Blog 3

Dear Parents,

Obesity has become a huge problem in the United States. There are many reasons why our obesity rate has become so high and huge reasons why is the way we eat and the way we teach our children to eat. The obesity rate in children have also highly increased in the past decade. Children get their eating habits from the way they have been fed while growing up. Most of American parents feed their children fattening and unhealthy food. Snacks, junk food, and fast food are everywhere, so it’s understandable how it can be hard to avoid eating those things. Although those foods are unhealthy, it can still be eaten and included in a balanced diet.

Parents play a huge role in what their children eat. If they see you eating cold pizza and drinking a can of Pepsi for breakfast, they will follow your footsteps. It is highly encouraged that parents choose to eat healthy by eating homecooked meals and avoid consuming fast food and junk food. Eating at home has been proven to be healthier than eating out because it contains less fat and oil. A balanced diet should include a quarter of the following, protein, grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. These need to be eaten because they include Vitamin D, Omega 3, iron, etc. This diet is important for everyone, but especially for children. Their bodies are still growing, and their brains are slowly developing. They need to have a healthy and balanced diet in order to be strong when they are older.

With a balanced diet, junk food can be included, but it should be controlled. There should be a limit when giving children snacks throughout the day. Besides having chips and ice cream in the house, there should be fruit snacks available for the children to eat. This can decrease the number of calories that they are consuming, while still filling them up.

Controlling your children’s diet now while they are young is important because it will get them in the habit of eating healthy so in the future, they can avoid any health problems. It’s hard to break old habits once you’re an adult, so it’s best to teach your children what should and shouldn’t be eaten. This can slowly decrease the obesity rate in America in the future. I hope this will help parents consider what they feed their children. It may not seem like much now when they are young, but once they’re older, the results will show in their health condition.

Sincerely,

Sydney Vann