B1, WRITING ASSESSMENT 5

Childhood obesity
Communicative goals:
 Summarize the main message from simple diagrams (e.g. graphs, bar charts).
 Prepare a simple outline to organize ideas and information.
 Take messages, communicate enquiries and explain problems

1. Think about…

1. Do you think obesity is a huge

problem in the world today?

2. Have you see a child with obesity?

3. What do you think is the cause of

obesity?
Obesity: Physical condition
characterized by the excessive
accumulation of fat in the body.

2. Words matter!

To do well in this lesson it is necessary to learn a number of words. Please complete

the following exercise. At the end you will have increased your vocabulary.

2.1. Underline the expression that best matches the idea of the boldfaced word or
phrase. Have a dictionary at hand!

a. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood.

- Too heavy - Can lift heavy things

b. Prevention of childhood obesity needs high priority.

- Put something first - Get involved in something

c. Obese children are likely to develop chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

- Curable - Very serious

I&D Team 2018

 d. It’s important to help go through physical activities that they enjoy and that are not
embarrassing or too difficult.

- Something that causes shame - Something that’s too serious

2.2. Match the word on the left with the meaning on the right. Write in the
parenthesis the corresponding letter.

Word Meaning
Something or someone that is different from what
1 Childhood ( ) a
people are used to.
2 Diet ( ) b The early period in the development of a child.
3 Abnormal ( ) c Characteristics of an organism`s normal functioning.
4 Physiological ( ) d Food and drink usually consumed.

3. Read a bit!

Read the following article on childhood obesity written by Amélio F. Godoy-Matos

and Mariana Farage

Childhood obesity had been

viewed as simply a cosmetic
problem, and major risks were only
considered when the weight
excess persisted into adulthood.
Recently, however, overweight
and obesity in childhood are
known to have a significant impact
on both physical and psychosocial
health. Discussion on strategies of
treating childhood and adolescent
obesity has been promoted
worldwide, and a variety of
scientific articles have been
published on this topic.

I&D Team 2018

Prevention and effective treatment of obese children and adolescents must be a
priority. The cornerstone of health promotion in childhood and adolescence is
healthy lifestyle behaviors and therapeutic lifestyle change. As emphasized in
pediatric guidelines for cardiovascular health and risk reduction, patterns of dietary
intake and physical activity for a majority of children and adolescents are not meeting
current recommendations. In most studies, adolescents typically remain overweight
after conventional therapy. In contrary, short-term pharmacological therapy was
found to be beneficial in obese adolescents, according to some studies. These
findings have important clinical relevance and may provide additional treatment
options for overweight children and adolescents, especially those with a history of
unsuccessful weight loss with traditional therapies.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/childhood-obesity

4. Tips for composition

4.1. Let’s answer some questions before going into interpreting some graphs and
tables.

 Have you met anyone you think is or was obese?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________.

 What are (were) some of the effects of obesity in that person`s life?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________.

 What can the person do to help himself or herself?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.

 What are the adjectives you would mostly use to describe the person?

I&D Team 2018

________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.

 What advice will you give people with obesity?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________.

INTERPRETING CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS

When interpreting date from a table or a graph, there are something that you need to
take into consideration.

Analyze the data and all the information it may contain. Read all the
labels on the graph or table. What is in each column or what is in
each row is something you have to take into account.

A lot of information on the web, books, newspaper or any other source of information are
focused on data and charts. There are different types of charts, bars and diagrams.

BAR GRAPHS: It shows relationships between different data series that are independent
of each other.
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Process 1 Process 2 Process 3 Categoría 4

Serie 1 Serie 2 Serie 3

LINE GRAPH: It shows how the data has changed during a certain period of time.

I&D Team 2018

 6
5
4
3
2
1
0
January March April May

Serie 1 Serie 2 Serie 3

PIE CHARTS: Those are designed to visualize how a whole is divided into various parts.

1st group 2nd group 3rd group 4º trim.

DIAGRAMS: They illustrate how separate parts work and overlap at the connecting
points.

Process
3

Process
2

Process 1

I&D Team 2018

4.2. Look at the following example of a graph on the rate of childhood obesity in the
US that has been interpreted.

The latest data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey show that the national
obesity rate among youth ages 2 to 19 is 18.5%. The rate varies among different age groups, with
rates rising along with age. While overall obesity rates remain higher than they were a generation
ago, the rise in rates has slowed in recent years, following decades of sharp increases starting in
the early 1970s.
Since the 1976–1980 NHANES survey, overall childhood obesity rates have more than tripled, up
from 5.5%. Among 2- to 5-year-olds, the rate more than doubled, from 5% to 13.9%, as did the
rate of 6- to 11-year-olds with obesity, from 6.5% to 18.4%. Among teens ages 12 to 19, the rate
quadrupled, from 5% to 20.6%.

Source: https://stateofobesity.org/childhood-obesity-trends/

I&D Team 2018

4.2.1. Let’s now interpret the data from a graph that shows statistics of the most obese
age group in England.

Source: https://health.spectator.co.uk/childhood-obesity-figures-vastly-exaggerate-the-scale-
of-the-problem/

The following questions will guide you in interpreting the data

- According the graph, what age group of children are most obese
- What age group of children are most obese?
- What age group are the people in England generally obese?
- What age group are people least obese in England?
- What advice can you give to the most obese age group?

________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Now you are ready for your composition. Let’s write something!

I&D Team 2018