Childhood Obesity Informative Speech

Weigh In on Childhood Obesity
Childhood obesity has recently become an epidemic in the United States, affecting about four million children every year (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). A YouTube public service announcement on this particular topic caught my eye because it is a very frightening, serious subject that is prevalent among my family and peers. Many Americans push this idea aside, but they fail to realize that nearly one of three children in the United States suffer from obesity (“Overweight and Obesity”). Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, strokes, and even death often manifest due to unhealthy lifestyles. Because of these terrible side effects, I believe that everybody should understand the serious consequences of childhood obesity.
The viewer sees everything through Jim’s eyes for the duration of the video, so that everyone can imagine themselves in his position. When the video begins, Jim is being rushed to the emergency room on a stretcher. A doctor and a nurse are standing over Jim, stating that he is 5’9”, 300 pounds, 32 years old, and has suffered a heart attack. The doctor asks himself, “How does this even happen?” This video then launches into a series of two to three second clips of Jim’s daily life throughout 32 years, rewinding to when he was a baby. The majority of the clips include Jim eating junk food such as ice cream, donuts, pizza, and greasy fast food. Other clips in the video show Jim playing video games, lying around the house, and breathing heavily whenever he does any physical activity. A few times throughout his life, doctors told him that he had to make a change in his life. One doctor even told him that he had developed diabetes. Towards the end of the video, Jim sits in his baby chair, and his mother is feeding him French fries, saying that it is the only thing that gets him to stop crying. After that, it cuts back to Jim in the emergency room, with ominous and intimidating music, along with heartrate monitors and other hospital noise playing in the background. Words then appear on the
According to a government study, “childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years” (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). Astonishing facts such as this demonstrate how recently childhood obesity has arisen. When parents allow children to become obese, their social, physical, and emotional functions become impaired. Why does this happen, though? A drastic change in advertising techniques has catalyzed the problem in recent years. CBS News found that, “the average person is exposed to around 5,000 ads per day” (“Cutting Through Advertising Clutter”). The majority of these advertisements are for fast food restaurants, brands of candy, and types of salty snacks. Healthier foods are also often way more expensive than unhealthy, fattening food. The combination of advertisements and high prices discourage society from eating wholesome foods. As previously stated, a third of American children are currently obese. This means that over the years, there will be a drastic increase in obesity induced medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, and even cancer. The National Cancer Institute has stated that a “continuation of existing trends in obesity will lead to about 500,000 additional cases of cancer in the United States by 2030” (“Obesity and Cancer Risk”). It is quite obvious that unless significant adjustments are made to the