Today there are about 23 millions teens living in the US. (Channel one network) About 43 percent of those are found to have 5 meals or more a day. (Channel one network) About one-third have 4 meals per day. Shockingly, only about one-fourth consume 3 or less times a day. (Channel one network) Between the meals, many teens choose to have snacks and sweets rather than fruits. (E-Medicine Health) This kind of food contains high-calories with low nutrients. (E-Medicine Health) Therefore, when teens eat this kind of foods too much than their body needs, the body will store the additional fat and over time it will bring obesity to them. (Suthouchaworawud)
According to the USDA's Nationwide Food consumption,
Daily total energy intake increases for adolescent girls and boys by 113 and 243 kilocalories, respectively. Soda consumption increased dramatically in the early to mid 1990s. 32 percent of adolescent girls and 52 percent of adolescent boys consume three or more eight ounce servings of soda per day. Soft drink consumption for adolescent boys has nearly tripled, from 7 to 22 oz. per day between 1978 and 1994. (US Department of health)
In addition, some parents and teens sometimes misunderstand about what healthy food is. They are taken in by what the media promote to be a healthy snack. (Popkin 64-67) The media claim that a healthy snack is good for your health, unlike, junk snack. (Popkin 64-67) This is totally wrong. What media claim to be a healthy snack still contains high calories and this means it can still help teens to develop obesity. (Popkin 64-67)
Thailand
Thai teens today have a greater risk of developing obesity because of their choice to eat. (Manager online 174) According to the statistic of Department of health, it shows that 55.7 percents of teens in Bangkok between ages 12-18 like having fast food. (Business Thai) The most popular fast foods are pizza, fried chicken and hamburger. (Business Thai) About 35% drink soda regularly. (Business Thai) The changes in teens' eating habit contribute by change in parental role. Today many mothers work outside home to help support their family. (Huadsiri 9) This means that mother eventually have less time to look after their families, especially, their kids. (Huadsiri 9) As parents have no time or too tired from their work to cook, evidently, it show an increasing number of families consume pre-cooked meal, street food or fast food either Thai or Western style, instead of homemade meal. (Huadsiri 9) Also many teens staying on their own are more likely to eat out rather than cooking themselves. From my own experience when I was in high school, I stayed at dormitory on my own because my school was very far away from home. Most of my meals there are pre-cooked meals from outside because it is faster, more convenient and also saves my time to clean up. Doctor Manat Karykul, a heart attack doctor and nutritionist at Rama hospital, states that people who eat out gain 290 calories more than eat at home. (Manager Online) This is because restaurants use much more oil in their food. (Manager Online) Moreover, oil which is used by restaurant is palm oil. As everyone knows palm oil contains high-calories. (Chunnasawadikun 36) Restaurants also use a lot of sugar to their food so the costumers receive great amount of sugar from eating out. (Chunnasawadikun 36) But when teen or their parents cook at home they can manage around what material they should use. (Manager Online) Not only do teens today over consume carbohydrate and fat, but they also consume very little of vegetable. (Bussiness Thai) Vegetable filled with fiber help to absorb fat from food and release it out before intestine will absorb it into the body. (Chunnasawadikun 40) Moreover, fiber also helps to take fat that store in the body out to use it easily. (Chunnasawadikun 40) This means that teens who eat very little vegetable can gain weight than teens who do because their bodies fully absorb fat into body. (Chunnasawadikun 40)
From 1999 to 2004 total sales for snack in Thailand increased 35.2 percent. (Hawkes 47) In 2006 Thai teens spent 26 Baht per day on average buying snack or 9,800 Baht per year. (Department of health 136) This is a big amount of money spending on food compared to education. (Department of health) Moreover, most snacks that teens consume are "extruded snack" which mainly consist of flour, sugar, sodium leading teens to gradually develop obesity. (Hawkes 47) Thai teens today receive about 23 percent of energy from snack. (Hawkes 40) Department of Health releases the data that kids age 12-14 have higher percentage in consuming high-energy snacks, sugary beverage, and high fat food more than any other groups. (Department of Health)
In conclusion, both Thailand and the U.S.' eating habit has been changing overtime in the same direction in the way that lead them to have more chance in developing obesity. With both parents have to work outside to help sustain their standard of living, they have less time with families. Because of this reason, it helps to explain why both Thailand and the U.S., the number of adolescents' eating out has been increasingly in recently. With eating out, most teens take convenient into consideration in choosing their food. Inevitably, both Thai and American teens are more likely to consume fast food, such as, pizza, fried chicken and hamburger - the food that leads them to gradually develop obesity- because of its time-saving. Moreover, teens in both the U.S. and Thailand consume a large amount of snack and soda. The total number of consumption of snack and soda in both countries help indicate teens' situation now at the high risk in becoming obese.
