Obesity

             The article I chose to research and write about is titled, “Childhood and Adolescent Obesity: Psychological and Behavioral Issues in Weight Loss Treatments” by David Sarwer and Rebecca Dilks. I chose the topic of obesity because, like eating disorders, it is increasingly becoming a huge problem in adolescents and even adults. According to Sarwer and Dilks, childhood and adolescent obesity has tripled in the past few decades. It’s fairly clear that obesity can affect health tremendously and can even lead to an early death. Adolescents who are overweight can also suffer from social problems from being made fun of and having less confidence in themselves to achieve. It’s possible that this could also lead to depression and other psychological disorders. The authors explain surgical procedures to limit obesity; one to adjust the gastric banding and the other is gastric bypass. Like any surgery, there are risks and side effects. Scientists and doctors have recently been doing these surgeries for teenagers who have just turned eighteen, but there are concerns about whether or not this leads to more side effects. I believe this surgery should be limited to only severe obesity conditions and that enriching children with proper diet and eating habits now can help prevent obesity in the long run. Obesity is a dangerous disease, mostly in the United States, that should be taken seriously for the health of this generation and future generations (Sarwer & Dilks, 98-102).

            Data shows that around 31% of children in America are overweight, which is around five million children. Data also shows that obese children now are more likely to become obese in adulthood. This could cause many serious health problems with the heart, diabetes, liver diseases, and much more (Sarwer & Dilks, 99). Researches have been investigating programs in school that teach students about nutrition, exercise, and the dangers that can occur when you are not cautious of health. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that this will stop obesity completely, but hopefully it can help even slightly. Many young adults who lose a significant amount of weight are at a higher risk of gaining much of that weight back. Much of this has to do with proper habits that should have been adapted at a younger age. It should be logical that if adolescents practice healthy living now, they will try to continue those same habits into adulthood.

            Besides from good health habits, medical procedures should also be taken very seriously. There will always be some sort of risk when preforming surgery, but there are benefits. If done right, these specific surgeries can eliminate up to 50% of excess body weight. There can also be behavioral and psychological complications after, like depression, suicide, substance use, and disordered eating (Sarwer & Dilks, 100). Scientists are looking for ways to help and improve the obesity rate in the future, but for now, I believe that children should be learning the right habits and that people should not look to surgery to fix obesity.

Works Cited

Sarwer, David B., and Rebecca J. Dilks. "Childhood and Adolescent Obesity -- Psychological and Behavioral Issues in Weight Loss Treatment." Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41 (2012): 98-104. ERIC. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.

Academic Article

While researching for articles related to my “Healthy Living” topic, I came across one titled, “Weight Perception, Substance Use, and Disordered Eating Behaviors: Comparing Normal Weight and Overweight Students”. The authors of this article performed an experiment on adolescents in the United States with and without certain eating disorders. They tested teens with no eating disorders, teens that purge, that fast, and those that take diet pills. The study was meant to examine the relationships of the perception of weight and substance use on certain disordered eating behaviors. These investigators hypothesized that disordered eating behaviors can be associated with substance usage and can both lead to very serious health problems (poor nutrition, impaired psychosocial development, body image difficulties, and possibly premature death).

According to previous research, unhealthy weight control behaviors are prevalent in approximately 12.4% of adolescent girls and 4.6% of adolescent boys. Also, nearly 50% of adolescents have used tobacco and almost 70% have reported a repeating use of alcohol. With an increase rate of obesity, the perception of being overweight increases as well as the chances of eating disorders. Research shows that females are more likely to experience these disorders than males by a ratio of 10:1, but this gap is slowly decreasing and may even be at a ratio of 3:1 now.

For this experiment, 11,103 individuals from 195 different schools were included. There was a mixture of different genders and races used as well. To test these adolescents, the body mass index was taken following various questionnaires relating to the perception of weight, substance use, and disorders eating behaviors. In order to test the perception on their weight, the test subjects were asked to describe their weight as very underweight, slightly underweight, normal, slightly overweight, or very overweight. Then they were asked how many times they used drugs, smoked cigarette, or drank in the past 30 days. They found that females were 3.1 more likely than males to believe that they were overweight. In this study, 11.2% of the 11,103 individuals have fasted, 5.1% took diet pills, and 3.8% purge. Many were even involved in more than one of these disordered eating behaviors. In addition, the results show that people who regularly use cocaine and drink are more likely to have eating disorders. Cigarette smokers were also more likely to engage in some sort of unnatural eating disorder. Overall, there was a significant relationship between eating disorders and substance use in the adolescents tested.

Works Cited

Eichen, Dawn M., Bradley T. Conner, Brian P. Daly, and Robert L. Fauber. "Weight Perception, Substance Use, and Disordered Eating Behaviors: Comparing Normal Weight and Overweight Students." Journal of Youth Adolescence (2012): 1-13. ERIC. Web. 1 Feb. 2012.

About Me

My name is Kelsey and I’m 18 years old. I currently am a freshman at Northern Illinois University in a small town named DeKalb. I grew up in a northwest suburb of Chicago in a normal house with a mom, a dad, and a sister. I have always been fairly active throughout my life, whether it was gymnastics, dance, or cheerleading. To me, the best part of being in these sports was the fact that I got to compete, not that I was exercising. I never really worried about nutrition or things I ate because I figured I burned enough fat and calories in sports. I am not overly confident about how I look, but I guess I never really cared either. I usually did not take that extra step to better myself. I only was active at practice and never continued outside, and I probably could have eaten healthier too. Now that I’ve started college, there is less time for me to exercise and to keep healthy. Everyone talks about the “Freshman 15” and it worries me because gaining 15 pounds would really affect my health. It is really important for me to be the healthiest I can be while having fun, so I would like to start this blog in order to share my experiences and tips. I have almost no formal training or knowledge in nutrition or even specifics about the body, but I definitely know the basics (stay away from fried foods, keep active, be aware of portion sizes, etc). I’ve have not taken any diet or nutrition classes in school, but I hope to learn more and more as I continue this blog. I have just started taking some zumba and pilates classes at the school recreation center and am currently learning really helpful exercises and tips to strengthen certain areas of the body. It feels refreshing to be working out again and toning my body. Society has pushed on us that being skinny is desirable, but it has caused many problems with teens that are threatening to their health. Many young girls, and even boys, look at their bodies negatively and think they are overweight when they actually are not. Eating disorders are more prevalent than ever and it’s scary to know that many of my friends are suffering from them. Eating disorders are crucial to anyone’s health and it worries me that people are taking them to the extreme. I’m hoping to share and gather information that can help many people become more comfortable with their bodies, just as I am becoming more comfortable with mine.