Health and life: connections and impacts

¶ … authors address the experiences of adolescents and young adults within a health context. Indeed, as the chapter demonstrates, these demographics experience a very specific set of risks related to the cultural and experiential realities of the age in question. Many risk factors relate to a permeation of sexually transmitted diseases and the omnipresence of drugs and alcohol in teen social settings. However, an often overlooked area of risk is teen obesity, which McKenzie et al. (2012) identify as a symptom of negative heath behaviors and lifestyle choices as a youth that could lead to lifelong health obstacles in adulthood.

This issue is explored with greater depth in the article by Park (2009) which published in Time Magazine's 'Health' section. Here, the article highlights exactly why this is such a pressing public health issue in need of greater attention. According to Park, the rate of teen obesity tripled between 1976 and 2004, suggesting that certain lifestyle patterns distinct to our current way of life are pointedly unhealthful and can have consequences well beyond our teen years. Surprisingly, the study cited by Park in the article did not find that teens had significantly reduced the amount of physical activity engaged in on a daily basis from youths of previous generations. A lack of physical activity by itself could not be blamed for the spike in obesity.

This would not be to argue, according to the article, that young Americans do get the necessary amount of physical activity. Cultural proclivities driving teens to spend more time sitting in front of the television or surfing the internet are directly connected to higher individual vulnerabilities to obesity and its related health dangers. Moreover, according to Park's article, "in 2007, only 34.7% of teens met federal physical activity recommendations, which call for activity strenuous enough to cause heavy breathing for a total of an hour a day for five or more days a week."

Park cites behavioral patterns and a diminished focus on physical education courses in public schools. However, as noted above, this does not adequately explain why obesity has increased so dramatically. These deficiencies may not be too out of step with lifestyle patterns of previous generations. But as the Park article indicates, obesity is in its simplest terms attributable to two lifestyle conditions; the amount of calories burned on a daily basis and the amount of calories consumed. Evidence has begun to mount to suggest that it is in this latter area that changes in behavior and consumer culture have had the effect of increasing obesity patterns. To this end, it is unclear what nutritional factors account most for this change. It could be speculated based on the data presented in the article that there is some relationship between the kinds of foods that teens consume today as opposed to in previous generations. The preponderance of fast food options, highly processed snack foods and artificially flavored comestibles have created a high cultural and economic proliferation of consumer options that are completely lacking in nutritional value. And the link between these foods and obesity has been clearly established in myriad contexts. (Koshuta, p. 1)