B. Physical Activities
The US
Many researchers conclude that there is an association between adolescent's behavior and their environment. (University of Florida) The researchers claim that if the community has a safe park or environment providing for teens, they are more likely to spend much more time outside home having fun with friends and being more physically active. (University of Florida) This idea can support by Toronto city planning. Toronto provides its citizen an additional of bicycle lane which leads to the increase of 23% in bike use. (US Department of health) Unfortunately, the environment in most of the cities and suburbs today do not prove to promote physically active for teens. (US Department of health) The open areas and public parks available in the city are few. (US Department of health) As a result, teens have no safe place to hang out, thus they stay home. Moreover, high crime rate, unattended dogs and unsafe footpath also keep teens from outdoor activities. (US Department of health) Traffic is another significant factor that prevents teens from being physically active such as bicycling or walking. (US Department of health) Unluckily, the increasing number of people who are dead and injured in road accident causes the parents to be more likely to prohibit their children to go out because they worry about their children safety. (University of Florida) This high rate of accidents can help to explain why the number of students walking to school decreased from 20 percent in 1977 to 12 percent in 2001. (US Department of health)
The invention of TV, computer games and video games is also another important reason that keeps children and teens from physical activities. Average adolescents today watch TV or use computer about 3 hours per day. (E-medicine health) With sitting and watching TV or surfing the internet, this limits their movement using very little energy. (E-medicine health) Not only do they use less energy, but watching TV and playing computer games also encourages snacking. (E-medicine health) Moreover, with working parents, adolescents are less likely to participate in after school sports because parents worry about their children's transportation to home. (E-medicine health) This imbalance between the energy consumption and the energy expense leads teens finally to become obese. (Suthouchaworawud)
Thailand
From the survey that was conducted at Siam Paragon and Central Pinklao, it shockingly shows that only 9 percent exercising more than 1-2 times per work while 24 percent hardly exercise at all. (Appendix1, 2) Many factors contribute why many teens today exercise less. The most popular answer for why adolescents today exercise less is because of their laziness which accounted for 50 percent. (Appendix1, 2) They just don't want to exercise. But this is not an only reason that keeps teens from being physically active. According to my experience, sometimes it has to do with having no time as well because of busy schedule of tutoring. Many Thai teens today have to go to tutoring schools after classes and also during the weekend. Thai students start school at 8.30 A.M. and finish at 3.30 P.M. Many of them have to go for tutoring after school until 8 or 9 P.M. After they finish tutoring, they have to do homework. Even during the weekend, they have to go for the tutors. This means that they almost have no time to do any other thing else.
Technology is also one important factor contributing to adolescent obesity. According to the survey, 39% spend their free time playing computer games while only 12% playing sports. (Appendix1, 1) This shows that today Thai teens spend much more time in front of TV or computers than going out. This can affect a great deal to their health as everyone knows that exercising can keep his body fit. Also almost teens today use private or public transportation instead of walking or biking to school like the past. (Tonsurat 12) This cannot be blamed on teens themselves. Lacking of footpath and bicycle lanes, high crime rate, and busy traffic makes it unsafe for teens to walk or bike to school. (Tonsurat 12) Moreover, most teens go to school which it is very far away from home, making it impossible for them to walk school. (Tonsurat 12)
To sum up, teens in both Thailand and the U.S. are now becoming physically inactive due to many reasons. First reason is to do with technology. Technology- car, bus, machine and computer- helps people, especially, teens to live lives more convenient and comfortable, but, at the time it is also destroy their health indirectly. They now use labor-saving device, thus, they spend less energy. As well as the invention of TV and computer also another important reason to keep teens of both teens from being physically active. Thai and American teens spend lots of their time in front of TV or computer each day. This not only does it limit the movement of teens as they only sit in one place, but it also encourage snacking. With more energy intake, but less energy spending, teens, inevitably, will become obese. Not only does the technology affect a great deal on how people live, but environment where teens live also affect on teens' behavior. With the help of technology to build up the modern city, open spaces for children and teens to hang out available become less. Thus, teens stay home, as mention above, spending their time in front of TV and computer. Briefly, by being physically inactive allows a large number of Thai and American teens now at severe risk to be obesity in nearly future.
