Academic Analysis

Midwestern State University

Human Diversity

Academic Analysis

March 17, 2016

Does fast food contribute to obesity in children?

For my research project, I would like to analyze the article written by Kelly Brownell entitled “Fast Food and Obesity in Children” and the article was written by Helen Lee “The role of local food availability in explaining obesity risk among young school-aged children”. Obesity is one of the major issues faced in our society. Every year, obesity rate increase. there are huge amount reported incidents are associated with obesity. For this reason, there are many people who get interested in this issue. Many researchers study the reason of obesity rate and find out the different factors associated with it.

In Kelly Brownell’s article, his research question is how fast food and obesity does affect the children. While the Helen Lee’s article focus the research question on how the local fast food environment becomes the solution to the problem of childhood obesity. From the research question of both article, I already observe that they contradict to one another. The first one seems to blame the fast food while the second one see fast food as the solution to the obesity rate

From the study of Brownell, the hypothesis testing is the conception that fast food should be blamed as the reason of childhood obesity rate. This hypothesis is the focus of Brownell’s study. When it comes to Lee, the hypothesis being tested is the presence of the fast food that offers health food for student or children.

From Brownell’s study the three instances where statistical information was displayed when he compared the representative data he gathered from 6,200 children and adolescence. Through this, he was able to conclude that 30% of children consume foods offer by the fast food restaurant at any given time. Moreover, children that consume foods from fast foods has a tendency to become obese as they do not get the nutrients they need (Brownell,...