Blogging By Stacey B

Obesity and the Causes in Children

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 23:35:00 +0000

Title:
Obesity and the Causes in Children, By Stacey Baker, Research for the 21st Century, Winter Quarter 2008

Introduction:
My research topic is on obesity in children and some of the causes of it including diet, exercise, television and genetics. Obesity is becoming a problem for younger people more and more, and the research I have done has found some of the reasons for this. The children today have poorer diets, don’t do as many physical activities and watch television that enforces bad eating habits. All of these causes can be controlled, unlike genetics which can’t be changed, but can be foreseen and other factors controlled to help. All the information that I got is recent information on the causes of obesity in children since it is a more recent issue.
Topic Analysis:

Academic Disciplines-
Health
Medicine
Nutrition

Library of Congress Subject Headings-
Medicine
Pediatrics
Nutrition and Feeding of Children and Adolescents
Child Health, Child Health Services
Genetic Aspects

Key Word Terms-
Obesity
Children
Diet
Exercise
Television

Most Important Databases and Periodical Indexes-
ProQuest
Google Advanced
Alternative Sources

Identifying Subject Headings and Keywords-
Keywords and subject headings were a little harder than I had originally thought they would be. My first attempts were a little too broad, when I used terms like causes. I had to narrow it down and actually put the causes instead of being so broad. After I was using more specific terms I still got a lot of articles each time, but there was usually always a good one or two on the first page.

Best Reference Sources:

Organizations-
KidShape
8733 Beverly Blvd, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90048
(888) 600-6444
http://www.kidshape.com/

KidShape is an organization that helps children to deal with obesity problems and give solutions like healthy eating and exercise to get back in shape and stay away from obesity.America on the Move
150 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111
617-636-2714
http://www.americaonthemove.org/

America on the Move is to help Americans to start exercising to stay healthy.

Source of Statistics-

“Nutrition.” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 11 December 2007. Department of Health and Human Services. 22 February 2008. http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/nutrition/index.htm#5.

The CDC and Department of Health and Services are the creators of the site and responsible for the information, so the information should be very reliable. The site was easy to navigate and I quickly found the information I was looking for with only one search. I was looking for statistics and found very useful ones on obesity. There weren’t as many as I had hoped for, but other than that everything was great.
Articles from Encyclopedias-
“Confronting Childhood Obesity." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 Feb. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9403613>.

The article I found on Britannica was Confronting Childhood Obesity. The article discusses different causes that are blamed for childhood obesity. It also shows how people are becoming more aware of things that are an influence to children. Big influences like children’s shows are being recognized as a problem for children becoming obese. This article will help with my topic of obesity in children to show what causes, such as Cookie Monster, are really affecting children.

Segal, Laura M. “Generation O: Addressing Childhood Obesity before it’s Too Late.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol 615 (2008)

This article addresses the causes and consequences of childhood obesity and why it is so important to stop the epidemic. The book focuses on “poor nutrition and inadequate physical activity,” as reasons for obesity in the children of today. That helps with the sections I will be covering causes in.

Best Books:

Sears, William, Martha Sears, James Sears, and Robert Sears. The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track. New York: Little Brown, 2006.

William Sears studied pediatrics at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and has been practicing pediatrics for more than thirty years. Martha Sears is a registered nurse and the mother of Drs. Robert and James Spears who are both pediatricians. The book contains information and ideas of different ways to have a healthier lifestyle with children. Chapter nine is about obesity and how to avoid it with children, which helps with my topic of child obesity. I found this book at Hastings with the help of the librarians there.

Okie, Susan. Fed Up!: Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity. Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2005.

Susan Okie is a physician and award winning medical journalist, who got her schooling at Harvard Medical. This book shows what a problem obesity has become and how it causes so many problems that can threaten your life if not taken care of. It goes over the generic causes of obesity and how it has become such a noticeable issue today. This helps with my topic by addressing the issue and showing why it is such a problem. I looked this book up on the internet.

Best Periodical Articles:

"First 5 Discusses Child Obesity. " Sacramento Observer [Sacramento, Calif.] 15 Nov. 2007,B6. Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008 http://www.proquest.com.ez.sccd.ctc.edu:2048/

The article is about how sugar is a major problem in causing obesity in children. They also address how to teach families to eat healthy so that it doesn’t become a problem. The author on this article is anonymous, and the article comes from The Sacramento Observer, so the information may be biased or not completely accurate. I used ProQuest to find this article.

