Question

1. Who is responsible for the rise in childhood obesity? Parents? Pediatricians? The children? Society?

2. Discuss some ways that an older adult could increase his or her dietary vitamin D. Keep in mind that your suggestions should be appropriate for this age group, who may have

different preferences than a younger person.

3. How does advertising affect food choices throughout life? Is there one particular part of life in which you think food advertising may have the biggest impact on a person’s food choices? Which one? Explain.

Answer 1

Answer 1 :

Childhood obesity is a problem increasing worldwide. This is responsibility of all people connected with child rearing which includes parents, teachers, paediatricians and society as a whole. The child who suffers from obesity is no less responsible. It is a problem that needs multi-pronged solution. If we want to see our future generation as healthy, this should be done at war footing.

Answer 2 :

Vitamin D is made in the body in presence on sunlight by the skin. The younger children could be asked to be outdoor more often early in the morning to have enough dose of Vitamin D naturally. But for our target of older adult that may not be able to do such a frolic in the sun, the better way to improve Vitamin D will be through dietary supplements. Good sources of Vitamin D include fatty fish, fish liver oils, egg yolk and the like. Hence, we would suggest to the adult person to include these in his regular diet to build up on Vitamin D. Milk and milk products which are fortified with Vitamin D could be another source considered by this person as it also includes good amount of calcium which is necessary for absorption of Vitamin D.

Answer 3 :

In today's times of marketing and advertising, each aspect of our life is influenced by or even dictated by advertising, including our food choices throughout life. Be it simple food, fast food, food supplements and/ or a healthy dietary choice, we come to know about it through advertising. The knowledge given by these media may or may not be reliable but it definately has an influence on our choices.

The age group which is most affected by these media advertisings are the youngsters and children. At this age group, the mind is easily impressionable by the images that are literally bombarded on their psyche. Also, this group is easily lead by peer pressure and is liable to make uninformed choices for reasons different than that of other age groups. Add to this scene, the rampant use of social media and easy access to them and we have an age group which takes all decisions, be it food, clothing, fashion, even hairstyle only as propagated by advertisements.