Alternative Ways To Defeat Obesity Essay

In like manner, health risks in youth have become alarmingly higher in recent years. In fact, in “ Anna Lappe & Food MythBusters--The Myth of Choice: How Junk-Food Marketers Target Our Kids” the video clearly states that by the time children graduate middle school one in three of their classmates will either have diabetes or be on their way to having it. Reason being, youth are eating more junk food that appeals to their biology and less food that fuels them with right sugars, nutrients, and fats. Additionally, the American Psychological Association have studies that show child obesity has tripled in the last quarter century and about 20% of the youth are now overweight. All these health risks point to fast-food company

In America fast food is a staple of many people’s diets. As a result, the United States is now faced with a serious obesity epidemic that continues to grow worse every year. Along with impacting the economy, some of the impacts on people are cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and strokes which are all linked to obesity. According to the CDC, “The US Department of Health and Human Services discovered that the combination of a poor diet and a lack of physical activity can cause 310,000 to 580,000 deaths every year” (Therian). One-fifth of Americans are now dying from obesity related diseases and one out of every three Americans is considered to be obese. This statistic is

One in five children in America are obese. How is this possible? In Stephanie Soechtig’s documentary, “Fed Up” (2014), she brings awareness to a few of the causes of obesity and elaborates on the lack of effort people are putting in to end it. Food manufacturing corporations care only about strategic plans to put money in their pocket, not to help make America healthy. Obesity can be traced back to one main cause; sugar. The three things have been addressed through personal stories and physicians that support and increase sugar addictions of adolescents is the amount of added sugar in processed foods, junk food advertisements, and the lack of regulations relating to sugar. Sugar addiction is a real problem and is scientifically proven to be as addicting as cocaine.

Obesity has been framed as a topic of personal responsibly for a long time. For many, the fundamental notion has always been that if you stop eating junk food and eat “healthy”, you will maintain a healthy weight. According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control’s 2007-2008 Health and Nutrition Examination survey, it was found that 73.7% of all Americans 20 years old or older were overweight, obese, or extremely obese. That is a lot of fat people and it is hard to believe that fast food alone is responsible for 70% of adult Americans being overweight.

Childhood obesity is a rather new reality in the United States due to intake of sugary snacks and beverages, childhood obesity is the result of a sustained energy imbalance. Most youth never eat the required daily servings of fruits and vegetables; its noted only one in five eat the required servings (21%) (Moore, Wilke, & Desrochers, 2017). The availability of sugary snacks and beverages in schools are what one would call “junk food”. According to a study conducted by Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia (2012) students could purchase more than one single food and beverage items either

The organization of Debatewise stated that controlling the foods that students consume is important in combating obesity, as the dieting habits that most people form originate from when they were young. This is why it’s so crucial for schools to introduce healthier options in schools. If these unhealthy habits are developed, the students are “at higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health..”, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These conditions can affect them emotionally and physically, including depression and obesity, which are important health issues both linked with the consumption of junk foods. The selling of junk food in schools is not a small problem either, as it concludes from a study by the Institute of Medicine in 2003 that elementary schools earn approximately $442 million annually from junk food sales. The importance of changing the school lunch programs to implement healthier options is high when there is so much money being spent by the students. Although obesity is a real problem due to the selling of junk food, it can lead to other problems that leading a healthier way of living could fix. For instance, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension states junk foods, due to processing that removes vitamins, minerals, and fiber from the product, are empty calories that are ultimately worthless to the body. This alone contributes to unneeded weight gain and provides no additional sustenances that help the body grow. The Harvard Health Publications describes this to be a serious problem, and acknowledge not only this to be a complication, but mentions the unnecessarily high amounts of sodium levels in the foods, stating that “...the average

In the last decade, obesity has become an out of control epidemic. America has been ranked number one in a top ten list of the world 's most obese countries. Fast food restaurants are one of the main causes due to the unhealthy, addictive food it provides to its customers. Since fast food franchises have been expanding at such a rapid rate, it now makes it harder to live a healthy dietary lifestyle. Fast food has affected many societies in positive and negative ways. Its innovation prolonged these effects and may be worse to certain societies from a health and social standpoint. Due to the increase in popularity of the fast food norm, obesity percentages have risen, along with other health-related illness and overall activity in the daily

A contributing issue to this epidemic is that the labor force has become extremely efficient requiring that both parents in many households join the pool of available workers - leaving several young impressionable children home alone to source equitable nourishment for themselves. Both youngster and parents alike are bombarded with numerous hotdog and burger practitioners promoting their speedy meal choice no matter where they seem to go: be it to work, gas station, school, home, and even while on vacation. Vendors today can be seen on location at just about every street corner, during most television commercials, pop-ups on websites, even through snail and e-mail. According to Fast Food FACTS a Rudd Center for food policy and obesity website reported that McDonald’s alone “spent $900 million in media in 2009, an increase of $100 million from 2008.” (131) With numbers in the billions encouraging people to select a cheap and fast food fill up, how can one person resist the calls? Government must become the protector of the weak; therefore, their leadership support will be needed to help

