Advocacy Project: Childhood Obesity

Purpose

I would like to present this topic to you all because it is a major topic in our society. The epidemic of obesity within young adults and children has increased in the United States. We hear about it all the time, but it seems that people are not taking enough action to change it.

Background/Reasoning/Evidence/Resources

Obesity and overweight has increased in children and adolescents over the past decade. In the years from 2003 to 2004, over 12.5 million kids from the ages of 2-19 years old were overweight. http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/obesity.htm

Children at greatest risk are the ones who have both parents that are obese. Obesity varies by race/ethnicity. For example, white children are less likely to be overweight or obese than Black, Latino, or Native American children. In 1998, 21.5 percent of Black children and 21.8 percent of Latino children were overweight, while 12.3 percent of White children were. 

Childhood Obesity 

Obesity can cause many health related problems such as increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, breathing problems, trouble sleeping, as well as emotional problems.

Obesity In Children and Teens 

Overweight children tend to have poorer social skills than normal-weight children have and this may cause overweight children to socially withdraw. Also, obesity has a negative effect on a child’s learning.

Childhood Obesity

The school system has made some positive steps to reduce obesity among children. School curriculum’s include health and fitness classes, and schools have reduced the amount of junk food that is available as part of the lunch programs.  

Reduce Childhood Obesity

Instructions

Click on Childhood obesity quiz below and it will transfer you to the website.

Childhood Obesity Quiz

Then click on Start Quiz.

After you are done with the quiz record your score and report back about what you learned.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 5: Final Weekly Review & Overall Project Reflection

1. My SMART goal was: I will use my reusable bags 100% of the time when I go to the grocery stores, Walmart, and Target. I achieved my goal this week.
2. I was successful because I kept my reusable bags in my car at all times and I took them with me when ever I went shopping.
3. I felt like I accomplished something when I achieved my goal.
4. I learned that it is not hard to bring reusable bags when I go shopping and it is nice when I don’t have plastic bags lying around at my house.
5. At first my SMART goal was: I will drink 10 cups of water every day, 7 days a week. However, I felt like this goal was too easy for me so I changed it to: I will use my reusable bags 100% of the time when I go to the grocery stores, Walmart, and Target.
6. It really helped when I had my reusable water bottle with me at all times. I was constantly drinking water. Also, I had my reusable bags in my car at all times so I remembered to take them whenever I went shopping.
7. Some benefits from this project are that I am drinking more water now and I am using reusable bags whenever I go shopping. I learned about myself, that I am able to change my habits and achieve new goals. I learned about behavior change, that if you want to make a change it is possible, maybe not the first week but eventually you will be able to change your habits.
8. The environment benefits from both of my changes because I am not going to buy plastic bottles anymore and I am not going to use plastic bags anymore.
9. I will continue this behavior because I need to keep drinking enough water throughout the day and I want to be more eco-friendly and not buy plastic bottles or bags.
10. A lifestyle change will make you feel better about yourself and it can also save the environment.

Advocacy Project: Letter and Fact Sheet

December 6, 2010
Marcia L. Fudge
House Energy and Commerce

1513 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Vote YES on H.RES.996 Expressing support for the designation of September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

I am a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth and my major is Health Education. I am very concerned about the obesity epidemic in our nation, especially childhood obesity.  There are many different approaches that have been taken to help reduce this problem, but very few that have to deal with affording resources. With that being said, I am pleased to hear about the proposed bill expressing support for the designation of September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.

This act provides to recognize the importance of preventing childhood obesity and decreasing its prevalence in the United States. I think this is very important because during the past four decades, obesity rates have soared among all age groups, increasing more than fourfold among children ages 6 to 11.

In the past, you have demonstrated support towards the decrease of childhood obesity. I encourage you to vote for expressing support for the designation of September as National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month.  If support or any type of assistance is needed, please feel free to contact me at any time. Thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,
Heidi

Fact Sheet

The U.S has been struggling with obesity for over 20 years now. Comparing the 1970's to the 2000's, the prevalence of obesity has increased for children of all ages at least 3 times over to about 20% of our population less than 19 years old. A Bit of History 

In 1998, 21.5 percent of Black children and 21.8 percent of Latino children were overweight, while 12.3 percent of White children were. Childhood Obesity 

Obesity can cause many health related problems such as increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, breathing problems, trouble sleeping, as well as emotional problems. Obesity In Children and Teens

Overweight and obesity medical expenses accounted for 9.1 percent of total U.S. medical expenditures in 1998. To put this in a numerical value, the expenses were $92.6 billion in 2002. Approximately half of these costs were paid by Medicaid and Medicare. Economic Consequences

Overweight children tend to have poorer social skills than normal-weight children have and this may cause overweight children to socially withdraw. Also, obesity has a negative effect on a child’s learning. Childhood Obesity

Share & Voice: Environmental Kids Club

I found this good website for children to learn about how to become more eco-friendly.
I want to be a teacher when I go back to Finland and one thing that I want to teach to my class is how to save the environment. I think this website is great for children to read and learn about the environment.
Our environmental class has taught me a lot and it is actually my first class where I have learned about recycling and other things dealing with how to save the environment. I think it is important that children learn early enough about how to save the enviroment because then they will more likely to do the right things through out their lives.
Check out the website here: http://www.epa.gov/kids/index.htm

Reflection 9-12 weeks

Reflection 9-12 weeks

These past couple weeks we watched a lot of documents. I don’t usually like to watch videos in class, but these documents taught me a lot about different issues related to the environment. We learned about what is advocacy in Health Education and we did a little presentation about it. I really like to do the eco-chic lifestyle change. My SMART goal was to drink more water and only use my reusable water bottle. During these past weeks I haven’t bought bottled water and I am going to continue to use my reusable water bottle to help save our environment from plastic bottles. Another thing we did was find out our political representatives from our home town. I think it was really interesting to find out who are the political representatives in my town because I didn’t know them before. One of our advocacy projects was to pick one HealthyPeople 2010 goal in which we are interested and then we used THOMAS to find related bills. I think that was pretty cool to learn how to do that. Overall, I have learned a lot these past few weeks and I have been able to change a couple of my habits to be more eco-friendly which has been great.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 4: Weekly Update

1.      I will use my reusable bags 100% of the time when I go to grocery stores such as Walmart and Target. I did really well this week; there was only one time when I went to the Target and I forget my reusable bag.

2.      I was successful because I had my reusable bags in my car so I remembered to use them. One time I went to Target with my friend and we used her car so I didn’t have my reusable bags with me. I didn’t want to use a plastic bag but my friend did so I just put my stuff in her bag. 

3.      I felt really good every time I used a reusable bag when I went to the store. I felt better about myself because I was saving the environment.

4.      This past week was my first time using the reusable bags and I really liked them. I learned that if you keep them in your car at all times, you will use them.

5.      I am going to keep this same goal because I didn’t do it 100% last week and I really want to make it a habit that I always use reusable bags.

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

My photo essay is about recycling. I chose this because I think it is important that people recycle at home. These pictures are from my house here in Duluth. We place plastic and aluminium in different garbage cans, and then we have one for every day trash. I know there are many another things that you can recycle but these are the ones that my house has.

 This garbage can is for every day trash.

 

 These ones are for plastic and aluminium trash.

 This one is for plastic garbage.

This one is for aluminium garbage.