Marian Wright Edelman. "Childhood Obesity - A Growing Epidemic. " Precinct Reporter [San Bernardino, Calif.] 18 Oct. 2007,A4. Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008 http://www.proquest.com.ez.sccd.ctc.edu:2048/

Marian Wright Edelman is the president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. This article is about how to stop childhood obesity by eating healthy, such as healthier foods, and smaller portions. It also says how less time in front of the TV would be better for children. This shows what some problems are that are causing children to become obese in the first place, because they aren’t doing these things. I used ProQuest to find this article.

Tara Parker-Pope. "Watching Food Ads on TV May Program Kids to Overeat. " Wall Street Journal [New York, N.Y.] 10 Jul 2007, Eastern edition: D.1. National Newspapers (5). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008

Tara Parker-Pope is a journalist for “The Wall Street Journal Online,” and writes “Health Journal” every Friday. This article is about a study on how food ads on TV can cause children to overeat. The study showed that when children are showed toy ads before a cartoon they are not as likely to eat extra snacks as when they are showed food ads before a cartoon. This shows a possible cause for obesity in children, which directly relates to my topic. I used ProQuest to find this article.

Best Internet Sources:

Ferry, Robert Jr.. “Obesity in Children.” E Medicine Health. Ed. Melissa Conrad Stoppler. 2008. WebMD. 20 Feb. 2008. <http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity_in_children/page2_em.htm>

Robert Ferry Jr. is a board-certified Pediatric Endocrinologist, who does studies on cancer and diabetes as well as work at UTHSCSA School of Medicine as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. The article has a lot of information that could work for different aspects of childhood obesity. Yet it is specific enough that the information is useful. For my research the Obesity in Children Causes had a lot of good information.

“Overweight and Obesity: An Overview.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 22 May, 2007. Department of Health and Human Services. 20 Feb. 2008. <http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/contributing_factors.htm>

I couldn’t find the author of the article, but the website is backed by The Department of Health and Human Services so the information should be very reliable. Information was fairly easy to find with paragraphs broken into the different causes and headed in bold in what the type of cause was being discussed. The information was very useful for my topic and easy to find.

Best Non-Print Source:
Chana Joffe-Walt, host. A Halloween that is Healthy? NPR News and All That Jazz. 30 October 2007. 22 February 2008 http://search3.webfeat.org/cgi-bin/WebFeat.dll?Command=Search&Client_ID=converg&wf_field1=wf_keyword&wf_all_years=yes&wf_term1=obesity+children&Databases=wf_kclscat&Databases=wf_kuow&Databases=wf_kplu&Databases=wf_pacificnorthwestcollections&Databases=wf_kcts_video&Databases=wf_splcat&select=on#wf.
KPLU is a radio show that addresses issues that are important to the average person, such as politics, weather, food and sports. This radio show is about the idea that Halloween doesn’t have to be all about candy. They are promoting a healthy Halloween that is still fun for kids where the kids can make their own costumes and encourages adults to hand out alternatives to candy. They call it Green Halloween. The kids aren’t entirely for the part about not having candy, but they liked making their own costumes. This works well with my topic because it shows a way that parents can help their kids stay away from so much junk food.

Review of my Research Process:

Looking for information on obesity and the causes in children has been a good experience. I learned all the different databases that are helpful, not just ProQuest, though it is still my favorite. I also learned that there is more to Google, like Google Advanced which is a lot more helpful than the normal Google everyone knows about. Using my keywords obesity and children, put together with the different causes came up with really good results each time and found me useable information for my topic.
I found all sorts of information that I never knew was out there. Like when I was looking for my alternative source, I found a radio show that fit right in with my topic and I had never known how to go and find things like radio shows on the internet, or that they could be useful. I also found a lot of reliable information from sources that you can find the history of and know that the information is true. I wasn’t planning on using television as one of my original causes, but when looking up other causes I began to find a lot of good information on how much of a problem television is for kids these days and how it influences their eating habits.
My topic is getting a lot more attention by everyone because people are really starting to notice it. People are starting to be willing to do more because they can see the problem right in front of them with a lot of children. Another reason it is getting noticed is that people like doctors are writing about it and getting people to start doing something before real health problems set in. More and more you see television supporting a healthier lifestyle like healthy foods and getting out and doing physical activities more. I think that the more the issue is brought up, the better; because more kids can be helped before their lives are too affected.
I still favor the internet for finding sources just because of how easy, fast and accessible it is. You can find all different types of sources all from the internet, even radio and television shows. You can find almost anything on any topic that you can think of on the internet. The only problem is to watch where your information is coming from, books have to be published, but on the internet anyone can put whatever they want no matter how reliable the information.

source selections draft

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:31:00 +0000

1. “Confronting Childhood Obesity." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 3 Feb. 2008 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9403613>.

