banzuelatine-blog

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“With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite

How rare and beautiful it is to even exist”

Song: Saturn - Sleeping At Last

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"No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else."

- P.T. Barnum

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Childhood Obesity

Obesity prevalence is increasing worldwide despite current efforts to control this modern-day epedemic. Obesity itself is a very serious medical condition with many different risk factors. However, obesity in children is extremely serious and affects children and adolescents much more heavily both mentally and physically. When a child suffers from obesity, they are more likely and more prone to suffer from serious health issues as adults such as diabetes and high cholesterol and blood pressure. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, obesity is a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body. Malorye Allison said that it affects not just appearance, but disease processes as well. Many obese children become obese adults, especially if one or both parents are obese. Childhood obesity can also lead to poor self-esteem and depression.

Many factors increase a child’s risk of becoming overweight. Factors such as diet, lack of exercise, family factors, psychological factors and socioeconomic factors. In diet, regularly eating high-calorie foods such as fast foods can cause a child to gain weight. Next, children who don’t exercise much are more likely to gain weight because they don’t burn as many calories. Television and other very simple and basic activities such as board games encourages stagnancy in a child’s behavior and that is under the factor of lack of exercise. The third one is true in an environment where high-calorie food are always available and physical activity isn’t encouraged. If the child comes from a family of overweight people, he or she may be more likely to put on weight. Children mimic and follow what they see. In psychological factors, some children overeat to cope with problems or to fight boredom. Lastly, the socioeconomic factors, people in some communities have limited resources and limited access to supermarkets. As a result, they might buy convenient foods that don’t spoil quickly. Also people who live in lower income neighborhoods might not have access to a safe place to exercise.

Lifestyle issues like too little activity and too many calories from drinks and foods are the main contributors to childhood obesity. Whether a children is at risk of becoming overweight or is currently at a healthy weight, we can take measures to get or keep things on the right track by limiting a child’s consumption of sugar sweetened beverages or avoid them. Provide plenty of fruits and vegetables and be sure of getting enough sleep. Try doing a family outing to the park a few times a week where everyone is able to actively enjoy themselves together, not only to create a strong bond between family ties, but also to aid a child’s overall health.

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Quality Education

Quality education is a powerful thing. It reduces poverty, fosters economic prosperity, changes attitudes to empower women and improves health. It is vital that every child goes to school, however access alone is not enough. Ensuring that each children are going to school and learning is a must. More children are going to school now than before. But access to education is still a big problem and many children that have the ability to access don’t have the opportunity to actually learn.

Still millions of children are unable to read, write or count whether they have been to school or not. The two big challenges we face is the lack of qualifying teachers and lack of infrastructure. In one out of four countries, more than half of children failed to meet minimum math proficiency standards at the end of primary school, and at the lower secondary level, the rate was 1 in 3 countries. Students suffer from very basic problems, they don’t have access to learning facilities and materials. In some countries there is only one textbook for every fourteen students and in some schools, there are no toilets, forcing girls to drop out. SDG Goal 4 targets for learning outcomes, early childhood education, effective learning environments and to ensure that, by 2030, all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.

To achieve quality education we must train, equip, value and support quality teachers, improve data collection, stating right policy priorities, create curricular for equitable world and transform classrooms into collaborative community settings and increase global investment in education.

By: Cristine Banzuela

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“The illiterate of the 21st century will be not to be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

— Alvin Toffler