Letter to the Editor: More programs needed to help fight obesity battle

Dear Editor,

My name is Jarod Smith, and I am a freshman from West Fargo fighting against obesity. As the New Year has arrived in America, the Center for Disease control and Prevention released an average of 33.3 percent of people in America are obese. In Minnesota and North Dakota 26 percent of the people will fall under those characteristics.

To be obese, doctors say that your body weight is at least ten percent more than the suggested weight for your age. As a fit teenager, I believe this number is way too high. Obesity accounts for over 300,000 deaths a year! Health concerns increase in an obese person too. Some include increased risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and trouble sleeping.

It also accounts for a giant sum of nearly 100 billion dollars that society has to pay says the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The AACAP also states a few causes for obesity, and I say we should pay attention to reducing these causes. The causes include, yet are not limited to, poor eating habits, lack of exercise, family history of obesity, and problems in life that could be causing stress.

Based off these facts, we should put more programs in place to help the children, teens, and adults that struggle with the problem of obesity throughout America.

Jarod Smith

Horace