Fast Food and the Risk of Childhood Obesity
And as mentioned before, the portion size has massively increased, contributing to this epidemic every step of the way. This is now not just a concern of individual willpower but also a fight to save the nation as a whole. Studies show that children can be brain washed to believe in anything with little incentives. With the fast food industry being the top manipulators of children’s mind, they keep stuffing themselves with the mouth watering hamburgers, fries and shakes.
Apart from these critical health problems, obesity brings in other issues to a child’s life. David Ludwig, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School has dedicated his life to researching and contributing to overweight reduction in children. He is the director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children’s Hospital Boston, one of the largest clinics for overweight children and their parents. In his book, Ending the Food Fight, Lundwig explains the Vicious Cycle of poor diet and inactive life style which fosters many other negative factors in between. He lays out a great picture of poor diet that resembles over eating, that lowers metabolism, resulting in sluggishness and low motivation leading to an inactive lifestyle. Once this life style is acquired, the amount of calories stored in the body increases, causes fatigue and boredom, results in low self esteem that succumbs to temptation for ‘comfort