Everybody wants to be thin Essay

Many Americans are looking for a quick and easy fix to their weight problems which in turn can cause an even greater problem in the future. More often than not if diets don’t work it’s because they are misled in believing that they will lose weight with little to no effort.

It has been found that eating disorders are most common in the western and industrialized culture where food is abundant. This is because these individuals attach a lot of importance to their physical appearance and are willing to do anything to get the dream figure. An eating disorder is not just watching what one eats and exercising on a daily basis but is rather an illness that causes serious disturbances in eating behaviour, such as great and harmful cutback of the consumption of food as well as feelings of serious anxiety about their body shape or mass. They would start to stop themselves to go out anywhere just so that they could work out and burn all of the calories of a meal or snack that they had scoffed earlier. Two of the most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. The regular description of a patient with either disease would be a youthful white female, with an upper social standing in a predictably socially competitive environment.

First, psychological consequences of being overweight or obese eating disorders such as binge eating, bulimia and anorexia. In “Bare Bones” (310), Emily Wierenga tells a powerful story of a 12-year-old girl named Carolyn who suffers from anorexia based on her fear of becoming fat. Wierenga’s purpose is to inform the psychological aspects that obesity evokes on one’s body. Anorexia may begin with a desire to diet to lose a few pounds, it also can be a fear of being overweight, but it occurs when the person becomes overly involved in the diet and limits food more than is healthy. In addition, being overweight also causes depression. Many times, people who suffer from obesity often feel they have a low quality of life. Obesity can cause poor self-image, low self-esteem, and social isolation, all known contributors to depression. People experiencing depression overeat or make poor food choices and avoid exercising. Depressed people experience decreased levels of the serotonin have a tendency toward obesity they tend to self-medicate by overeating and restore their normal serotonin levels. Also, obesity also causes lowered self-esteem and body dissatisfaction, most obese individuals feel ‘ugly’ or unattractive. This greatly affects their confidence to interact with people. Psychological issues play significant roles in both the development and consequences of

The choices American’s make about their eating habits has drastically changed over time. Today America is an obese nation, because food is everywhere: at the grocery store, on billboard signs, or even at the hardware store. There are statistics that prove America is an obese nation, the public just has to go search for those. Many diets and experts have tips to give to help American’s and others lose weight. This is the point that Susan Brink and Elizabeth Querna are trying to get across in their article, “Eat this Now.” Within the article, the two go in to detail about how Americans eat all the time. Brink and Querna’s article really bring to light the problems that American’s have by showing how American’s eat to

Foremost of all, like I had mentioned before, the rate of obesity, heart diseases and diabetes is growing than it ever had. There are over 29 million cases of diabetes last year, more than 700 thousands people died each year because of heart attacks, and about 3 million cases of obesity per year in the U.S. The causes of those problems are really simple yet complex, it's each person's taste, conditions and their way of thinking for themselves. Example, you go to McDonald, ordered a Big Mac, Coke and some French fries like a habit, because those are your favorite but not realize how bad the choices of food you just made, and just let’s them all slowly destroy your body afterwards. It's normal for Americans to eat fast foods, refined and processed food, sweets and high fat or carbohydrate foods since they're too popular and common in our culture, but these are food that needs to be limited instead of to be overeating.

Bulimia has cost the lives of many around the world, but it still does not seem to stop spreading its influence. This type of eating disorder shares similar emotional triggers found in those suffering from anorexia and excess fasting. “This illness is associated with premorbid perfectionism, introversion, poor peer relations, and low self-esteem.” (Garfinkel) Of course, these characteristics are a direct result of the person’s environment. As stated by Pigott once she got back home from her trip to Africa, “ I reverted to my natural state: one of yearning to be slimmer and more fit than I was. My freedom had been temporary. I was home, where fat is feared and despised.” (Pigott, C., pg.93) Bulimia, unlike anorexia, is characterized by a person binge-eating, or consuming a large amount of food in a short time lapse, but then “purging” themselves by either “self-inducing vomiting, taking enemas, or abusing laxatives or other medications.” (“The Eating Disorder Foundation”) This eating disorder is known to cause depression, kidney damage, dental damage, and anxiety disorders if left untreated. (“The Eating Disorder Foundation”) Despite its devastating effects, bulimia cases worldwide are increasing rapidly, showing the public’s ignorance in choosing to conform with the norm rather than taking care of themselves.

When talking about obesity in a country like America, where the problem and issue is more critical we need to consider the most probable causes and the factors of obesity. According to statistics from the Center of Disease and Control in 2013 over 35.7% of Americans are obese. America is the most obese country in the world because we rely too much on technology and on other things. We also lack of physical activity and the main problem is that we have very bad eating habits. You may be asking yourself, what causes people to be obese? Well that's obvious because it's the huge amount of fast food places in America. There's literally a fast food place in every corner. As americans, we all have very bad eating habits since we would rather buy a 25 cent soup then some organic nutritious food. Also lacking on physical activity due to how busy we are at work and with family and yet still being lazy to cook something healthy or to eat anything healthy we would rather go buy something since it’s so much easier. All of this is because of what the American culture is becoming with technology and

How is it that a nation so obsessed with counting calories, cutting back carbs, and going on diets is so incredibly overweight? The United States is by far the heaviest country in the world. Almost two thirds of Americans are overweight and one third are obese (“Statistics…”). That’s a lot of fatties in a land of 281,421,906 people (“Question…”). On the surface, it’s simply bewildering as to why America is in such a state because this country is made of people from the rest of the world. However, eastern and western Europeans, Asians, Africans, South Americans, and Australians aren’t faced with even half the number of weight-related health issues that Americans encounter every day.

