Sociology

Obesity in children and adults has become a major healthy concern among the Americans today. The problem is as a result of the high cases of obesity in the society and the healthy complications associated with it. Obesity especially in children has reached epidemic levels. How to deal with the epidemic is a big story in the American society today. There are various causes of obesity and risk factors that make some American children more vulnerable to the problem than others. Moreover, the politicians and other leaders have had heated debates on how the problem can be solved as the healthcare workers all over the country try to come up with ways of dealing with the increased cases of obesity and the health complications that are associated with it. There are many campaigns that are aimed at educating the public on adopting health lifestyles but the number of obese children has increased significantly. This leaves a lot of questions unanswered. There are many unanswered questions such as why the campaigns are not working, why the number of obese adults and children has continued to increase and what the true causes of obesity are (Boyle  Colleen, 2005).
Because the current mitigation measures have not changed the situation, it is important to change the focus in dealing with the problem. It is very possible that the wrong causes of obesity in children are being addressed and the campaigns may have targeted at the wrong audience. It is possible that the high increase in the number of obese children in the United States is as a result of the problem of poverty facing a big population in the country. By addressing the problem of poverty, the root causes of obesity in children may be addressed.

This paper addressed the relationship between poverty and obesity in children. There is a very high link between poverty and obesity in children where children who grow in poverty are more likely to be obese (Dietz, 1995).

Childhood Obesity and Poverty
According to a research carried out in 2007, about five percent of children in America were obese in the late 1980s. The same survey indicated that the number of overweight children had increased up to about fifteen percent within a period of less than two decades with about the same number of children likely to be obese. This trend was also observed in young children below the school age where about eight percent of them were obese. The survey indicated that children between six and eleven years were the most affected by the epidemic (Moore, 2007). It is indisputable that the number of obese children (and as a result young adults) has increased at an alarming rate in the last three decades. The increased number of children who are being obese despite the attempts by the healthcare systems to sensitize the public on the health implications of being overweight and the need to adopt healthy lifestyles requires more intervention. Desperate measures are required to reduce if not stop the increase in the number of obese children.

Different reasons have been proposed as to why children become obese. One of these causes of childhood obesity has been poverty. Although obesity in children affects all Americans across the board, the problem is more prevalent in poor families. It is observed that majority of families that are most affected by overweight children have similar characteristics that indicates that the families live in poverty. Most of the families have single parents (mostly the mother) who are in their early twenties. The head of the family and from whom the family members depend on will always have low level of education with no high school degree. These families have more than one dependant and are rated among the low income earners with majority of them being twice as low as the average poverty level in America. Most of these families meet the federal welfare qualification and either life in the low income suburbs or in low income government housing units (Kopelman, 2009).

In these families, all the members are faced with the problem of overweight where the prevalence is higher in women and children. The problem becomes worse as the number of children in the family increases. High number of children in the family indicates that the family budget will be stretched further which increases the poverty levels. Although there are many reasons why the level of education of the parents is linked to obesity in children, the most important is the link of educational level to the individuals income. Low education level is the basic factor that led to poverty as a direct consequence of low income. Therefore the income level is the most important factor that is contributing to the high increase in overweight children and adult in the United States and other similar societies all over the world (Roush, 2005).

The possibility of any individual in the United States is partly determined by the social economic status of the individual. In young children, the case is not very different. There is a misconception that has existed in the world society that a person becomes overweight because he or she has enough food to eat. The mistaken belief that an overweight individual is well fed is not true. Today, poverty has been rated the most significant cause of obesity in the United States population (Meyers, 2006).
The basic reason why there are more cases of obesity among the children and adult from poor families is due to the food insecurity associated with poverty. Food security implies that food which is nutritionally is available in unlimited supply. About 12 percent of the Americans today are faced with food insecurity most of whom are children from low income families. These families depend on adults who have low level of education most of whom are single parents. In most cases when families are faced with food insecurity, they try to reduce the cost of foodstuffs without necessarily reducing the quantity of food consumed. Foods that have high energy density have low water contents (Drewnowski  Specter, 2004). For this reason, high density foods which are rich in sugars and fats are cheaper, which is the option of these poor families faced with food insecurity. Those foods are cheaper due to their low water content making processing and storage easy. As poor families try to reduce the cost of foodstuffs, they settle for the cheap foods which have high energy density to maintain the quantity of their diets. Cutting food cost due to financial constrains results into a high energy density diet for the children in the family and leads to an overall increased energy intake (Rose  Bodor, 2006).