The article I found on Britannica was Confronting Childhood Obesity. The article discusses different causes that are blamed for childhood obesity. It also shows how people are becoming more aware of things that are an influence to children. Big influences like children’s shows are being recognized as a problem for children becoming obese. This article will help with my topic of obesity in children to show what causes, such as Cookie Monster, are really affecting children.

Segal, Laura M. “Generation O: Addressing Childhood Obesity before it’s Too Late.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol 615 (2008)

This article addresses the causes and consequences of childhood obesity and why it is so important to stop the epidemic. The book focuses on “poor nutrition and inadequate physical activity,” as reasons for obesity in the children of today. That helps with the sections I will be covering causes in.

KidShapeAddress: 8733 Beverly Blvd, Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90048Phone: (888) 600-6444Website: http://www.kidshape.com/

America On the MoveAddress: 150 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111Fax: 617-636-2714Website: http://www.americaonthemove.org/
“Nutrition.” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. 11 December 2007. Department of Health and Human Services. 22 February 2008. http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/nutrition/index.htm#5.
The CDC and Department of Health and Services are the creators of the site and responsible for the information, so the information should be very reliable. The site was easy to navigate and I quickly found the information I was looking for with only one search. I was looking for statistics and found very useful ones on obesity. There weren’t as many as I had hoped for, but other than that everything was great.

2. Sears, William, Martha Sears, James Sears, and Robert Sears. The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood: Ten Ways to Get Your Family on the Right Nutritional Track. New York: Little Brown, 2006.

William Sears studied pediatrics at Harvard Medical School’s Children’s Hospital and Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and has been practicing pediatrics for more than thirty years. Martha Sears is a registered nurse and the mother of Drs. Robert and James Spears who are both pediatricians. The book contains information and ideas of different ways to have a healthier lifestyle with children. Chapter nine is about obesity and how to avoid it with children, which helps with my topic of child obesity.

Okie, Susan. Fed Up!: Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity. Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2005.

Susan Okie is a physician and award winning medical journalist, who got her schooling at Harvard Medical. This book shows what a problem obesity has become and how it causes so many problems that can threaten your life if not taken care of. It goes over the generic causes of obesity and how it has become such a noticeable issue today. This helps with my topic by addressing the issue and showing why it is such a problem.

3. "First 5 Discusses Child Obesity. " Sacramento Observer [Sacramento, Calif.] 15 Nov. 2007,B6. Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008 http://www.proquest.com.ez.sccd.ctc.edu:2048/

The article is about how sugar is a major problem in causing obesity in children. They also address how to teach families to eat healthy so that it doesn’t become a problem. The author on this article is anonymous, and the article comes from The Sacramento Observer, so the information may be biased or not completely accurate.

Marian Wright Edelman. "Childhood Obesity - A Growing Epidemic. " Precinct Reporter [San Bernardino, Calif.] 18 Oct. 2007,A4. Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008 http://www.proquest.com.ez.sccd.ctc.edu:2048/

Marian Wright Edelman is the president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. This article is about how to stop childhood obesity by eating healthy, such as healthier foods, and smaller portions. It also says how less time in front of the TV would be better for children. This shows what some problems are that are causing children to become obese in the first place, because they aren’t doing these things.

Tara Parker-Pope. "Watching Food Ads on TV May Program Kids to Overeat. " Wall Street Journal [New York, N.Y.] 10 Jul 2007, Eastern edition: D.1. National Newspapers (5). ProQuest. Seattle Community College Libraries. 13 Feb. 2008

Tara Parker-Pope is a journalist for “The Wall Street Journal Online,” and writes “Health Journal” every Friday. This article is about a study on how food ads on TV can cause children to overeat. The study showed that when children are showed toy ads before a cartoon they are not as likely to eat extra snacks as when they are showed food ads before a cartoon. This shows a possible cause for obesity in children, which directly relates to my topic.

