Several months ago I started seeing and hearing numerous ads about childhood obesity. It kind of surprised me that there was a huge campaign to fight it that just appeared when this problem has been known for years. It sickens me to see overweight children. People blame computers and video games for many of the problems. While I’m not going to disagree with that, I think the problem lies in the habits parents teach their children. I use a computer 10+ hours a day for work and other things; however, I make it a point to go for a run 4-5 times a week and carve out that time in my schedule. In addition, I watch what I eat. I was never raised to drink soda all the time or have chips everyday for lunch. Society can be partially blamed for this, but maybe parental influence can also play a factor in preventing this. I don’t have children, so I don’t know how hard this is, but it would appear (from an outsider’s point of view) that good and bad habits start in the home.
I hope that the new initiatives against childhood obesity work as this problem is getting worse and is not only disgusting, it will cost our country a significant amount of lives (and quality of life for those who have it) and will be quite costly monetarily to treat the health problems associated with this.