Unhealthy Lifestyle of the Youth

Ngan Cheuk Ling Cherry (6A)

The topic of unhealthy lifestyles in Hong Kong is not something new. In such a hustle and bustle city, everyone can hardly stop his pace even for just a second. In recent years, the young generation has inherited this detrimental indulgence and the number of overweight teens is climbing.

Students do less exercise than ever before and have unbalanced diets which is on account of their excessive hard work on studies. Confronting keen competition with fellow classmates, students take after-school tutorials in order to pacify their worries of being left behind. Their lives thus become so hasty that they choose to have fast food as a quick dinner which is not only efficient but also financially affordable. During lunchtime at school, they decide to save time and enjoy a quick lunch but usually instant noodles, chicken legs, French fries, sausages and so on are the options available in tuck shops at school. Students cannot help but have those junk food at the expense of their health.

Fundamental to the adaptation to sedentary lifestyles is the laziness of adolescents and their ignorance of the importance and vantages of engaging in regular physical activities and having healthy diets. Albeit healthy diets and academic work, they do not understand that possessing healthy lifestyles would hinder them from focusing on studies at bottom. For instance, the monosodium glutamate in fast food will weaken one’s intelligence. Failing to exercise, teenagers instead spend time doing stationary activities such as computer use, playing video games or watching television. Their physical conditions keep deteriorating, augmenting their chance of getting ill which in turn affects their studies, as they cannot take class but rest at home to restore from weakness.

As students, you and I should be more self-disciplined and strike a balance between studies and healthy lifestyles. Healthy diets are beneficial in the long run. Split up with junk food, say no when you come across any of it. Remember, as you sow, so you reap.

For parents, what they can do is to encourage healthy eating by cooking meals for their sweethearts by following the food pyramid. Children’s food choices are influenced by family meals. By accommodating healthy meals, the young can feel what good it will do to them. Furthermore, parents can urge the youngsters to have regular physical activities by doing exercise with them together. This enhances both the parents’ and the adolescents’ health and makes the youngsters more willing to do exercise as they will then treat it as a family activity.

For schools, more education on health importance should be provided for students. In addition to providing professional knowledge via talks, it is advisable that students can organize special activities such as Fruit’s Day or a campaign for recording calories for a week in order to grab the students’ attention.

With the help of parental guidance and intellectual education, it should be much easier for us to improve our fitness. So students, please take action now before it is too late! I bet you do not wish to be a feeble pig, do you?