Carpio 1 Zuly Carpio Amy DePaul Literary Journalism 100 17 February 2016 Word Count 1 851 The Relation between Obesity and Income It is 12 35 p m The cafeteria at Foster Elementary in Baldwin Park is almost quiet Trays are banging and the lunch ladies are talking to each other making sure everything is ready for when the students come in They make sure the empty foam plates are in position there are enough Mini Cheeseburgers for the first classroom the second batch is warming up in the oven for the other children and that the salad bar is filled with lettuce ranch jalape os broccoli and other healthy options A couple minutes later students start to come in Along with the Mini Cheeseburgers and fresh salad bar the children are offered Potato Rounds Tomorrow s meal will be French Bread Cheese Pizza with Sweet Potato Chunks and fresh salad bar The next day s meal is Mini Chicken Corn Dogs Potato Rounds and fresh salad bar This menu will repeat itself 8 times throughout the school year with foods such as Crispy Chicken Sticks BBQ pulled Pork WG Sandwich and Cheese Pupusas among others All the students go through the same process grab their milk then the main dish and then something from the salad bar The children are required to take a minimum of half a cup of fruit from the salad bar doesn t matter if it s one fruit or a mixture Without the half cup of fruit the children cannot sit I mean the fruit is already on my plate so might as well eat it says Henry De Luna a fifth grade student at Foster Elementary Carpio 2 However not everyone views it the same The empty trashcans fill with the untouched fruit and vegetables and empty burger wrappers After lunch the children are given 15 20 minutes to play adding to the 20 minutes they were given in their first recess and remain the rest of the day stuck to a chair According to a UCLA center for Health Policy Research and California Center for Public Health Advocacy report conducted in 2010 Obesity has become second only to tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the United States The rise in obesity and related diseases has led experts to predict a decrease in life expectancy and productivity for today s youth In an attempt to help reduce the number the U S Department of Health and Human Services and U S Department of Agriculture publish Dietary Guidelines for Americans every 5 years each time amending them to fit the body of nutrition science Rosie Martinez the cook manager at Foster Elementary informs that some of the food they used to give was fattening but the portion given was a small one Everything was cups If you look at cups of spaghetti it s not that much Now we just don t add as much cheese salt and bread If we do give bread it s whole grain These are some of the changes that have come from the Food Guidelines Unlike before it is mandatory for the children to get fruit and now it comes in water instead of syrup Rather than the chocolate and white milk being whole now it is 1 for the white milk and non fat for the chocolate milk Some of the foods continue to be served but the Food Guidelines have altered them so it has less calories salt and sugar Martinez tells The chicken nuggets then were higher in fat content they were breaded Now the schools get the ones that are not breaded Carpio 3 Besides altering the student s food consumption the State Board of Education requires all the public local educational agencies to administer the Physical Fitness Test PFT to fifth graders seventh graders and ninth graders The PFT is divided into six sections Aerobic capacity abdominal strength and endurance upper body strength and endurance body composition trunk extensor strength and flexibility and flexibility In the 2014 2015 school year the California overall summary results concluded that from the 455 897 fifth grade students that were tested 29 9 need improvement in the aerobic capacity area 19 4 in the body composition 26 1 in the abdominal strength 15 in the trunk extension strength 34 6 in the upper body strength and 27 5 in flexibility Foster Elementary results showed that from the 90 students that were tested 30 need improvement in the aerobic capacity area 17 8 in the body composition 17 8 in the abdominal strength 22 2 in the trunk extension strength 36 7 in the upper body strength and 27 8 in flexibility Luz Velasquez a fifth and sixth grade teacher at Foster Elementary informs that We are required to complete 200 minutes in 2 weeks I aim for 2 3 times per week for 35 minutes I show YouTube videos on the particular exercises and because healthy eating is important to me I talk about this often I do not isolate these conversations to P E While doing P E my goal is to maximize participation I want all students moving as much as possible Some games include Field Dodge ball or running in preparation for the test For the time being we need to squeeze in the PFT skills Carpio 4 The 200 minutes amount to 3 hours and 20 minutes of preparation for the PFT Though it is easy to blame the teachers for not dedicating enough time to adequately prepare them they do have to learn how to balance it with the rigorous academic