If one continually eats unhealthy foods, they can quickly become overweight. Moreover, this has become such a recurring problem in America that according to the National Institutes of Health, compulsive eating has led to obesity for approximately 35.7% of Americans. This number represents over one-third of the entire U.S population and will continue to grow unless it is addressed. In addition, it is critical that Americans learn to moderate their junk food intake to prevent the contraction of serious health issues. Sweenie states that, “Food high in salt, sugar, fat or calories and low nutrient content...provide suboptimal nutrition with excessive fat, sugar, or sodium per kcal. Such poor diets can slow growth, promote obesity; sow the seeds of diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac problems, and osteoporosis.” These are exceptionally serious diseases that can often result in a severely hindered lifestyle or even death. In order to avoid these exceptionally undesirable outcomes, one must always remain aware of their daily junk food consumption. In Kirkey’s article, Paul Kenny, an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida, states that, "It's incumbent upon people to make sure that they're more respectful and aware of what they're eating. Just be aware that there are dangers and risks associated. Enjoy (high-fat) food, but make sure it's occasionally and

According to the Cleveland clinic wellness” Our survival skills are killing us. The unhealthy victuals storage stored in the human body has grown. Obesity corpulence is on the rise which causes sickness, death and other health cognate issues. Obesity is a medical condition where fat is accumulated and stored around the consequential organs of the body. Despite the fact that the aliment industry is growing, America is in trouble. The American people struggle from eating healthy, and balancing their diet and calorie intake. Why is obesity on the rise? What are the consequences of being obese? Saying “NO” to a big juicy burger is something no one’s wants to say. “Since the 1970s the amount of fast food restaurants has doubled” causing people to try new things and places to eat.

As the fast food world spread across the nation, obesity was shortly following in its footsteps. According to, “The History of the Fast Food Industry,” Since 1970 the amount of fast food restaurants have doubled, which equates to roughly 300,000 establishments in the United States. Ironically, 33.8% of the U.S. population is affected by obesity and 19% of children and young adults are also affected.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the most popular cases found throughout the world, and nearly 90% of people who have diabetes have type 2(Nordqvist). Though type 2 diabetes can be a result of genes, age, and race, obesity is one of the contributing factors (“National Diabetes Statistics, 2011”). If junk food is not suppressed it will lead to a continued chain reaction for the children within schools that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Habits are formed at a young age and when children have a surplus of junk food available to them through schools it’s too easy for them to get comfortable stopping at the vending machines to grab a quick snack and head to their next class. Slowly though, they become set in their ways and eventually that can lead to obesity, whether that’s later on down the road or now. Not only is it harder to break the habit once they’ve become older, but it may be too late. In 2010 nearly 2 million people who were 20 or older were diagnosed with diabetes (“National Diabetes Statistics, 2011”). Not all of those cases were caused by obesity, however, it can be a major factor for people with diabetes and unless they start making healthy choices in their lives right now, the older they get and the more health issues they run into, the harder it will become. In fact, “Overweight and obese people have a much higher risk of developing

Today, as values of living continue to boost, weight increase and obesity are posing a rising threat to certain well-beings in countries all over the world. Obesity, now confirmed as a nationwide endemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is likely to get worse and amplify over time. “The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese” (Obesity: in Statistics, 2008, 2nd Statement). It is definite that most kids are inclined to eat junk food, and it is certain that most kids will become overweight as adults. About 15% of children and adolescents aged 6 to 19 years are overweight, which is an increase of 4% from the 1988-1994 NHANES study” (Chatterjee, Blakely, & Barton, 2005, p. 24). Statistics of obese persons in the United States alone are also greater in certain cultural and ethnic minority groups, especially African American and Hispanics.

Eating is indisputably one of the greatest pleasures that there is in the world. Most of the tastiest foods, however, are the ones that also bring great risks as well as flavor. The food industry has jeopardized the well-being of the public with toxic foods that lead to eating disorders and addiction. These effects as a result can lead to disastrous health problems such as obesity and cardiovascular issues. Adults run great risks but it is the youth who cause the most concern. There has been a major epidemic concerning teenagers and their nutritional income. Greater options such as educational classes must be introduced to the public to encourage healthier eating among today’s youth and bring awareness to the threats that come with eating low-quality foods.

Fast food and other unhealthy substances are bad for youths, however, we still consume them without knowing the consequences. When will the human race learn about foods destroying our generations. Eating when hungry is understandable but why not look at the nutrients and other facts it has on the food label. These foods have lots of sugar, scary preservatives and even animal fats added. Having the teenagers eat smaller portion sizes and exercise about 30 minutes a day will ease the problem of them gaining weight. Whose fault could it be the young adult, parents, advertisements, or fast food restaurants? Innumerable of teens aren’t getting the information they need to make the proper food choices. The new generation needs to change their eating habits by making finer decisions on what they are going to consume, as well as exercising daily, eating more homemade meals, and drinking more water than sugary drinks.