Obesity: It's No Joke

In the broadcast journalism class at Whitnall High School are in the process of making a Public Service Announcement (PSA) on one of the largest problems across the nation: obesity.

Michael Radavich and Spencer Schmidt are two ordinary students who are doing this PSA to inform students around the school about this problem.

From their studies, Michael and Spencer found that obesity is one of the greatest and fastest-growing problems among Americans in today’s society. There are a few key components that are sparking the fire that is obesity. There are just too many things that make it easy to forget how much a person is actually harming their body.

First off, Michael informed me of how many fast food chains there really are across the nation. It seems like no matter what street it is, there is some sort of fast food restaurant there. Michael found that there are actually close to 200,000 fast food joints in the U.S. alone! The effects that these restaurants have on Americans are barely known by anyone.  At McDonalds they put their nutritional values on the bottom of their tray liners. With all of these fast food restaurants around it makes it an easy choice if someone needs some food at a low price.

Kyle Radavich, brother of Michael, says, “I really enjoy the taste and it’s quite convenient as well.”

Also, Spencer had done research on how people seem to be becoming increasingly lazy every day.  In his research, he found that obesity in children age 6-19 has gone up about 10 percent since the year he was born (1994).  And they have no reason to be at all, for as much fast food restaurants there are, there are plenty of gyms that they could be a part of.  And if that’s too expensive there are ton of ways to exercise where the cost isn’t even close to the cost of a gym membership, or even free!

“I jog daily to stay in shape,” says sophomore Gia Dinon.

It doesn’t take that much effort to make sure that a person can exercise a few times every week to stay in shape. 

Both Michael and Spencer have discovered in their research that there are some Americans across the states that are actually doing something in their life to make sure that they can stay away from obesity.  Whether that is that they are watching the foods they eat or workout or even both!

When asked what steps do you think could be made to win the fight against obesity, Kyler Chelminak said, “P-90X.”

There are so many ways to make sure people can stay in shape and win the fight against obesity.  But for all the ways there are to fight it, there are just as many ways to give in and lose.  It’s those people who are mentally stronger who are the ones who know what to do to make sure they come out on top.  Make sure to check out their final project sometime in the near future!