine the balance between emotional state, snacking,
and cognitive control in preschool children. At a preschool situated on the UCD campus, they
measured cognitive control in 3- to 6-year-olds through computerized and hands-on tasks, parent
questionnaires, and standardized teacher reports. The study also examined children's emotions as
a potential factor for overeating. A wristwatch-like device worn by the children measured activity
in their sweat glands. Sweat gland activity fluctuated with the children's state of emotion. After
snack time, 31 children were asked individually to assess their fullness based on stick figures
depicting an empty, half-full, or full stomach. Children who indicated they were full were then
seated at a table that had more snacks on it and were given 5 minutes to color. These "full"
children were told that they could have as many snacks as they liked. "In the children with lower
cognitive control scores, the more emotions they experienced while sitting at the table, the more
snacks they consumed," Laugero says. "This did not occur in children with higher cognitive
control scores.(Avant, Paragraphs 7,9,10). Teaching youth the concept of food and boredom is

essential at this time. Food over time has become either become more unhealthy or easier to be
accessed. As discussed previously, a healthy diet and exercise prove to be the answer to this
problem. A combination of both proves to be an effective answer.
Like many issues in our world, obesity can not be fully eliminated, but it can be reduced
by determination and persistence. Parents will need to be involved in their maturing children and
teens lifestyle to educate them on the right choices concerning health. Letting them know the
right things to eat and right times to eat. Exercising is good if your intent is to maintain weight,
but if you really want to help kids with obesity, a combination of both will help out alot in the
long run.

Works Cited Page

Igelstrom, Helena, et al. "Level of agreement between methods for measuring moderate to
vigorous physical activity and sedentary time in people with obstructive sleep apnea and
obesity." Physical Therapy Jan. 2013: 50+. Science in Context. Web. 4 Feb. 2016.
Neil, Carol E., Theresa A. Nicklas, and Victor L. Fulgoni. "Consumption of apples is associated
with a better diet quality and reduced risk of obesity in children: National Health and Nutrition
Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003?2010." Nutrition Journal 14 (2015): 48. Science in
Context. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.