Obesity has been a growing epidemic for decades. The United States is among the highest countries around the world to experience obesity. Nearly 78 million adults and 13 million children in the United States deal with obesity. (American Heart Association, 2017) Furthermore, death tolls for obesity range from 100,000 to 400,000 in the United States per year. This has caused an increase in health care use and expenditures an estimation of 147 billion dollars (Finkelstein, 2009). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is one of the top states where obesity prevalence is 35% or greater. (CDC, 2016) Social and environmental influences contribute to the rise of obesity. Nevertheless, there are some interventions and suggestions that can be applied to …show more content…
To combat the rise of obesity, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health launched the “Get Healthy Philly” program, which started in 2010. It was a remarkable initiative that brought together the government, community organizations, schools, and private sectors. The program promoted a healthy lifestyle, which included healthy eating, active living and smoke-free areas. The goal of the program was to increase life expectancy and reduce disease, disability and premature death. (Public Health, 2010) Corner stores provided a supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, and schools helped provide healthy snack and nutrition to students. A good social support has a great impact on reducing the rise of obesity. The social environment can either have a positive or negative impact on the overall epidemic. Supportive family and friends help determine healthy lifestyle choices for the people around them. If parents can promote healthy food choice behaviors and take part in physical activities it is more likely their children will follow their lead. Additionally, the environment in which an individual eats, such as home, work, school, etc. has a great effect on the health of the individual. “Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) is an initiative that makes healthy living easier by promoting environmental changes at the local level.” (CDC, 2012) The Philadelphia community provided variety of changes in effort to make a
The goal of this program was to prevent Type 2 Diabetes as well as reduce childhood obesity and the among Kahnawake residents. The project developed a health education curriculum for children, strengthened the school’s nutrition policy to create supportive environments for healthy eating in the school, and provided a program of classroom and school activities to promote healthy lifestyles for parents, teachers, and children throughout the school year. To follow up and support what the children learned in class, a year-long program of community activities that included walking clubs, cooking courses and community gardens was initiated (Willows, Hanley, & Delormier,
Obesity is a national epidemic with wide consequences and cost to America’s health and productivity. In recent years, policymakers, medical health experts and parents have expressed alarming concerns about the growing problem of childhood obesity in the United States, especially among Hispanic children. While most agree that this critical issue deserves attention, consensus dissolves around how to respond to the problem. This research paper examines one approach to treating childhood obesity: Taxing companies that manufacture foods with low nutritional value “junk food” companies. The paper reviews the effectiveness in children and adolescents of taxing food companies that provide foods with low nutritional value versus parent/child
The Campaign to End Obesity is a national public health campaign whose overall motto is “to advance America’s journey to healthy weight.” It is known in this current age that two-thirds of America’s adults and one-third of the youth population are overweight or obese. Even more shocking is the fact that over $200 billion has been spent on medical costs attributed to obesity. Obesity will be the main contributor for why this generation of youth will live shorter lives than their parents if we keep going at the rate we are now. This public health campaign was established in
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.
