Unhealthy Eating Habits: Causes and Effects

In most primary schools in Trinidad, students are challenged with a chronic illness due to unhealthy eating habits. According to “TT’s Joint Select Committee on Social Services and Public Administration revealed that at least half of TT’s primary school children are overweight and are at risk of becoming diabetics”. Students are not following a healthy diet, they are consuming a vast amount of unhealthy foods on a daily bases with no guidance from their parents. These unhealthy foods are very detrimental to the human body. Unhealthy means something harmful to health.

Our primary school students must understand why it is necessary to follow a healthy diet to produce healthy bodies that are free from chronic illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and stress. Health and safety are two aspects that are important to the well-being of the nation’s students. Health can be defined as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of diseases or infirmity (World Health Organization, 1948). Additionally, safety refers to freedom from danger and injury. (Definition of the concept of safety, n.d.). Therefore this paper will focus on the effects of students' unhealthy eating habits. These effects consist of obesity, diabetes, and learning ability. In the world today unhealthy eating has caused a vast increase in obesity. Obesity is one of the major challenges currently faced in all of our school systems.

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Obesity is a medical condition that is excess body fat that has accumulated to the extent that it may harm health leading to reduce life expectancy or increased health problems. Also, childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents, it occurs when a child is well above the normal weight of his or her age and height. Therefore, when the child eats unhealthy foods such as fast food; burgers, pizza, processed foods, soft drinks, and snacks with high salt and sugar content, it would lead to weight gain, and when this issue is left untreated, this weight gain turns into obesity. The unhealthy food the students consume on a daily bases is the big reason why there has been a steady increase in obese school students. Trinidad and Tobago research have shown that a quarter (25%) of school-age children (5-18 years) are obese. Trinidad is the fifth fattest nation in the world according to a recent report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (Annie Boodoo-Balliram, (2013). The cause of this epidemic outburst is the lifestyle the country is living today; working mothers are too busy to prepare healthy meals for their children. They prefer to give the child fast food that may be fried or processed. Hence students are not consuming a balanced diet meal and this outcome can be very alarming to society.

Obesity can also be caused by genetics; born into a family that is obese or has an abnormal hormone problem. The effects of childhood obesity can lead to chronic diseases, for example, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, mental issues, etc. Following research, the concerns of the high level of obesity beginning from childhood and continuing into adulthood will further contribute to the overall increased risk of the different types of diabetes among our people. Additionally, this will lead to increased limb amputation, heart attack, kidney diseases, and blindness, which are increasing health care costs. Childhood obesity is a growing concern for children in Trinidad that requires the full support of schools, communities; families as well as children to help decrease the epidemic. In the world today unhealthy eating will also result in another chronic disease known as diabetes. According to the Trinidad newspaper which reads that diabetes is a lifestyle disease and can only be prevented as one gets older. Young students are not aware of the danger their body undertakes as they consume unhealthy foods. Hence, the reason why most primary school students of Trinidad are currently facing diabetes is due to the ingestion of more than the required amount of sugars and simple carbohydrates ( such as candy, fruit juice, white bread, white flour, soft drinks, etc. ).

According to statistics Trinidad and Tobago have a high rise of diabetes cases and the nation is not taking this disease very seriously. According to research diabetes is known as a chronic disease, which occurs when the human body cannot regulate its use of insulin. Additionally, insulin is a hormone released by our pancreas (organ sitting behind the stomach), which controls the amount of glucose (sugar) in our blood. In other words, diabetes is a metabolic disease in which a person has high blood sugar due to the body not producing a hormone known as insulin. There are three main types of diabetes such as type1 diabetes; result from the body's failure to produce insulin where the person has to inject insulin, type 2 diabetes; result from insulin resistance, which is a condition where the cells fail to use insulin properly or does not make enough insulin and this causes sugar to build up in the blood instead of using it as energy, and lastly gestational diabetes; this is a temporary condition which only occurs during pregnancy. Some primary students are diagnosed and living with type 1 and 2 diabetes and still attend school. For example, According to an article from the Trinidad Newsday where the President of the Diabetes Association of TT (DATT) Andrew Dhanoo explained that “Type 1 diabetes is the rarest of the forms of diabetes and is affecting children who are two or three-year-olds and there have also been increasing cases of Type 1 diabetes in children.

Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, (2019). Another case is that of five years old, Alvin Gabriel Daniel, who is living a normal life with “Type 1” diabetes. His parents could not believe that diabetes could affect young children. . They assumed it only affected older people. Registered dietician Janelle Zakour said a 2010 study entitled The Diabetes Epidemic in TT stated that 450 children had Type 1 diabetes and, as she had been working with diabetic children for the past two years, she was certain the numbers had increased since then. Trinidad and Tobago Newsday, (2019). To reduce the massive increase of diabetes in primary school an article from The Trinidad Express states “The Ministry of Health is banning the sale of sugar-sweetened drinks at all Government and Government-assisted schools. This commenced in April 2017. Furthermore, the effects of diabetes if not treated will result in diseases that are fatal to the human body, for example, heart diseases, stroke, kidney damage, and amputation of limbs. Therefore with the assistance of parents working with the teachers should educate the students about diabetes which will help prevent an increasing epidemic of students living with this fatal disease. In today’s world, unhealthy eating habits could hinder the learning ability of the nation’s primary school students.

