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 nations 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, 948). 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 studentsΒ 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.
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 conditio
n 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 (5-8 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, (203). 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.