Childhood obesity

Childhood obesity has been an increasing problem in America. About thirteen percent of children are obese and one of the main reasons behind this is due to the sedentary lifestyles of many children. Rather than going out and playing sports, many children just sit at home and play sports on videogames or watch sports games on television. The technology age allows people to do everything imaginable on their home computer such as shopping, entertainment, and even working while people used to have to leave their house for these things.
Another main reason for obesity in America is the way we eat. Americans always believed bigger is better and food is no exeption. Food portion sizes have dramatically increased in the last couple decades. The convenience and low price of fast food encourages people to eat out rather than eating healthy often more expensive food.
Obesity related illnesses have also increased rapidly recently. "Diabetes diagnoses nearly doubled, accounting for 2.36 percent of child hospitalizations in the late '90s vs. 1.43 percent in the late '70s." (www.cbsnews.com) Diabetes is one of the main diseases that is caused by poor diet and lack of exersise and has increased rapidly in children since the 70's.
A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet have caused the obesity level in the US to increase bringing along with it disease and death. America as a whole needs to become more physically active and more aware of what they put in their bodies. My generations life expectancy has gone down due to childhood obesity. "Obesity could shorten the average lifespan of an entire generation — today's children — by two to five years, according to a controversial new life-expectancy analysis."(www.usatoday.com)