Childhood obesity is a very serious condition that can cause medical problems. It is at an alarming increase nationwide, especially among African American. Many factors influence childhood obesity, such as; unaffordable healthy food, sedentary lifestyle practices, lack of nutritional education, food desert and socioeconomics (Gance et al. 2015). As a result of these conditions, these children grow into adulthood and suffer many complications that could have been avoided if primary preventions and health promotions were implemented. The key to reducing obesity is nutrition and physical activity, and by reducing obesity, chronic health problems will be reduced. Therefore, one goal of Healthy People 2020 is to, “Promote health and reduce the risk of chronic disease through the consumption of healthy diets and physical activity” (Healthy People 2020, 2016).
Description of Childhood Obesity in the African American Community
Robinson, Wagner, and Buehler (2015) states that “The pervasiveness of childhood obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s, and by the year 2012, 16.9% of children ages 2 to 19 were considered obese. Of this percentage, African American and Hispanic had the highest prevalence of obesity." This statistic is a result of many factors, such as socioeconomics, parenting life style practices which includes lack of physical activities, lack of education about nutrition, and unavailability to healthy foods because of food desert (Gance et al. 2015). All those factors play a major role in the life of African Americans and being a minority group many are not able to afford healthy foods or health care; therefore, they resort to a less healthy lifestyle which includes eating fast foods which are affordable but damaging to health. As a result of these practices, the parents become overweight and obese, and the rippling effect is that the children become overweight and obese.

Healthy People 2020
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