The term learning ability also known as mental ability is the ability to comprehend or understand what a concept entails. In other words, this is about how the individual uses their brainpower to understand and then apply that knowledge. The student's learning ability can be affected by the unhealthy food they consume. These food items are loaded with sugar, caffeine, sodium, and many other chemicals that affect the student by making them tired and lose focus; while the teacher is teaching, sick, behaving, and nervous. An unhealthy diet has also affected the student’s academic performance. Studies suggest that foods with a high level of saturated fat and sugar could have more effect on how the students learn and understand. (How Diet and Nutrition Impact a Child’s Learning Ability | PublicSchoolReview.com, 2008) For example, when the students of primary school start their day consuming sugary and highly saturated snacks before commencing the day's class time, most students are tired, lack concentration, and produce disruptive behavior while the teacher is teaching.

The teacher may have to use strategies that will increase students' focus. This process may affect the teacher mentally. According to the Society for Neuroscience, recent studies reveal that diets with high levels of saturated fats impair learning and memory. Furthermore, the foods are available at the school’s cafeteria and are the basic snacks students devour on a daily bases. Some parents are poor and belong to a low socio-economic background and are led to purchase cheaper snacks rather than healthy fruits and vegetables; which may be somewhat expensive. However, on the other hand, working-class parents may not have the time to prepare healthy meals so they replace healthy foods with processed and fried foods; foods that are unhealthy for the human body and mine. It is important to establish healthy eating behaviors early, as evidence shows that eating habits and patterns track into adulthood. Therefore healthy eating habits should be introduced at an early stage of the student lives as early as childhood to prevent an outburst of health issues that may be of great concern to our national school students as they develop into an adult. As it shows that healthy eating habit contributes to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight, and provides protection against chronic diseases such as obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, learning abilities, etc.

Healthy nutrition improves learning ability which leads to better academic performance. The national schools can provide an important opportunity for prevention as they can provide the most effective way of reaching large numbers of people including the students themselves, school staff families, and community members. Additionally, according to research, the schools have been a popular setting for the implementation of health promotion and prevention interventions, as they offer continuous, intensive contact with children and that lifelong health and well-being begins with promoting healthy behaviors early in life. This is because a school is a place of learning and the Ministry of Education has school policies that will assist in promoting the nutritional well-being of the nation's students with the assistance of different stakeholders (teachers, parents, students, community, health officials, M.O.E). (Ministry of Education, n.d.)Therefore, primary schools should be required to promote and model healthy eating habits through school programs and activities, such as activities that maintain physical fitness with regular sports and activities, enhancing healthy food diet and nutritional food fairs, lecturers or, a dietician from the Ministry of Health lecturing on proper health care and diet, etc. These are positive recommendations and interventions that would help decrease the epidemic of life-treating diseases.

Students need a positive role model that allows them to feel safe and healthy and also they learn by examples; if they are influenced by negative examples then their characteristics will be displayed negatively. Therefore, as a teacher, it is required to display a positive influence to ensure the student follows the right path. Also with the collaboration of the school cafeteria, they should also work with the school and (M.O.E.) to ensure that the students are consuming healthy snacks and drinking a lot of water which is a better choice. It should be recommended that parents be involved in school food and nutrition programs to ensure they are aware of preparing healthy meals and snacks for their children to take to school. The school curriculum should emphasize strictly the education of good nutrition and personal health as it consists of developing responsibility for healthy lifestyle habits. Utilizing this recommendation can save the lives of our primary students and further protect and prevent them from experiencing fatal lifelong chronic diseases. Piaget his views on the nutritional well-being of students were talking about children’s cognitive development and their different stages in development. The pre-operational stage (2-7 years) is when children learn many concepts and develop lifelong habits. So children can start learning about appropriate and balanced nutrition and acquire good eating habits for later years. It can be also used as a guide in nutritional education as it helps to design effective nutrition appropriate for the developmental stages of childhood. It can be concluded when it concerns the health and safety, of the primary students of Trinidad about the chronic illness of obesity, diabetes, and learning ability, due to unhealthy eating habits. Therefore, this can result in various health issues as mentioned above. Healthy nutrition improves learning ability which leads to better academic performance. Therefore healthy eating habit contributes to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and provides protection against chronic diseases such as obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, learning abilities, etc. Positive recommendations and interventions that would help decrease the epidemic of life treating diseases such as physical fitness with regular sports and activities, enhancing healthy food diet and nutritional food fair, lecturers or, a dietician from the Ministry of Health lecturing on proper health care and diet, etc are some ways to help manage the health and safety of the nation’s primary students.

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