Overweight: A Handbook for Teens and Parents

Heller, Tania. Overweight: A Handbook for Teens and Parents. Jefferson, N.C: McFarland & Co, 2005. Print.

Summary:

Overweight: A Handbook for Teens and Parents by Tania Heller discuss how physical activity and nutrition, lifestyles of many young Americans has changed tremendously over time. She also talks about how a long time ago, people walked miles to get to school, to visit friends, and to see the doctor. There were also no television to watch, and no internet to keep children from leaving the house and going out to be active. Back then, they also spent their time cooking a fresh home cooked meals and enjoying meals as a family, instead of going to a fast food restaurant and eating precooked meals. The result to the change of how things use to be to now is the rise in obesity. It’s now affecting the younger population more than ever. With the increase in childhood and adolescent obesity comes a host of other illnesses and conditions: diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and cancer, along with low self-esteem, depression and anxiety. Written for both youth and parents, this work covers the causes and effects of the rise in childhood obesity while presenting straightforward guidelines and recommendations for getting assessed and treated. It provides information on healthy nutrition and physical activity for young people, tools for self-monitoring and medical conditions associated with weight gain. Also, throughout the book, there are teens that discuss their weight-related struggles and how they overcame them.

Assessment:

This is a useful source because it includes real life stories about people that were obese and they provide strategies to overcome it. It also talks about how you can prevent obesity. This source is different from my other sources because this is the only source that has people’s real stories about when they were obese. It also has people telling their stories that are currently obese. They talk about how they feel and what struggles they go through. The goal of this source is to aware parents and teens that technology and fast food has become an issue in today’s world. Also, that we are not as active as we use to be. Therefore, we need to focus more on our health and the substances that we’re putting in our body.

Reflection:

Overweight: A Handbook for Teens and Parents was a helpful source for my research. It compares how teens live in today’s world to how teens use to live back then. I believe if we lived the life that they use to back in the day, we would have a healthier generation. In today’s world people don’t walk anywhere, because everybody has cars. Therefore, they don’t get that much exercise. Also, since everyone has cars, when they get hungry when they’re out running errands they don’t go home to get a healthy snack. Instead, they stop by a fast food restaurant and get something that’s most likely unhealthy. I can use this source to show that people became less active overtime and that’s one of the main causes of obesity.