The diet in a low income family is their different from the diet from an average income family which increases the risk of children in these families being obese. An average income family will have a better choice of food such that over fifty percent of all calories in their diet are as a result of added sugars and fats. It is reported that foods that are reach in calories are linked to reduction of satiety. On the other hand, foods that have higher water content and are more expensive have lower energy density. These foods include fruits and vegetables which make an individual feel full faster leading to overall reduction of energy intake. This is as opposed to foods that have low water contents where a person consumes more calories to feel full. The high energy foods such as sugars and fats are more palatable especially among young children which in many cases are over consumed. These high calories foods taste better and therefore children like them and consume more. To the contrary, their parents cannot afford healthier foods which do not taste as good. Moreover, healthier foods are not easier and convenient to consume as the highly processed high calories foods which facilitate easier consumption. It is therefore easier and cheap to access and consume high energy density foods as compared to healthy foods (Roush, 2005).

There are many other ways in which low income among the poor Americans contribute to obesity in children and adult. However, it is clear that food is not as expensive in America as it is in other countries especially the less developed countries. It is possible for a low income earner to provide a healthy diet to his or her family and avoid the implications of obesity in young children. However, other necessities are relatively expensive in America which stretches the poor mans budget. The poor families therefore spend about half of their income on food. To meet the expenses of the families, the low income earners have to work for long hours. The case is even worse considering that most of these low income earners are single mothers who may not have humble time to prepare a healthy meal for their children. They end up giving their children junk foods or highly processed foods which take less time to prepare. This contributes to the high number of children who are obese among the poor society as compared to the average income earners who have time to prepare health meals for their children (Davies, 2007).

The relationship of the parent and the child which is as a result of poverty can contribute to the child being overweight. Most of unhealthy eating habits in children which lead to obesity are promoted by parents. These poor families have little money to spend in entertainment and therefore junk food is the only indulgence available for them. Poor parents feel guilty that they cannot afford to buy their children expensive presents which leaves them with the option of buying them junk foods from McDonald. This habit becomes addictive and the children may be unable to discard it as they grow leading to obesity. Because junk food is more palatable and popular as a result of advertisement in the media, it has turned to be the tobacco of the 21st century among the children and young adults. These junk foods have more calories compared to meals prepared at home. Moreover, the foods taste better and leave the child less full creating the tendency to consume more. There portions are high which makes it difficult for the parent to control the amount the child can consume. The likelihood of the a parent to cut his or her food quantity in case of food shortage to ensure that his or her children get their quantity is higher thus putting the children to a higher risk of being obese (Hofferth  Curtin, 2005).

The environment in which the child is brought up determines the likelihood of the child being overweight. The environment is however dictated by the income of the childs parents. The environment can be the home where the family lives or the neighborhood of the family. The child can grow up in a family where cheap and high energy density foods are very familiar. The family may have bad eating habits and are used to choosing unhealthy foods which is more likely to model the child. The child develop these unhealthy eating habits when young which leads to obesity. These habits are more common in low income environment where the unhealthy eating habits are associated with comfort. The neighborhood can also have a big contribution to obesity in children. Many fast food chains in the country target the low income neighborhood which makes them more appealing choices. This is because the outlets are located in the neighborhood and accessibility is easy. The result is children in low income neighborhoods consume more fast foods which have high calories as compared to those in the average income earners leading to obesity as compared to middle income neighborhood (DHHS, 2004).

Lack of exercise especially in children has been rated as one of the major contributors of the increased obesity in the world populations. The neighborhood in which the child is brought up determines whether the child will have time and space to play. In the poor neighborhood, the children are brought up in clouded and crime ridden environment which makes it very dangerous for children to go out to play. The children are getting bored due to lack of play and always lead to overweight due to lack of exercise and the likelihood of eating more to avert boredom (Montague, 2003). Children in these poor families have television as the only form of entertainment which is a very sedentary activity. By watching television, the child is also exposed to junk foods in the advertisements which have an impact on the choices of food the child is likely to make (Roush, 2005).

Conclusion
By carefully analyzing the trend of increased number of overweight children in America, it is clear that poverty is the root cause of the epidemic. The increased food insecurity as a result of poverty in low income families results into consumption of high energy density foods in the families. These poor parents do not have time to prepare healthy foods for their children and in many ways promotes bad eating habits among their children. The environment in which the children are brought up in the poor neighborhood either promotes unhealthy eating habits or do not provide room for the children to exercise. These factors have resulted into high number of overweight children from poor families.