Presently, children and teenagers in the United States are facing a health crisis known as obesity: obesity occurs when a person accumulates body fat at a rapid pace. With obesity, adolescents are at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, increased stress on the weight bearing joints, and lower self esteem. The fact is, the percentage of overweight children has more than tripled since 1980. According to statistics, 16% of American children between the ages of six and nineteen are either overweight or obese.

In an effort to minimize child obesity, the Miami-Dade County Public Schools voted to ban the sale of soda and other sweet drinks on school grounds. Water, milk, unsweetened fruit juice, and electrolyte-replacement drinks such as Gatorade or PowerAde will take the place of all sweet drinks. The new rule also prohibits “king size” snacks such as large cookies or Big Grab bags of chips. Rudy Crew also considered stopping teachers and staff from buying soda in the belief that employees need to set an example, but he failed to introduce the idea. Many school clubs and sports teams will lose money from their profitable soda machine contracts, but Superintendent Rudy Crew has already set aside most of the money needed to reimburse them. This ruling also calls for more than 3 million dollars to hire more teachers to teach middle-school physical education, since there are about sixty to seventy students per class. The rule will go into effect starting next summer.

Why are so many children obese? The main causes of child obesity are lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating habits, genetics, and sometimes a combination of all three. Nowadays, the computer, television, game stations such as the XBOX 360, the PSP, the PS2, etc., have taken over much of the time that children should be spending exercising. According to statistics, the average American youngster spends 24 hours watching TV per week. But these kids are not just watching TV; they are also eating unwholesome snacks. Similarly, when teens go to fast food restaurants they have the dollar menu option which allows them to buy a large quantity of food or they simply buy large sizes of what they order. All of these factors aid in the development of child obesity and unless they are monitored or relinquished, teenage obesity will become the health epidemic of the next generation.