Childhood Obesity

Often an argument with my friends, who is the person responsible for childhood obesity? For one thing the idea of placing the blame on someone is a hard task, in this case it's almost impossible.

I previously talked about if the child can be held responsible for its weight, now I'm going to address the role the parents play. Surely they can be held accountable due to the fact that they are feeding their children this junk food, or can they?

One key argument that I want to bring up is that Healthy food cost more, it's a well know fact. Those on benefits and in lower paying jobs often can't afford  to spend the extra money and so end up obese, with obese children. Then is it really their fault or is it the super market and governments fault. 


You can argue that eating healthy is only around $1.50 a day, however over the course of a year this accounts to $550. Some parents just can't afford to spend this amount on food, when they can buy less healthy food for a much smaller price, even if they sacrifice their health. 


Another factor that must be brought into the equation is that throughout the day, most parents cannot control what their children eat thought the day, unless the children have a lunch from home, in school children can usually pick their own lunches. 

School lunches are not stereo-typically healthy and so may have a profound affect on the children who eat them. 

However parents are to blame when it comes to getting their children into the habit of eating unhealthily, parents often give in to children when they are younger and let them eat extremely unhealthy food. Parents are also to blame for not teaching their children how to cook, this means that in later life many children instead of cooking will order takeaways and eat a restaurants, Both of which contain around three times as many calories as home cooking. 

Parents need to learn to not give into their children when they want to eat unhealthy food, parents need to learn to stand their ground because not giving their child unhealthy food will benefit both parent and child in later life.

Over all I think the issue is neither parent nor child's fault completely, however both play a part, The next part will address the issue, supermarkets and schools create for obese children.

Often an argument with my friends, who is the person responsible for childhood obesity? For one thing the idea of placing the blame on someone is a hard task, in this case it's almost impossible.

Should we hold the obvious target responsible, the child? The one who eats the food, the person who either pressures their parents into giving them food, or eats the food purely because their parent is giving it to them. In my opinion, in the early stages of the child's life it is the parents fault, they are the ones feeding the child, the feeding them junk.

However as the child grows older, surely they should be able to resist their parents trying to feed them junk food. Surely the child should be able to do exercise them selves. Surely the child should be able to break away from the influence that their parents had on them earlier in their lives. Can it be argued that as the child grows up we can shift the blame onto the child?

When the child turns to a teenager are we able to blame them? Teenagers can go out by themselves, thus they are able to do exercise and try to loose weight. Teenagers often earn money or have an allowance making them able to buy healthy snacks, or buy exercise equipment/ go to a gym. Most teenagers are also in control of what they eat at lunch, meaning they have control, when faced with a burger and a wrap, which option they would like.


Many children do not know the dangers of eating the wrong foods and not doing enough exercise., is it our fault for not educating them enough. Maybe another problem is the idea of exercise being bad. Maybe if in primary school, teachers made an effort to not embarrass children, and to cater to all children's interests. If children are given the opportunity to try all sports, they are more likely to find a sport that they enjoy, and so they are more likely to peruse it.

Could it be argued that even in the early stages of life child hood obesity is the child's fault? Should we blame children, for not knowing what is good and bad from birth? To me that sounds ridiculous.

Personally I do not think the blame should be placed on children, at least not until they are in secondary school. When they are a child they will follow authority figures blindly, however as the child grows up a decision needs to be made to decide if responsibility is placed on the teenager to keep healthy and eat the right food. Adults can't blame their parents for themselves being overweight. In my opinion as soon as someone has the opportunity to be healthy, not being so is their fault.

Next part discusses the issue parents have in childhood obesity.