In recent years, obesity rates continue to grow in the United States, not just overweight, socialization difficulties, but it is a society that is developing a new medical condition. However, a worrying number of overweight Americans living with this abnormal condition does nothing to fix their obstacle, satisfies with light diets, and few minutes a day of exercise. ''While the number of obese adults has doubled since the 1980s, extremely obese adults has quadrupled, currently affecting one in every 50 adults, an estimated 300,000 people in the United States die annually from obesity-related diseases'' (O’Donnell, par.4). Unfortunately, years ago obesity were not an overwhelming problem in proportion, as now, each person has to prevent the number of calories to consume a day to be in the healthy average. Across the country, obesity is an epidemic that affects the quality of life, because unbalanced diets cause our body’s improper nutrition and deficient the essential vitamins and minerals our bodies require. Obesity should not be seen as an epidemic, instead as a medical condition that can be solved and controlled through the following years.

According to Alyssa Brown, “51% of adults want to lose weight, [but] barely half as many (25%) say they are seriously working towards that goal. This discrepancy between Americans’ weight-loss desires and behaviors has existed for years”(Brown). According to society, the definition of a healthy person is someone who exercises often and eats healthy foods. Even though people want to be healthy, becoming healthy is a hard task. Surely it is much easier to lay around at home and eat chips than to work out at the gym. Maybe this is why obesity rates are on the rise. A medical study estimates that “75% of the U.S. population will be classified as overweight or obese or obese by the year 2020” (NewsMax). People wonder, what is the solution to this

Imagine that you’re on a fun trip to the theatre on the weekends, but there’s a plot twist: you are insanely overweight and after years of having people giving you disgusted looks and judgemental glares, you’re tired and want to start eating healthy. When you finally get in the theatre, you’re a bit hungry because the smell of buttery, fatty popcorn is pulling you in. You get in line to try and find a healthier food choice instead of popcorn and soda but there’s nothing so you have to sit in painful hunger as you try to fight the urge to maintain your diet. Now you, yourself, may not be experiencing this in real life but what about the many who are trying to lose weight desperately? Having healthier choices will only encourage them and why would you stop

Surely for years, scientists have emphasized the importance of being healthy through exercise and a nutritious diet. Although a lot of people still pay revenue into the fast food companies and cable companies to sit around and overindulge, many people have made healthy into a new trend. The problem may be, that today many people are jumping aboard the ‘healthy’ train without the knowledge of what healthy really means. Due to the influences of media, people have created body images that define healthy but more so just attractive. People may try to be healthy, however, for many it is simply for the cause of fitting into a certain body image. There is nothing wrong in wanting to look a

Drastic weight loss seems almost impossible to accomplish when one chooses to lose weight naturally. This is because naturally losing weight takes time in allowing the body to adapt to lifestyle changes one undergoes in a diet. Losing weight is all a matter of decreasing your calorie intake, consuming less than you burn. However, some people feel the need to take shortcuts using minimal effort with great results. Such results would be an effect from stimulants, diet pills, starvation and medical assistance. Many of these methods that are utilized for losing weight are not advised, but it just demonstrates that people will do almost anything to lose weight.

Each year millions of people in the United States are affected by serious and sometimes life-threatening eating disorders. The vast majorities are adolescents and young adult women. Approximately one percent of adolescent girls develops anorexia nervosa, a dangerous condition in which they can literally starve themselves to death. Another two to three percent develop bulimia nervosa, a destructive pattern of excessive overeating followed by vomiting or other " purging " behaviors to control their weight. These eating disorders also occur in men and older women, but much less frequently. The consequences of eating disorders can be severe. For example, one in ten anorexia nervosa leads to death from starvation, cardiac arrest, or

Everybody sees it everywhere. “Lose 60 pounds in 6 weeks!” “Skinny is what’s in!” “Detox diet plan!” It’s a fair assumption to assume that the world, especially the United States, is obsessed with being healthy. From celebrity workout programs to expensive diet systems that make people lose weight, being fit is always what’s mainly focused on in the media, daily life, and nationwide. But with obsessions, come unhealthy actions and interests. Most people that anyone knows is most likely upset with some aspect of themselves. Whether it be the way they look, how they eat, or their lifestyle, obsession happens because of the nearly-impossible body types and lifestyles found on social media. On top of this, there are also restrictions and challenges that come with eating a healthy diet that seem simply irradical to address, and unhealthier foods are more available than ever. With these slowly arising issues, anyone would think the nation is making it hard for themselves to be healthy. The society the nation lives in is making it progressively harder and harder to be healthy because of the lifestyles that are easier to achieve.