Bart can also employ healthy eating strategies to reduce his risk of obesity. For this to happen, he should reduce the intake of soft drink and encourage himself to drink more water (4 litres a day to enable the body to perform various chemical reactions, keep the body hydrated and promote cell growth). He should switch to reduced fat milk so that less fat enters his body, ensure he has a nutritious breakfast and “watch portion sizes of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods.”
Exercise is an essential factor in losing weight, especially in Bart's case. It is important that he does a daily routine of physical activity to burn off excess lipids and calories, “use up more kilojoules through physical activity habits” . Bart should alter his lifestyle behaviour by first doing 10 minutes of exercise everyday and gradually extending this time to at least 30 minutes, “children should be doing at least 30 minutes of activity” (Adamson 2004). Physical activity can take simple forms such as walking the dog and cleaning the garden to more strenuous sports such as athletics, soccer and water polo. “Health professionals advise that everybody should exercise for at least thirty minutes each day."
Bart could walk to school instead of catching the bus to burn calories and energy that he consumes. Instead of watching television and playing on the computer, he could join a sport's club. Not only will this promote physical exercise, it can boost his morale and encourage him to lose more weight. Bart may even spend some of his afternoons playing with his friends at the park, riding their bicycles and simply chasing each other. “The bottom line, says Lourey Bird, is that everything to do with encouraging your child's health through exercise and good eating really has to be fun” (Adamson 2004).
There are many difficulties that Bart will encounter when trying to alter his lifestyle behaviour. He may experience physical, emotion and verbal bullying when he plays sport. This will cause him to feel anxious and uncomfortable and hence become reluctant to participate in sporting activities. “They didn't want to play with leaner kids because they got teased about their weight” . Also, Bart may have a lack of self-esteem. He may not be good at sport, making him feel useless on the field. This way of thinking will hold back Bart's participation and impede him from exercise.
Moreover, technological advances will also hinder Bart's ability to lose weight. The spread of electrical appliances such as washing machines, dishwasher and the remote control will replace manual jobs. Even the escalator has replaced the stairs. All of these factors contribute to Bart's impediments. His calories will not be burnt off causing him to gain weight.
The sheer temptation of wanting to eat something sweet may be too great to overcome. He may easily return to eating his fatty foods. A problem is that the temptation of eating something sweet to enlighten his taste buds may sometimes be too great for him to handle. Bart should also watch out for crash diets that will make him put on weight without realising it himself, instead he should choose scientifically proven diets.
If Bart does lose weight, he will:
- Have dramatically increased energy levels - Enabling him to be much more physically active
- Have lower cholesterol levels. Reduction in his blood pressure
- Reduced number of aches and pains around his body - keeping weight down will help prevent osteoarthritis by taking a load off Bart's already overworked joints, particularly his knee joints
- Prevention of angina, chest pain caused by decreased oxygen to the heart
- Decreases your risk of sudden death from heart disease or stroke - If Bart loses just 5 to 15 percent of his weight, he can lower his chances of developing heart disease or having a stroke
- Prevention of Type 2 diabetes - Losing 5 to 7 percent of Bart's own weight will prevent him from having this disease
- Improved blood sugar levels
Risk Factor:
Homer Simpson: Alcohol Poisoning
Homer Jay Simpson is a popular character from the television show "The Simpsons'. He has a family of five and works at the Springfield Power plant. He can often be seen in "Moe"s Tavern' drinking Duff beer excessively or watching television. “Can't get enough of that Duff” (Homer Simpson).
Homer displays many risk factors of serious alcohol poisoning. The lifestyle choice that he makes which affects his health is binge drinking and drinking to the point of becoming unconscious. Homer usually drinks as a form of socialisation with his friends after work, whenever he is bored or if he his under emotional stress. Another reason why Homer drinks is because he already has an addiction to it and alcohol has become an influential and dominating aspect of his life. "All right brain, I don't like you and you don't like me, so let's just do this so I can get back to killing you with beer" (Homer Simpson).