4. Ferry, Robert Jr.. “Obesity in Children.” E Medicine Health. Ed. Melissa Conrad Stoppler. 2008. WebMD. 20 Feb. 2008. <http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity_in_children/page2_em.htm>

Robert Ferry Jr. is a board-certified Pediatric Endocrinologist, who does studies on cancer and diabetes as well as work at UTHSCSA School of Medicine as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. The article has a lot of information that could work for different aspects of childhood obesity. Yet it is specific enough that the information is useful. For my research the Obesity in Children Causes had a lot of good information.

“Overweight and Obesity: An Overview.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 22 May, 2007. Department of Health and Human Services. 20 Feb. 2008. <http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/contributing_factors.htm>

I couldn’t find the author of the article, but the website is backed by The Department of Health and Human Services so the information should be very reliable. Information was fairly easy to find with paragraphs broken into the different causes and headed in bold in what the type of cause was being discussed. The information was very useful for my topic and easy to find.

5. Chana Joffe-Walt, host. A Halloween that is Healthy? NPR News and All That Jazz. 30 October 2007. 22 February 2008 http://search3.webfeat.org/cgi-bin/WebFeat.dll?Command=Search&Client_ID=converg&wf_field1=wf_keyword&wf_all_years=yes&wf_term1=obesity+children&Databases=wf_kclscat&Databases=wf_kuow&Databases=wf_kplu&Databases=wf_pacificnorthwestcollections&Databases=wf_kcts_video&Databases=wf_splcat&select=on#wf.
KPLU is a radio show that addresses issues that are important to the average person, such as politics, weather, food and sports. This radio show is about the idea that Halloween doesn’t have to be all about candy. They are promoting a healthy Halloween that is still fun for kids where the kids can make their own costumes and encourages adults to hand out alternatives to candy. They call it Green Halloween. The kids aren’t entirely for the part about not having candy, but they liked making their own costumes. This works well with my topic because it shows a way that parents can help their kids stay away from so much junk food.

research process draft

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:59:00 +0000

1. Some just call it being American, others say it is disgusting, but whatever the view obesity is not healthy. Obesity is the cause of many health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and even death. This isn't only a problem for our adults, but also the children of today. More and more children are having to deal with the problems of obesity that effect every aspect of their lives. What is causing this growing problem? A variety of causes are to blame, such as a poor diet, lack of exercise, television and genetics. How can we solve this problem when everything you do could be a cause?

2. Health, medicine and nutrition are the academic disciplines for my topic. Library of Congress Classification (LC) Areas: Medicine, R. Pediatrics, RJ. Nutrition and feeding of children and adolescents, RJ206-235. Child health, child health services, RJ101-103. Genetic aspects, RJ47.3-47.4. The most useful keywords and subject headings were: obesity, children, diet, exercise, and TV. Putting obesity and children with each of the other words got the best results. ProQuest, Google advanced, and alternative sources were the best databases.
Keywords and subject headings were a little harder than I had originally thought they would be. My first attempts were a little too broad, when I used terms like causes. I had to narrow it down and actually put the causes instead of being so broad. After I was using more specific terms I still got a lot of articles each time, but there was usually always a good one or two on the first page. The library of congress subject headings didn’t have the exact keywords for my topic, but they had the more general idea that had information that works for my topic.
3. Like in the keywords paragraph above, I had some trouble at fist with too broad of key terms and words, but it ended up working out with a few adjustments. I don’t mind when I get 10,000 hits off of my search, as long as there is something useful within the first page I say it was a good search. I just don’t look through the other thousands of sites. I actually got better sites when there were more hits, not when there were only a few sites to choose from.
The nature of my topic is causes of obesity, and the conclusion will also include some ways to avoid it or help overcome it. The causes are exercise (lack of), diet, TV, and maybe a little on genetics because that does play a part in a lot of overweight children’s lives. My topic has enough aspects to it that I can find good information on each section, but it is also not so broad that I have too much information and have to worry about cutting out something important.
I am a Google person so that is where I expected to find everything because it seems like Google has everything. Google was a help, but not the only place that I found useful information for my topic. Since my topic has recently become aware to people as a problem I found the alternative sources useful because I found a radio show that had useful information. I was impressed by the alternative sources assignment and how much it helped. The internet is still the easiest source for getting information, and quickly, but it isn’t the only one and it’s not always the best.

