Fighting Obesity at Schools

Obesity is a worldwide destructive disease, a phenomenon which has doubled itself during the past 30 years. This condition is not only limited to adults, but more and more children and teenagers suffer from it nowadays, with a dramatic incline throughout the world.

Some countries have recently decided that obesity is important enough to fight from young age, due to its serious life-threatening complications, causing definite morbidity and increasing mortality rates. Education programs are being evaluated and tried, starting even at the young ages of 5-6.

These programs focus mainly on the major problems leading to obesity- both poor nutrition and lack of physical activity. The first step is teaching the kids how to eat healthy regular meals, that include basic nutritious components. Emphasis is also put on avoiding non-healthy snacks, which contain large amounts of sugar and fat. sweet beverages should also be avoided. Another aspect of this program is encouraging the children to refrain from a sedentary lifestyle. Sports is especially important when educating to fight obesity. Schools commit to provide the time and resources necessary to make the kids more active.

In some schools parents take actions against automatic food and beverage machines, which usually contain sweets and highly fatty ingredients. These machines usually offer available food for cheap, thus encouraging the child to buy, even when not necessarily hungry.

One solution is to remove these machines from the schools, making the cafeteria the only place where children can have access to food during the day, while limiting the fatty and sugar components of the food served in these cafeterias.

Fighting obesity is very important. As stated before, obesity is known to cause long-term damage to vital organs such as the heart, brain, blood vessels, kidneys, and the gastrointestinal, reproductive and endocrine systems. Obesity and diabetes mellitus are major factors in causing heart attacks and cardiovascular damage in general. Small vessels that are injured can lead to cerebrovascular accidents (strokes) and high blood pressure, in addition to ophthalmic complications and loss of vision . This phenomenon can also worsen existing illnesses such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and other lung conditions. Obesity might also result in liver damage due to a fatty liver, which may eventually lead to hepatic insufficiency.

Due to all of the stated above, it is no wonder special programs must be implemented in education systems throughout the world in order to deal with this phenomenon. Proper guidance to healthy lifestyle and right eating habits is crucial, and the sooner it begins, the better.

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