Children_Adn_Fast_Food

Persuasive Speech – Children and Fast Food Based on 2009 US Industry report, there were 303,989 fast food locations in the US alone.() “Fast food was the main food source for up to 38% of children” stated researcher Shanthy Bowman, PhD, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland.() She also demonstrated that when kids eat fast food, they eat more food all day long and over one year time period, a child can pack on 6 extra pounds because of high fast food eating. The cause of overeating is a nation that is becoming obese and overweight. The cost is more illness and soaring healthcare problems. Fast food is ready to eat alternative to home cooked food. When we say fast food, we are thinking 'junk food'. Fast food has become one and the same to hamburgers, pizzas, French fries, hot dogs, rolls, and more. Fast food has high calories, fats, saturated fats, sugar and salt content. The fats, sugar, and salt in fast food draw kids like a magnet, mostly because they appeal to the child's "primordial tastes", explained Bowman. And, because fast food doesn't contain much fiber, kids don't feel full afterward, so they eat more later on. Compared with kids that did not eat fast food, fast food eaters ate an average of 187 more calories a day. At that rate, “the child would gain 6 extra pounds each year, if they didn't get enough exercise to burn it off”, wrote PhD Bowman. At the same time, fast food causes a number of health problems in children. The excess of sugar in fast food and sodas lead to diabetes in children. Their bodies would fail to produce the insulin that controls the sugar levels and metabolism. Fats and saturated fats lead to high levels of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol leads to various heart problems. These heart problems increase the risk of major heart diseases. The excessive salt leads to high blood pressure. High blood pressure leads to ruptures and cracks of blood vessel. The lack of vitamins make the children become anemic, while the lack of iron supplements make children not to develop properly. Also, children become lethargic and get tired easily. Deficiency in calcium makes their teeth, nails and bones weak. Many times the added preservatives and coloring agents used in fast food can cause cancer in children. The most common and the core cause of all the diseases in children, due to fast food is obesity. Obese children spend little time doing physical activities or sports, and this lack of activity leads to a sedentary life style, which further on leads to mental stress and other emotional disturbances. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, results from 2007-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that 17 percent of children and teenagers ages 2-19 years are obese. That means one in 6 children is obese. () You can't prevent your children from eating fast food, but you can make healthier choices for them. You can ask for less cheese topping on their pizza and have more of low-fat toppings like onions, mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables. This will add also, more taste to their food. You can choose roast beef, turkey or chicken sandwiches made of whole wheat breads or biscuits. Burgers can be single meat patty with extra lettuce leaves, tomatoes and onions. You can opt for salads with lettuce leaves and assorted vegetables. Grilled, baked, roasted or broiled meats are a better choice over breaded or fried ones. You should avoid anything that is cream based like 'creamy tomato soups'. You can choose low-fat milkshakes or juices over sodas and colas. Low-fat frozen yogurts, fruit ices, dry fruits are an excellent dessert choice. Following the above guidelines while ordering fast food, you can help decrease the effects of fast food on your children. Additionally, hundreds of organizations and corporations are promoting a healthy lifestyle. The Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC), a program of Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital, was formed in 2002 to address this problem. The Consortium has announced that it has received $5.8 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to partner with the Chicago Department of Public Health on obesity prevention. As part of its childhood obesity prevention work, CLOCC developed a public education campaign called 5-4-3-2-1 Go!, a message which outlines the following daily suggestion: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables, 4 servings of water, 3 servings of low-fat dairy, 2 or less hours of screen time, 1 or more hours of physical activity.() Another step that was done to prevent childhood obesity was to curb food advertising aimed at young consumers from toddlers to teenagers, in schools. As for myself, I am trying my best to keep my son and my family healthy. We have a bread maker that we are using every day. We are using healthy recipes with no preservatives for bread or pizza dough. We always have fruits and vegetables, that we consume as an alternative to candy, lollipops, chocolate, generally any kind of sweets. Also, instead of pops, we are using a juice squeezer machine for fresh juice with no sugar added, and my son gets so exciting seeing that working. I do realize that all of these suggestions sound great, but I know that we are all busy people with our own lifestyle. It’s very hard to change our habits. Even so, let’s take a moment and recognize that we have to start doing the smallest effort to improve our food habits. For you to visualize what are the consequences of fast food, I am going to use some statistics that I found on the website of The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) which is part of the National Institutes of Health primarily responsible for obesity- and nutrition-related research.() Some consequences of childhood and teenager obesity are psychosocial. Obese children and teenagers are targets of early and systematic social discrimination. The emotional stress of social stigmatization can cause low self-esteem which, in turn, can hold back academic and social functioning, and persist into adulthood. Obese children and teens have been found to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and abnormal glucose tolerance. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese children had at least one risk factor while 39% of them had two or more risk factors. An obese teenager has a 70% chance of being an obese adult, according to childhood obesity statistics. On average, people who are considered obese pay 42 percent more in health care costs than normal-weight individuals. Obesity is associated with over 300000 deaths per year. That means 25,000 per month, 5,769 per week, 821 per day and 34 per hour.() What can be more tragic than seeing your children dead' There is nothing that we wouldn’t do to avoid something like that. So, starting today, you have to get rid of this belief that eating junk food you will make your life easier. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our diets and the diseases they cause did not appear overnight. Eating junk food occasionally will not kill you on its own. The trick is to eat these things as part of a seriously balanced diet. One day in gym won't make you fit and neither will one fast food make you fat. Preparing a meal need not to take long. Some lean meat, some fish and milk products can help a lot. Also, walking for 30 minutes a day makes a lot of difference. No matter how busy your life is, stop and make the right choices for you and your family to eat and live better. Let’s make that effort so we can all enjoy our retirement days together with our kids and grandkids. Persuasive Speech – Children and Fast Food – Outline 1. Attention: a. fast food locations 303, 989 in US alone in 2009 (1) b. 38% of children are eating fast food everyday (2) c. Children pack on 6 extra pound per year due to fast food(2) 2. Need: d. Kids like fast food, so they eat more than necessary(2) e. Fast food causes health problems: high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, anemia, obesity f. One in 6 children is obese (3) 3. Satisfaction: g. Make healthier choices for your kids h. Corporations and organizations support –CLOCC (4) i. Curb food advertising j. my steps to keep my family healthy 4. Visualization: k. Psychosocial consequences of obesity (5) l. Cardiovascular disease risk factors for 70% of obese children(5) m. Medical costs more with 42% (5) n. In 2007 were reported over 300,000 deaths due to obesity = 34 individuals per hour (6) 5. Action: o. Get rid of idea of fast food p. Make a plan to exercise more q. Make healthier choices for your family r. Start now, so you can enjoy your retirement Persuasive Speech – Children and Fast Food – Bibliography