In contemporary life, the epidemic of obesity is increasingly conceivable in that children are becoming overweight and unhealthy. While some people claim that the onus is on the governments to tackle the problem, I strongly disagree with this view.
Contrary to supporters of this view, I am inclined to believe that individuals and families are to blame for their own issue. Foremost, each individual is supposed to make dietary choices but not unhealthy ones, especially fast food. As a matter of fact, childhood obesity often stems from unhealthy diets, namely their overconsumption of ultra-processed food with high levels of fat, sugar, and oil. For instance, it is surveyed that about 72% of overweight children consume fast food at least four times per week. As a result, a child needs to have a tight grip on their intake of unhealthy food and drink. Besides, physical activities should be encouraged and promoted as well. The rationale for this is that children nowadays tend to lead a sedentary lifestyle, which does great harm to themselves. Consequently, their exposure to a myriad of activities such as walking, cycling, and jogging at least seven times per week is highly recommended. Another key solution is reliant on parental responsibility. In fact, each child ought to be well educated about nutrition and health so that they can be self-aware to distinguish malnutrition and what they should eat.
Nevertheless, advocates argue that governments are the ones who are responsible for addressing this problem. It is clear that they have the power to put a freeze on the fast food industry and adopt new policies to mitigate childhood obesity. This view sounds persuasive at first, but in fact, self-discipline is pivotal in solving this issue. Undeniably, without children’s determination to manage themselves, even the government would not be able to put them into a healthy routine. For example, with a policy released, a child can hide and do anything in secret because of the inability to supervise him everytime and everywhere.
To sum up, individuals and families are the first to be in charge of children’s being overweight and unhealthy, whereas, government is only a supplementary factor in this problem. Therefore, children and parents should take urgent actions to prevent this epidemic.