goals Parents can also be blamed for allowing their children to get to such an unhealthy level They have the power to make them play outside use less technology and control the food they eat However it s not as clear cut as it seems Their income has a lot do to with the selections of food they bring According to the United States Census Bureau the Per capita money income in the past 12 months for Dana Point a wealthy area in Orange County was 49 000 while Santa Ana s a poor area was 16 374 The relation between obesity and low income communities proves to be true with the UCLA center for Health center for Health Policy Research and California Center for Public Health Advocacy findings that Dana Point s obesity rate was 20 8 while Santa Ana s was 46 5 In Los Angeles County Manhattan Beach with a per capita of 81 090 has and obesity rate of 11 3 while Baldwin Park has a per capita of 15 314 and obesity rate of 46 7 The establishment of numerous fast food chains also contributes to the problem of obesity because it is easy access convenient and more economic than eating at a restaurant on a budget and in a rush In one Baldwin Park Shopping Center there is 1 Taco Bell at one end of it 1 Jack in the box at the other end and 1 McDonald s right in the middle all facing the street Across the street from the Jack in the Box end there is 1 Yum Yum Donuts 1 Papa Johns and 1 Baskin Robbins From McDonald s there is 1 Subway 1 Wingstop 1 Starbucks and 1 Chinese Food place Across the street from Taco Bell there is 1 Wendy s and 1 IHOP Down the street from this Carpio 5 shopping center there is 1 In N Out and Carl s JR This is only one of the shopping centers in Baldwin Park and it s all walking distance from Sierra Vista High School According to Zomato a restaurant search and discovery service Santa Ana has 12 McDonald s 3 Little Caesars 3 Domino s Pizza 4 KFC and 7 Del Taco s all in addition to the unbranded hamburger joints spread out around the city Because of this availability to junk food Santa Ana offers Fit Clubs provided by Dr Riba s Health Club The recent session is the Winter Fit Club program that runs at Dr Rita s health Club Monday Thursday from 2 30 p m 5 p m Among the physical activities the children are taught important nutrition facts and are given health status testing with BMI measurements Brandon Farmer the lead fitness trainer in outreach coordinator with Dr Riba s Health Club explains how rather than just lecturing the children about healthy choices and having them only work out they try to put things into perspective We cater exercise and activities to kind of hit both So for example we do what s called a calorie burn off where we ll set sticky notes out and I ll have oranges snickers pizza and a big gulp of soda and I go Okay 100 honesty what would you choose to eat after school And I don t tell them what they are going to do next They go grab the sticky and then I go and tell them Everyone that grabbed the orange you guys only got one lap out there by the church That s how many calories it takes to burn off an orange All you people with snickers 7 laps get going Everybody who had a piece of pizza 8 laps The big gulp 13 laps to burn off those calories So we do demonstrations that cater putting a physical activity to the lesson plan Put a concept Show them rather than tell them Even though Baldwin Park has 3 parks and Santa Ana has 32 parks most children still spend their time indoors because there is nobody to take them Eduardo Mairen father of 1st Carpio 6 grader Elian Mairen says It s draining I have a 10 month old daughter and I spend the mornings with her and then head off to work at 2 until midnight My son doesn t get home until 3 and his mom gets home at 5 His mom works an 8 5 shift then goes home to take care of our daughter and help my son with his homework By the time they are done it s too late to go to the park When the weekend comes around we re both so tired that we just spend the day at home with the kids Dr David Hayes Bautista Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine UCLA believes the problem of obesity comes from assimilation Bautista argues What we ve noticed is that for a lot of immigrant parents going to McDonalds is aspirational Because it cost the same in Mexico as it does here but you re earning about 80 less so it s a luxury So for a lot of immigrant parents it s like Wow I can give my kids a luxury every week because up until recently they didn t had calorie counts They thought they were doing something nice for their children There are a lot of things contributing to the obesity problem but the two main are not enough exercise and too much junk food The schools are doing their part by providing healthier foods and the teachers are doing their best to have everyone pass the California Fitness Test but that isn t enough It is important to create a routine children can apply everywhere that includes more water more exercise more fruits and vegetables while simultaneously making them more health conscious A routine that makes drastic changes to their health and is so easy to stick to that it becomes part of their daily lives