15. November 2009 by student.

According to the World Health Organization overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health. A crude population measure of obesity is the body mass index (BMI), a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of his or her height (in meters). A person with a BMI of 30 or more is generally considered obese. A person with a BMI equal to or more than 25 is considered overweight. Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Once considered a problem only in high income countries, overweight and obesity are now dramatically on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. More education and awareness needs to be emphasized to make people aware of the potential risks and illnesses associated with obesity. Years ago when there were no cars people had to walk or ride the bike to wherever they needed to go, therefore, they got more exercise and burned more calories. Today is a different story. Everybody relies on cars to take them to places. In today’s world there is much less manpower than there was years ago. Couple that with fast-food restaurants that contain high fat and calories and you have an obesity problem that is growing rapidly. Luckily there are solutions to the problem. By eating the right things and exercising you can prevent becoming overweight and obese.

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15. November 2009 by student.

Obesity is growing at an alarming rate. It is a serious issue in the United States right now, especially with children. It is causing serious health risks that need to come to an end. Parents are usually the main reason for their overweight children. Parents need to buckle down and have more discipline to their children if they want them to grow healthy, strong and happy. Obesity can cause serious health issues such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, bone and joint defects, shortness of breath, sleep disorders, early development, liver and gall bladder disease, depression and much more. Children deriving these health risks are limited to what normal children can do, like activities such as gym class, or playing sports at recess. It also can shorten their life. Obese children may develop serious depression for many reasons. A major reason is being ridiculed by other children who do not have weight issues. Ridiculing is very common in today’s generation and it hurts children who are overweight. They might not have as many friends as other children do and this can cause depression. They might get very lonely. In this generation parents spoil their children way too much. With fast food, video games, and all the new electronics, kids are not getting the proper food or exercise they need to grow properly. Parents try to make their kids happy. They basically give their children what ever they want just to please them. If a child is continually begging and pestering a parent to stop at Cold Stone to get some ice-cream, it is common for the parent to stop and get their child ice-cream just so they will stop pestering them. Fast food is exactly how is sounds. Parents are busy and sometimes are not able to or do not want to cook, but they know they have to feed their kids, so McDonalds or Burger King is fast, delicious to kids, and it food that gets the job done. These foods are very unhealthy and filled with calories, that should only be ate as a once in a while treat, not an everyday meal. When I was young, it was a struggle for my parents to get me inside for dinner from playing football with the neighborhood kids. Kids now a days are growing up around televisions and video games. This eliminates children from getting the daily exercise that they need to grow-up and develop in a normal and healthy way. Parents are a major factor in helping fix children and obesity. It needs to start now before it becomes worse than ever.

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15. November 2009 by student.

I think the alcohol age should be changed to 18 everywhere. The minimum age required to buy or drink alcohol is zero to twenty-one all across the world. Here in Florida it just happens to be twenty-one. This is barbaric. I think a good age to be able to buy and consume alcohol should be eighteen. Eighteen is a perfect drinking age because you are an adult. You have many responsibilities and are mature enough to make your own decisions about many things including alcohol. Eighteen year-old’s are aloud to vote, buy cigarettes, drive, be drafted and are responsible for their own actions. If a teenager is aloud to go to war and shoot a gun, I find it ridiculous that they are not aloud to sit down and have a beer after they might have just killed someone. Society says that teenagers are too immature and will make mistakes like drinking and driving and that teenagers cause all of the car accidents dealing with alcohol. This is false because I have seen all over the news, people in their forties and fifties getting DUI’s. They say that teenagers can not handle alcohol, but all people who first start drinking are just learning their limits. Alcohol is a serious issue in today’s society no matter what age you are, It does not matter if your eighteen or if your forty- five. Illegal drinking is happening all the time if you want believe it or not. College parties happen all the time and not being allowed to drink means you have to be sneaky about it. All the time teenagers drive under the influence because they hear that the cops are coming to bust the party and they get scared because they can get in serious trouble for illegal drinking. If the drinking age was eighteen, then they would not go out and drive while intoxicated because they know if the cops come, that they are obeying the law and they have nothing to hide. Now I understand how the older society and generations think it is too young to be consuming alcohol, but what a lot of us hate to do is face reality, and whether you want to believe it or not the reality is that drinking is happening at younger ages. I think that having the age at 21 just makes the situation worse. If any law were to be twenty-one is should be cigarettes. Over 400,000 deaths in the U.S. are caused from smoke-related illnesses each year. Around 75,000 deaths are caused from alcohol-related incidents each year. That is a huge difference. Smoking is a major cause of many different cancers especially lung cancer. Alcohol does not have nicotine and is not addictive like cigarettes are.

http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html http://www.alcoholfacts.org/

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