Neighborhood Obesity In The United States

America is known for being one of the most obese countries in the world. Once you step foot in America, people can quickly find out why; everywhere you look there are a ton of fast food chains on nearly every block. Fast food to Americans is a quick, easy, and affordable way to get food. In the past Forty years, more than 160,000 fast food restaurants have opened in America (Pirello). This cheap and quick meal comes at a cost; according to the Centers for Disease control and Prevention (CDCP), more than 66 percent of Americans are overweight and obese. To make things worse, the CDCP notes that one third of children and adolescents are obese. David Zinczenko, the editor-in- chief of Men’s Health

After including additional keywords (fast food earnings, food oppression, food insecurity, minorities and low income paired with initial keywords and searching the reference lists of those articles already found, an additional search yielded a plethora of articles to choose from , some of which were actual research studies and others that were descriptive articles or summaries. The three articles in this review are the ones I found most profoundly supported my main arguments in my thesis statement. The research used to support my arguments employed qualitative methods for obtaining data which was supported by statistical information, professional and educational sources and articles from scholarly sources (Freeman, A. (2007); Adler, N. E., & Stewart, J. (2009); Kumanyika, S. & Grier, S., (2006). Kumanyika, S. & Grier, S., (2006), looks at obesity from the perspective of the government’s role in the situation, or lack thereof a presence in combating situations where they know people are getting taken advantage of through heavy influence from lobbyist groups. Adler, N. E., & Stewart, J. (2009), looks at the situations surrounding lifestyle choices, for example the availability of low cost foods, access to quick processed items versus nutritious ones and the poor quality of areas in these coined phrase, food deserts. Freeman, A. (2007), looks at the corporations and governments angle at keeping this an ongoing epidemic and ways in which they

It has become impossible for low-income families to provide healthy meals for their families. Government, Farm policies and the food industry itself are main reasons as to why the cost of healthy foods has become harder for American families, especially low-income families, to provide the healthy foods needed to fight the obesity epidemic. With low- income families being the main focus point on the problem of

Obesity is a problem in different areas throughout the world; obesity is a major problem in the United States of America. The food industry in the U.S. has changed. Food is cheaper and easier to access, but food is lower in quality and is massively produced (Kenner, 2008). Food is no longer as hard to come by as it once was and is not as expensive, but healthy food is more expensive and, most of the time, requires trips to the grocery store. In American society today, American are busy and have minimal time to exercise, cooking, or even go to the grocery store. The lower socioeconomic classes are notably affected as a result of individuals and families of lower socioeconomic classes often can’t afford healthy food from local grocery stores

Nationally the obesity rates have increased 7.2% in females and 29.1% in males over the last twenty years. (Healthy People 2020, 2010) In San Diego, the Health and Human Services Department (SDHHSA) has identified that obesity is an area of focus with a goal of reducing the problem by 20% by 2010 and currently that 34.4% of the county’s population is classified as overweight and 22.1% is obese with a BMI greater than 30. Other findings reveal that there the problem is disproportionally larger in the Hispanic, African American and low income communities. (Appendix 1. Figure 5 & 6) Although San Diego boasts of a climate that encourages outdoor pursuits and an abundance of recreational spaces and parks, 13.9 % of the population report no physical activity and that 25.5 % of children do less than an hour of physical activity daily, which corresponds with a threefold increase in childhood obesity in the last 30 years. Statistical data points to greater consumption of fast food in areas where obesity is highest and that Retail Food Environment Index (RFEI) which is the ratio of grocery stores and availability of fresh produce to fast food and convenience food outlets are higher in areas where obesity levels are greater than the county norm. B3. Heath Concern:

There are a variety of factors that can cause an individual to accumulate such high stores of fat (Wright & Aronne, 2012). Early researchers of obesity argued that the most common cause of obesity is a high caloric intake, or the consumption of high-calorie foods, that outstrips calories burnt via exercise (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). In other words, people accumulate excess body fat when they eat more calories than they burn, meaning obesity is caused primarily by the consumption of foods that are high in calories but low in nutritional value, and a sedentary lifestyle (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). More recently, however, researchers are recognizing the complex array of variables that interact to cause obesity, including environmental, social, and political factors known collectively as the social determinants of health (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). For example, research finds that our lived environments have been restructured in recent years to promote a culture of overeating: today, high-calorie fast foods are often more affordable than nutritious options, and are made conveniently accessible in the form of food trucks, pubs, and vending machines strategically placed on school grounds, college campuses, and near apartment buildings (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). Often, these foods are served in excessively large portions intended to promote the very over-eating that causes obesity (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). Moreover, the low priced, processed, ready-to-eat meals available in grocery stores tend to appeal to low-income families who cannot afford to purchase more expensive produce or take the time away from their work to prepare home cooked meals (Wright & Aronne, 2012; Drewnowski et al., 2016). Thus, recent research suggests that the

In the United States the society needs to work on controlling this problem known as obesity. It is a problem that if does not get controlled sooner than later, will spiral out of hand even more. Before this spirals out of control society needs to take action to reducing the cost of healthy food amongst middle-low class citizens so they can eat the

In America more than 35.7% of the population is obese or overweight. (“Overweight and Obesity Statistics”). That is nearly around 78.6 million people in America (‘’Obesity in U.S.’’). Americans are drastically becoming more obese over the years. There are a few americans who practice the habit of physical exercise and many who have a habit of super-sizing. Foods in America are available anywhere and people become overwhelmed when they see food ads. The percentage of our economy who have lower income tend to choose foods that are unhealthy because it's cheaper to afford. This leads to many health problems that people aren't aware of or they choose to disregard it. People who live in lower income neighborhoods maybe not be able to get out

Obesity has rapidly emerged as a serious health issue in America. The cause of obesity results from America’s social injustices. Today, food advertisements are in all places promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. Considering the great expense of healthy foods, low income families can barely afford fruits and vegetables. These two factors contribute to the increasing obesity rate in the United States. Unfortunately, it has taken an excessive amount of Americans to become obese for America to become aware of the issue and take action. Although obesity is still an increasing problem, America is fighting to reduce the number of obese citizens. As a result of low income and the media advertising unhealthy lifestyles, America is in the midst of an obesity epidemic.

In the United States, there are many people who believe that if it wasn’t for fast food restaurants, they would be eating healthier and wouldn’t be overweight. People have even tried to sue fast food restaurants for their own self esteem issues. It’s ironic that people actually blame fast food restaurants, such as McDonald’s, for being obese. While fast food may be one of the contributors to the obesity outbreak, it certainly doesn’t stand alone. There are loads of reasons why people living in the United States are overweight. Some of these reasons involve dilemmas within the school arrangements, peer pressure, family genetics, educational issues, and even where a person lives. The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health

Given that obesity has a great impact on multiple aspects of health, it will be the problem focused on for this paper. It was noted during the assessment that York County ranks in the least favorable quartile among peer counties in this area of health (Community Health Status Indicators, 2015).

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.

Good nutrition is a key component to living a healthy lifestyle since you are what you eat. In the United States more than one-third (78.6 million) are obese and approximately 17% (12 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese (CDC, 2015). According to the Food Research & Action Center (FRAC), individuals that live in poverty such as low-income families are vulnerable to obesity due to limited resources and lack of access to healthy affordable foods, fewer opportunities for physical activity, cycles of food deprivation and overeating, high levels of stress, and limited access to healthcare (FRAC, 2010).

An important part of nursing, especially in the community, is working on ways to identify major health concerns and determining ways to improve the health of the population. Not only is it important to improve the health of the population, but it is vital to be efficient on being able to identify early risk factors to reduce the prevalence of specific disease that are prevalent in the surrounding communities of populations. The purpose of this paper is to identify one health problem that is most prevalent in my community and analyze the problem using Milio’s framework for prevention. Furthermore, I will then choose one of my nursing diagnoses and describe how the community health problem applies to it. To distinguish national goals closely

The prevalence of obesity continues to increase in the United States. Lack of physical activity and over consumption of foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar, and sodium, has negatively affected millions of Americans’ lives related to nutrition and personal health. Michigan is now 16th in the nation for the highest rate of obesity, with 31.2% of its total population being obese1. Detroit ranks second in the state for the number of obese individuals at 38.1%. Some contributing factors to such a high rate in this community are the lack of awareness of proper nutrition, abundance of low-income families, and lack of access to grocery stores with fresh food items.