Can Behavioral Economics Combat Obesity

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.

Obesity is a continuing problem in the American society. Obesity, occurs when, the amount of energy taken is more than the energy released (Abraham 237). The growing obesity rates could be slightly declined by the availability of more affordable, healthier foods and the decline of these temporary quick fit diets, many Americans put themselves on as a means to get fit. The opposing viewpoint may suggest that obesity can be fixed simply by shopping for better, healthier food choices in grocery stores and learning how to count calories to maintain a healthy weight; but that simple solution may not be an achievable solution for every American. Furthermore, the difference of cost between healthy compared to unhealthy foods is completely outrageous. Numberless people strive to go into a grocery store and select all of the healthy food options of their liking; however, healthy food options cost more and are seemingly unaffordable compared to junk food. The government should regulate the prices of junk and healthy food as a means to combat obesity in America, so that all persons can achieve good health.

America, like any other country, has its assortment of problems: immigration, debt, or foreign affairs but one issue that is rather hard to overlook, literally, its obesity epidemic. The extra pounds have become a sight all too common in America’s society, “men are now on average seventeen pounds heavier than they were in the late seventies, and for women that figure is even higher: nineteen pounds.” (Kolbert). Obesity does not just affect adults in this way either, the kid population has been getting bigger, according to the numbers on a scale “the proportion of overweight children, age six to eleven, has more than doubled, while the proportion of overweight adolescents, age twelve to nineteen, has more than tripled.” (Kolbert). This issue has been a major concern to doctors and scientists for decades and in recent years, has even has the American Medical Association recognizing obesity to be a disease (Pollack). That is a highly debatable statement because obesity itself is a preventable lifestyle. Obesity is avoidable and curable to all (or at least most) of its sufferers. For some citizens, obesity is not a choice, rather genetics, but for the majority of the population, obesity is caused by an unhealthy diet and lazy lifestyle, and for these certain individuals, through a lot of work and discipline, the return to a healthy lifestyle is not as impossible as it may appear.

Despite that fact that obesity has begun to receive major attention in the past decade, there is a yawning gap between what is perceived and what is reality. In a North Carolina study, it was found that almost one-third of overweight Blue Cross Blue Shield members identified their weight as just right (Ward-Smith, 245). Clearly, people are unwilling to recognize that obesity has become a major problem in our country. Despite public service announcements and other methods of advertising the disease, the effects of this disease on overall health are continually underappreciated. As a result, obesity continues to be allowed to define our

An Obesity epidemic is disturbing the financial and social stability of the United States. As stated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “our modern environment has allowed these conditions to increase at alarming rates and become highly pressing health problems for our nation“(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Efforts made by authority figures have been enforced to solve this severe crisis. Obesity has become a concerning problem in the United States. This epidemic is interfering with the success of American citizens and it is also impacting the American economy negatively. The obesity epidemic endures negative impacts to the United States’ economy; even though others argue it is contributing to the economy through the growing weight loss industry.

Obesity is one of America’s problems that we struggle with every day. Even other countries see America for obesity and how much junk food and pop we consume. Our first lady is even trying to help fix this problem. Schools are gaining healthy lunches and changing up a few things in how make what school’s eat. That’s a great step, but you can always avoid school lunches. I know that people can’t force people to eat healthy. But I realize that how we are is really not anyone’s fault, except ours. Obesity is how much self control people have and how we handle our food options.

Obesity has increased a lot over the years and health problems have not gotten any better. “... [T]he average person has increased 24 pounds since 1960” (Stewart ). The government has a reason to be concerned and worries about our obesity rates raising. Society likes to include themselves in every problem America has, and since obesity is a growing problem in America it is understandable why society wants others to be healthy. Even though it is understandable why the government wants to be involved, society and the government is too involved in the growing issue of obesity. The government cannot have a say in how someone wants to live their life. “A New Jersey woman, who now tips the scale at 604 pounds, said it’s be a “fantasy” to gobble her way to fame and someday weight 1,000 pounds” (Li). The government cannot control how people want to live their lives whether it be healthy or

Obesity is an increasing epidemic affecting the United States in an alarming and negative way. In the past centuries it was rare for Americans to be obese. Today they’re numerous factors contributing to the epidemic but they can be reversed with awareness of the severity of the issue, it’s affect on health, and a willingness to make changes in their daily life.

This source provides a lot of study based research information on several topics that relate to obesity. The article gives a lot of information about the battle between for fighting obesity and advocates that want Americans to make their own choices about the food they consume. This article covers a wide range of informative data from food served in schools, to the rise of industrial farming. The author is a freelance reporter that does not seem to have a bias for the obesity subject. Instead this author provides information for the government to regulate or not regulate the food Americans consume on a day to day base. The article’s audience could be made up of people looking to for the pros and cons of government regulations to help fight obesity. This source provides information to help anyone with some research material to in order to form their own opinion on the problems of obesity in this country. I found this source while using the CQ researcher website and searched for obesity in America.

A critical issue has arisen recently in the United States that obesity has become more prevalent than ever before. During the past 20 years, more than one-third of U.S. adults and approximately one-fifth of the children and adolescents has been considered to be overweight. It is undeniable that everyone will promptly concurs something must be done in order to solve this crisis. However, this accord often ends on a debate of whether or not being obese is our own fault and government should intervene in helping the situation. In my opinion, although we are somewhat responsible for our own health, we cannot totally blame on those obese people for being corpulent and the government should definitely get involved in alleviating this problem.

Today, America is facing an epidemic that drains its economy and annihilates the health of its citizens, obesity. In the eyes of the average American, being overweight may seem like an issue with no effect on anything except for a rise of burger sales and an increased chance of diabetes, but this epidemic causes catastrophic events unseen by the public. Firstly, corpulence effects ⅓ of the U.S. population, leaving the other ⅔ in the category of being overweight, double the amount since the early 1970s, stated by Ross A. Hammond and Ruth Levine in “The Economic Impact of Obesity in the United States.” In addition to the effects of obesity in the everyday lives of the U.S.’ citizens, Obesity is next to if not deadlier than tobacco, which claims

Obesity is a very serious subject that a lot of people take lightly, especially us as Americans. America is the most obese country in the world. Statistics show that 300,000 people die a day in the United States of America due to obesity. This clearly shows that we have a serious problem that is massively underestimated. Obesity is also something that countries all across the world suffer from. For example, Australia is also one of the most obese countries in the world, and 50,000 people die a year from obesity in Australia. That’s 140 people who die per day in Australia. To solve the problem of obesity the prices of junk food should be raised and the prices of healthy food should be lowered and more convenient.

“If and when the public chooses to use government power to offset the factors that promote obesity, we can do so. A day may come when we decide to limit advertising of unhealthy food, strengthen lifestyle teaching in schools, and create stronger financial incentives to adhere to lifestyle recommendations. The more eager we the people are to fight the obesogenic environment, the more responsive and effective our governments will become” (Medscape General Medicine, vol. 9, no. 4, 2007).

Obesity has caused great dilemma in America. It was known as an adult disease. “Over two thirds of adults are over weight or obese.”(Obesity, Jerry R Ballenttne) these numbers are increasing rapidly. Obesity is not just a appearance

Obesity has become a serious problem with more than one third of adults being obese in the United States. Obesity is seen as a self-destructive behavior accompanied with smoking and use of other drugs thus, government officials and other business bureaucrats expressed the need to impose higher health insurance premiums on the obese. Obesity is not always due to the personal behavior of people and can be linked with the environment and genetics; I personally feel that obese people should not pay a higher health insurance premium compared to those that aren’t. Government officials and other business bureaucrats