|
Overweight Teens
"There are a lot of teens simply ignoring the fact that it is possible to be a healthy weight."
Listen
to this Commentary!
By Steven Johnson
America’s obsession with self-satisfaction can be too much of a good thing-especially when it leads to being overweight. Everyday, we are exposed to new and improved ways to be lazy. As more and more people buy into these things, more and more people are packing on the pounds. And the numbers are becoming frightening, as an overweight America starts to consume its younger generations.
We are the heaviest teens in the world. I know for some teens, obesity has more to do with genetics than diet or exercise, but there are a lot of other teens simply ignoring the fact that it is possible to be a healthy weight with just a little effort.
I, myself, try to go to my local YMCA gym as much as possible and monitor what I eat. It is not unrealistic to think that many of the nation’s teenagers could do the same, or even more.
But I guess we’re stuck in a world where convenience rules. When did we become so negligent, letting our pants sizes go triple digits and saying to ourselves, for the um-teenth time, “I’ll start losing weight next week.”
- Steven Johnson is a junior at Grady High School.
Youth Radio Atlanta is produced in cooperation with WABE and funded in part by The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation.
|
|
