Nutrition Essay

Today, nutrition plays an important part in the life of the modern society. However, the contemporary food culture often provokes negative effects, which affect consistently the health of people and their life. In this respect, the problem of obesity naturally emerges because nutrition defines, to a significant extent, the physical shape of individuals and may lead to the development of obesity. However, at this point, views of specialists on the problem of obesity vary consistently. In this regard, it is possible to refer to studies conducted by Forster-Scott, who views food culture and cultural norms as the primary cause of obesity, and Story, who views the lack of adequate care and physical activity in children as the primary cause of obesity, but it is obvious that both specialists are right because both culture and care along with physical activity may lead to problems in nutrition and, therefore, obesity.
First of all, it is possible to refer to the study conducted by Forster-Scott, who focused on cultural aspects of nutrition and its impact on the development of obesity in children. The author stands on the ground that different ethnic groups have varying ideas about the meaning of overweight and obesity that may be different from those of mainstream American culture or of medical and science practitioners in this country (Forster-Scott, 2007). Therefore, obesity does not necessarily mean something wrong in some cultures but, instead, overweight is welcomed in some culture that naturally leads to the development in children. For instance, the author points out that in many cultures, it is considered desirable for women to have larger than average derrieres. In the quest to achieve this, women will intentionally gain or maintain a certain weight so as to attract attention to their derrieres. Girls receive these messages early in life, as they are developing their own body image and sexuality, because it is so widely accepted within their culture (Forster-Scott, 2007). Therefore, the author views cultural norms and traditions as the primary cause of obesity because overweight may be viewed as a norm in many cultures, whereas some cultures welcome obesity that naturally leads to the development of negative nutrition habits leading to the obesity of children and adults.
Obviously, the role of culture in the development of negative nutrition habits can hardly be underestimated but Story stresses that nutrition alone and cultural background is not enough to develop obesity in children. In this regard, the author explores the social environment of children and physiological causes of the development of obesity caused by negative nutrition habits. In fact, Story draws the attention to the problem of children care as one of the major causes of the development of obesity, making parents and care givers responsible for the development of obesity in children. The author studied different groups of children and arrived to the conclusion that preschool children enter care as early as six weeks of age and can be in care for as many as forty hours a week until they reach school age. Forty-one percent of preschool children are in child care for thirty-five or more hours a week. Another 25 percent are in care for fifteen to thirty-four hours a week, while 16 percent are in care for one to fourteen hours. Eighteen percent spend no time in child care (Story, 2006). In such a way, children enter care at the very early age and, therefore, the author naturally presupposes that care affects their nutrition and, potentially, may provoke obesity.
In the course of the study, Story eventually arrives to the conclusion that physical activity is crucial to overall health and to obesity prevention. Reduced physical activity is a likely contributor to increasing obesity rates among children of all ages (Story, 2006). In this regard, children care is very important because care givers should encourage and stimulate children to lead an active lifestyle or to develop new, healthy nutrition habits. In fact, the author stresses that nutrition alone is not enough to either develop or solve the problem of obesity. Instead, the author views the nutrition culture only as a part of the problem of obesity. In contrast to Forster-Scott, Story expands the scope of the study beyond nutrition culture along and stresses that the problem of obesity cannot be solved with the change in nutrition culture alone. Instead, Scott argues that the lifestyle is also of the utmost importance and children should focus on the development of healthy physical habits.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that nutrition is very important for the health of children. At the same time, the development of children depends not only on the nutrition culture as Forster-Scott believes but also on physical activities of children as Story argues. In such a way, the nutrition should comprise an integral part of the development of children along with physical exercises to improve their physical health and nutrition habits.