Week 7

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:46:00 +0000

This week was week 7, Using the Web for Research. Trying different methods of researching on the web was good information. I still have a hard time sometimes getting the results down from thousands, but I always find good information when there is that many so I guess it works out anyways. I never knew about all the different features Google offers, I always just thought that they were the one main page and nothing else. Just goes to show what a little exploring will get you. I have a hard time with citations but I think they are getting better. Also annotations are difficult because it's hard sometimes to find information on the creator of a website.

Week 6

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:32:00 +0000

Week six was periodicals in the research process. The my search strategy assignment was useful because I thought more about what all goes along with my topic and some broader and more specific terms to use to look for information on my topic. The revised research plan was also good because it gave me a chance to make a better outline and it was good because I had changed the focus of my topic from health problems with childhood obesity, to causes of childhood obesity.

Research Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:51:00 +0000

Title: Causes of Obesity in the Children of America
Topic Focus: Showing some of the causes that are the reason children are becoming obese.
Scope: In my project I intend to cover how obesity is becoming a much larger problem in children in America, and what is causing this that wasn’t a problem in the past.
Outline:
I. Talk about obesity in generalA. Talk about obesity in childrenB. Talk about health issues that make obesity such a problemII. CausesA. Diet1. Sugars and fats2. Eating outB. TV1. Food ads2. Kids watch too much TVC. Exercise1. Lack of2. Too much video games and no outside playIII. What can be done to fix the problem
Academic Disciplines: Health, medicine, and nutrition.
Key Terms: Obesity, obesity in children, obesity in America, obesity health problems, childhood obesity, causes of childhood obesity.
Nature of Topic: Current information will be best for statistics and information on children with obesity. Articles on ProQuest should have current information along with a lot of other information.
Library of Congress Classification (LC) Areas: Medicine, R. Pediatrics, RJ. Nutrition and feeding of children and adolescents, RJ206-235. Child health, child health services, RJ101-103. Genetic aspects, RJ47.3-47.4.

I changed my focus because I am not doing health problems obesity causes anymore, I am doing what causes the obesity. I also changed my outline because I didn’t really have one before but now I know better what I want to do.

week 5

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Week five was annotations and citations. I had a little trouble with the citation of the sources on the first assignment, even though I was using my LBB. The LBB has been really useful and I am glad I have had it since my first quarter at the Falls. I guess I didn't use the right example though, because I wasn't 100% right. That is the hardest part I have with it, figuring out which category something fits in to use. Annotating seems like a really useful thing, because it is a little idea of what the whole work is like, so in a few sentences you can see if something will be useful to you.

Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:22:00 +0000

This week was Searching and Evaluating. The research plan was probably most useful because of the information outline on our topic. I am going to do a better outline for mine after reading a couple others that had better ones that would help me if I did mine the same way. That way once I get all the information I can just plug it in where it goes in the outline and it will hopefully all fall together. I liked the How I Know discussions because they really make you think. You have to step back and evaluate from a different view so that you see the whole picture and don't just view things the way you would assume they should be viewed.

Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 18:11:00 +0000

This week was Information Universe, learning about how to use different tools to find the information you need. All of it is useful, but I still like ProQuest the best. Although I remeber a school project I had awhile back where we used ProQuest and for some reason all the articles with my topic weren't full text, only the abstract which wasn't as useful. Other than that ProQuest has always been a big help. I haven't gone to the library yet, and it is going to be tough to get there since I work in the middle of the day and am taking online classes because it doesn't work for me to drive all the way to school.

Week 2 assignment overview

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:08:00 +0000

This week we did research on topics to try and figure out what we want to do our final project on. The Global Topics (the first assignment) was really helpful in narrowing down what I wanted to consider and getting an idea of which idea was best. I think I am going to go with obesity because it is something that is becoming an issue more and more, plus it has already been a big health problem in my family so it is an interest to me. When doing the research on what our own school's library had to offer distance learners I was impressed that all their information was right there. I didn't have to hunt too hard to find it which is really nice because a lot of sites have so much information you can never even find what you are looking for. We also created our blogs this week which was a lot easier than I had thought it would be.

Blog Setup

noreply@blogger.com (Stacey) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 01:19:00 +0000

Setting up the blog was rather easy, but I am still trying to put everything together so the page doesn't look completely boring. I am sure once I get more familiarized everything will be a lot easier.