C. Socioeconomic status
The US
The United State of American, many researchers have found a relation between poverty and obesity. (Kuil 86) "Poverty can greatly affect the way people eat." (Kuil 1) A huge amount of poor people are obese rather than underweight. (Kuil 1) From the statistic, it shows that about 23 percent of teens who develop obesity come from low income families while only 14 percent are children in the better off families. (Hitti)
Poor people choose to buy food based on their income rather than quality of food. (Kuil 1) Poor people do not think about what is healthy or unhealthy food to consume because most of them rather concern if today they will have something to eat. (Kuil 1) So with their limited income, they are forced to purchase cheaper foods. (Kuil 1) What poor people get with cheaper foods is usually canned or frozen food, cookies, and soda - "food loaded with fat and calories." (Hawn 92). Poor people are less likely to purchase fresh vegetables, and fruits. This is because they are expensive and also inconvenient for poor people prepare home-meals. (Kuil 1) A researcher, Nanci Hellmich, at USA Today has demonstrated that,
"The Atkins diet would cost about one hundred dollars a week if you make all the meals at home, and the South Beach diet would cost almost ninety dollars a week." (Kuil 2-3)
This is a lot of money for poor people to spend on food in which most likely cannot afford it. Moreover, junk food is widespread among the poor. (Kuil 1) This is because it is easy to find and also very cheap. (Kuil 1) Junk food can be considered a bad diet food too because of its "empty calories." (Kuil 1) The "empty calories" is the foods that contain high-calories with little other nutritional values to your health. (Kuil 1) This has a huge impact on their health concerning their weight because they are more likely to over consume high-energy food with its cheap price and convenient. The Food Researcher and Action Center once stated,
In order to cope with limited money for food and to stave off hunger, families try to maximize caloric intake for each dollar spent, which can lead to over consumption of calories and a less healthful diet. (Kuil 1)
Since poor teens have no choice to choose a variety of food because of their limited family income, they are more likely than other class to consume unhealthy foods because of its cheaper price. Moreover, teens' physical activities with low income family are often limited. This is because their parents do not have enough money to offer their child a gym or to join a sport team at school. (Kuil 1) To join a sport team at school, it costs a great deal of money for the low income family. They have to buy uniforms, sport shoes and sometimes sport equipment. (Kuil 1) With their limited money which even sometimes they have nothing to eat, poor teens are less likely to join and play sports. "The lack of physical activity combined with the poor quality of food leads to obesity." (Kuil 1)
The reason why the unhealthy foods - soda, cookies, junk foods - cost much less than vegetables, fruits and meats is because of the subsidy programs designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. (Hawn) The government spends a lot of money funding on farming soybean and corn making it more plenty and cheaper than before. (Hawn) These subsidized soybean and corn are distilled into "soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup," two components normally found in high-calories foods such as soft drinks, cheeseburgers, potato chips and etc. (Hawn) With these government's subsidy programs, the foods using these soybean oil and corn syrup as a main ingredient, become cheap. (Hawn) Dr. Adam Drewnoski at University of Washing concluded that the food that uses subsidized crops, such as French fried, hamburgers and soda, cost about five times less than the food which is not subsidized by government, such as broccoli and fruit juices. (Hawn 93)
Thailand
Higher price of food around the world and also in Thailand affects a great deal on poor people especially among the farmers and laborers. (Action for change 98) The higher price of food in Thailand has increased a lot during these few months both internally and externally. Among the goods, rice price which is the main source of food in Thailand reaches the peak. (Action for change) Also, other price, of foods such as pork, chicken, eggs have increased a great deal. (Action for change) This is due to the high price of gas needed in transportation the raw materials and the products. (Action for change) Moreover, the increasing price of foods surely affects on how poor people purchase them. (Action for change) The poor teens are underweight and develop malfunction disease than obesity because without money or little money, many poor children in Thailand have no money to buy food. (Thai good health) Unicef stated that children and teens in Thailand who live in poverty are much likely to weight 4 times less than teens who live in better off families. (The Thai News) The children and teens eat only what their parents can purchase or find around them each day. (Thai good health) Some days, they only have a bit of rice to eat without any meat or vegetable. (Thai good health) With food they can find, they grill and boil meat, soft-boil vegetables eaten with chili paste, instead of frying it helping reduce fat in it. (CDIR) These kinds of foods contain low fat and calories so it is healthy to eat. (CDIR) Still many people wonder that Thai curries are filled with coconut milk which contains much fat. Although curries contain lot of fat form coconut milk, herb in the curries can help absorb much fat from coconut milk. (Tonsurat 13)
In conclusion, income level does not necessarily lead to children obesity in every country. It also depends on many other factors such as the nature of each country's regular foods, their citizens' eating habits, and also the governments' actions. The Americans' eating habit tends to prefer high-fat food which provides a lot of energy for they live in cold climate. In contrary, Thais' eating habit is more concerned about health and herb plus that it is easier to grow and find fresh vegetables than to afford meat or even the cooking oil, the situation is the other way around in the United States. As mentioned earlier, the governments sometimes have significant influence on food as well; the U.S. government subsidizes high-calorie crops which later leads to high-calorie but cheap foods contrast with Thailand of which the government support the production of healthy foods like vegetables and fruits plus the tropical climate is suitable for growing them making them affordable, for instant example, the theory of sufficiency economy introduced by our great King Rama 9th which promote every household to grow vegetables by themselves for internal consumption. The bottom line behind all of this can be summarized into one sentence which is "obese foods are cheap in the U.S. while expensive in Thailand and vice versa for the useful foods."
