"Poll: Many Americans don't see their kids as overweight" by Robert Preidt of HealthDay. The article is about parents who cannot see the fact that their child is overweight. http://t.healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/poll-many-americans-dont-see-their-kids-as-overweight-1
The article explains that 15% of parents say that their children are a little over weight. But, according to what national statistics have to say, 32% of children are literally overweight. Another interesting thing this article said was that, 69% of American adults are overweight themselves, 36% are obese, and only 6% are extremely obese. Parents are a major role in children's lives when it comes to what they eat. Researchers have found that families who eat in front of the TV or with other distractions around them, obesity is more likely for them because they aren't paying attention to what they are eating or how big of a portion they have in front of them. Towards the end of the article Robert explains that families who often have family celebrations of any kind, get off track from healthy eating and put out unhealthy foods such as Sweets, high fat and sugar foods such as many others that can lead to unnecessary weight gain that is hard to lose with only exercising and healthy eating again.
My Opinion is this, just because you are sitting in front of the TV while eating something, doesn't always mean that you are going to be eating a lot more than you normally would if you were sitting with the family at the dinner table. However, I do agree with the author. Sometimes it is hard to get yourself to eat healthy foods when you should instead of going to Chipotle to get a burrito. I also agree that the commercials do make it hard to not be so hungry while you see them, but parents should not be blaming their child's obesity entirely on the food commercials. The commercials don't call you by name and force you to buy their food, it's a personal choice whether you do or don't. If you don't want your child or anybody in your family to be overweight, then I think families should stop buying junk food and replace the chips and such with vegetables and fruits like grapes, apples and such.
I thought this article was very interesting. I was surprised to hear that 32 percent of children are actually overweight. I know when I’m eating in front of the T.V. that I eat more. I think that this does have some effect on obesity. Another thing is that Americans don’t know what portions are. We always over eat and don’t get enough vegetables. I didn’t realize that the percentages were that high when it comes to achieving a healthy weight. I agree if you don’t want your kids eating junk food don’t buy it, then they won’t be tempted to eat it. I also agree that commercials don’t make you buy food and force you to eat it, so it’s a personal choice if you want to buy the food.
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