Recent reports show that more and more young people are overweight and unfit than ever before. This leads to worries about the unhealthy lifestyles youngsters nowadays lead and the unbalanced diets they adopt.
Write an article to your school magazine, accounting for the emergence of such an unfit generation and suggest ways for youngsters to improve their fitness. Provide a title for your article as well.
The obese generation
Nowadays, we can always see teenagers having potbellies. According to a research conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 21% of young people are overweight. It is predicted that the figures will even increase to 25% in 2016! The number of obese teenagers is going at an alarming rate .
In fact, obesity does not only make you move slower, but also causes many diseases. Recent research shows that 5% of obese youngsters have high blood glucose level, which would lead to many deadly diseases, such as coronary heart diseases and diabetes. Therefore, obesity of teenagers is really a great problem that we should leave aside.
First of all, we need to know the reasons for obesity among teenagers.
A prominent cause is the bad habits of the bad habits of the young children. With the advancement of technology, youngsters nowadays have far more entertainment than the last generation, such as playing TV games and computers. The problem is that many young people only focus on these ‘passive’ activities, but not willing to go outdoors and do exercise. Since they do not have enough work out, their muscles will become flabby and they will become overweight easily. I have many friends who only love to play computer games, but never do any exercise. They think that it is boring and tiring to do exercises, and so they refuse to do any outdoor activities. The results are predictable – they are end up with big bellies.
The diet of the young children also causes obesity. Nowadays, teenagers love eating fast food and snacks, as well as drinking soft drinks. In fact, those deep-fried fast food, such as fried chicken and French fries contain lots of fats and cholesterol. On the other hand, snacks and soft drinks usually contain lots of sugar. As youngsters take in too much high-calorie food, they will become overweight gradually.
Apart from that, parents are also responsible for the problem. Actually, many young children just keep on eating, even if they have eaten much more than the amount of food they need. Parents should in fact restrict the amount of food their children eat. Unfortunately, they do not do so. On the contrary, many of them encourage their children to eat more, as they mistakenly think that chubby children represent happiness and healthiness. This makes more teenagers become obese.
Lastly, in fact, the education system is also responsible for the problem. The education is really examination-oriented; it puts too much emphasis on academic results. This adds great pressure to students, especially F5 and F7 ones, as they need to attend public examinations. I remember that when I was in form 5, I really had much pressure. Even if I had time, I would only go to tutorial classes instead of doing exercises or sports, as I thought that doing exercise was a waste of time.
To cope with the problem, schools and parents can both help.
The schools can invite some nutritionists or pediatricians to hold talks in the assembly, to teach students the importance of healthy diets and exercises, in order to urge students to have balanced diets and enough work outs. The schools can also hold activities to teach students that sport is fun and is also a good way to release pressure, so that students can enjoy more in playing sports after participating in the activities. Therefore, students can lose weight gradually.
On the other hand, parents should change their way of thinking and control the amount of food their children can be controlled. Parents should also encourage their children to do sports. In fact, other than normal sports, parents can also encourage them to play some ‘non-sedentary’ TV games that involve body movements. Recently, a new study has confirmed that this kind of ‘sports’ is an effective way to keep fit. Actually, parents can even play the games with their children so that their relationship can also be improved.
To conclude, even though the problem of obesity among teenagers is getting worse now, if suitable measures can be taken, I am sure that it will eventually cease to be a problem.