The startling epidemic of rising obesity rates has caught everyone off guard considering that in the book “Obesity Dietary and Developmental Influences” it states that almost two-thirds of the current population is overweight or obese (Lopez 2). Considering that many adults and children are struggling with their weight, many experts try to pinpoint the exact culprit for the obesity rates and ways it can be diminished. The focus of this paper is to discuss who exactly is to blame for the rising obesity rates and different ways it could decrease based on certain author’s point of views. This is important because if the rates do not stop increasing, people will suffer whether its financially or medically. Many people often argue over which
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
In today’s world, obesity rate has been increased significantly. Among 196 countries of the world, the Unites States is ranked 19th, and one third of the population in the U.S. have obesity. Reason that people care about how much population is obsessed is that it is “linked to many of the major causes of death in the United States, including heart disease, some types of cancer, strokes, diabetes, and atherosclerosis” (Himes 73). 19th of the world may not seem very high rank, but if imagine one of three family member or neighbor is highly exposed to disease resulted by obesity, it will not become a slight problem that they can ignore. In order to solve this severe problem, many experts of health have researched and argued the underlying cause of obesity, and their arguments are mainly divided by two big categories: environmental factor and genetic factor. Many researcher have argued that genetic factor have more effect on human’s body weight than environment, so individual cannot control their body weight. As those researchers said, gene have some influence on human body related with obesity, but the largest cause of this disorder is environment. In other word, the increasing rate of obesity in America is mainly caused by toxic environment such as unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity. Also, it means that there is possibility to prevent obesity if government basically change the people’s thinking about health. Overall, since
Obesity is a rising epidemic throughout the United States of America. In many cases, people that are obese tend to develop type 2 diabetes, because the pressure of being obese affects the body’s ability to properly use insulin and control blood sugar levels. In many studies, a hypocaloric, or reduced-calorie, diet is suggested as the main solution to the obesity problem. However, throughout these studies there have been contradictions about the impact of dietary iron on obesity-induced insulin resistance. The objective of this study was to determine if mice liver samples with lower iron levels have an increased sensitivity to insulin resistance. Six liver samples with different iron and fat levels were used from mice with 8 week dietary
If a person was given two plates in front of them, one with the chocolate cake and the other one with celery sticks, which one would be? My guess is that chocolate cake would be gone faster than the celery sticks. It is been heard that “you are what you eat” and that is fairly true. The food a person puts in their mouth affects the way they look. A very striking epidemic in America is the way people eta and how that effects them. It is becoming a great concern about the way people eat and how little to no exercise they get. Nearly 1/3 of adults are considered overweight or obese. The question is how does a person become that way in why haven’t they done anything about it? Obesity has become a national epidemic regarding social economic status along with the personal choice of living an inactive lifestyle and begins with children’s mental stability.
Over the period of this course there has been a few topics that I have really learned about and either it has influenced me to change my lifestyle, and/or attribute to develop healthier patterns for myself whether it be in my marriage, for my child, or for my health. I will discuss the topics that mattered the most to me, that we covered throughout the duration of the semester. Which includes; The Common Challenges to a Healthy Lifestyle, Marital Expectations, and Income.
In today’s society obesity has become a nationwide epidemic that is affecting children and adults daily. Dietitians have an essential role in the health field to treat patients with nutrition problems such as obesity, but every patient is different and how the dietician decides the course of treatment is as well. For example, there are many ways the dietician can treat the patient like goal setting, self-monitoring, meal preparation, and other strategic plans that lead to the best health of the patient. When making a plan to treat the patient many detailed factors come into play. For example, patients age, occupation, family history, and most importantly social environment.
America’s cities have been built upon population growth and economic development — essentially meeting the economic needs of investors. The problem is that public leaders don’t always think about public health. Thinking about what to build, and taking into consideration the health of the people in the community. According to Dr. Jackson, co-author of Designing healthy communities, states ‘what really impacts people’s health is where they live, how they live, and the other people they are with’ — i.e. their surrounding community. (Designing, 2013.)
Obesity in the United States is an epidemic of growing proportions. According to the Center for Disease Control more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of U.S. adults are obese. ("Adult Obesity Facts", 2014). Obesity is defined as a body mass index or BMI, over 30. A person’s height and weight are used to determine BMI but does not measure how much body fat a person has.
Obesity is a growing disease within our ever quickening, largely sedentary society. The American Obesity Treatment Organization reported the current obesity problem in the US as 72 million people dealing with this disease and associated risk factors. Obesity is a disease that affects both adults and children. The CDC lists related risk factors of this disease as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, Type-2 diabetes, sleep apnea, and stroke ("Adult Obesity Facts"). Obesity is highly prevalent in Florida with rates as high as 25-30% (“Obesity Prevalence Maps”). As a nation, the goal set by Healthy People 2020 is to reduce the rate of obesity to less than 15% and as the data and statistics clearly show Florida is nowhere
According to Center Disease Control and Prevention, over one-third (78.6 million) adults are obese, and in 2008 a projected annual cost of $147 billion U.S. dollars were spent for medical cost of adult obesity (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Obesity is a common trend throughout the U.S. making obesity a serious and costly trend. Although obesity is a common trend throughout the U.S. there are certain groups, lifestyle choices and other factors that may likely put an individual at risk for obesity. An individual’s genetic makeup, age, medical condition, environment, and social-economic status are also other risk factors associated with obesity and are trends seen throughout my community and across the United States.