Obesity : A Health Policy Issue

know over the past couple of years America has become one one of the most obese countries in the world and to be quite honest the reason for it are right in front of us. If you go out to McDonalds everything is so ridiculously cheap. From snack cakes to 12 pack sodas being less than 5.00 you can easily say that there is a problem in how we are going about this obesity problem in the United States today. To be honest how many of us can honestly say that we have never indulged in some type of our favorite food that was extremely cheap these days? I can answer that for you not very man at all. Upon further research I noticed that in 2012 a study showed that obesity rated have increased at a constant level and have stayed there for about a couple of years but even that is still unacceptable. The reason why that is unacceptable is because about 40 percent of all Americans are obese to this day that is twice the amount that is was about 30 years ago and it is still growing in outrageous numbers. Not only has that but the number of children being obese nearly tripled in that time frame to about 17 percent. So in all honesty, do you believe that we are doing enough to bring these ridiculous numbers? Do you believe America is doing enough to bring these numbers down? I will answer that for you a big fat NO because making food that is unhealthy for you extremely cheap and giving your kids anything they want to eat no matter what it is apparently is not working at all and it needs to

Over the past few decades, obesity rate has grown drastically in the United States. “A third of U.S. adults are obese” (Brady 519), placing them at a higher risk for diseases, and increased healthcare spending. It a preventable nutritional problem that affects people of all ages, gender and race, with minority groups and people of low socioeconomic status disproportionately affected. It is a multifaceted problem with many issues at its root. Obesity is the result of our agricultural policies, present economic condition, and unhealthy lifestyle.

A problem that is plaguing America and needs to be addressed with a policy change in school systems across the country is obesity. Obesity in America has been declared an epidemic, and the most alarming rates of obesity exist in younger demographics, which generally dictate that these children will continue into adulthood as obese adults (Jacobson, Kim, & Tortolero, 2009). This will add to the massive costs to society that obesity contributes from loss of employee hours to hospital care from the many diseases that are developed as a result of obesity. Therefore, this issue needs to be addressed early in life with school-aged children as it is far more difficult to stop obese adults from engaging in negative behavior that facilitates or worsens their obesity while legislative action can be taken to develop rules and regulations that can be implemented in school districts across the country.

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.

The obesity problem in America has grown to the point that people blame a single part of the numerous issues. Obesity has increased due to the fact that consumers, franchise owners, and government have contributed to this largely increasing obesity madness. As Morgan from SuperSize Me exclaimed, “Mcbad”. To solve the issue of obesity people turn to the fast and simple diets emphasize by the media that worsen the body’s condition.(Omnivore’s Dilemma) The way to solve this increased in this obesity issue people should not pin it on a part of the reason it should look at this from an open minded perspective. An obesity problem increased by the consumer, franchise owner, and government, one issue with interconnected web of contributors.

Obesity in the United States is a major public health issue. According to prevalence data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study (NHANES) 2011-2012, 34% of US adults are overweight (BMI 25-29.9), 35.1% obese (BMI 30-39.9) and 6.4% morbidly obese (BMI ≥40). NHANES does not include incarcerated individuals in the surveys. The 2011-2012 United States Bureau of Justice, National Inmate Survey, indicated the prevalence of overweight, obesity and morbid obesity for state and federal inmates was 45.7%, 25.5% and 2.4% respectively. Although males in prisons and jails were more likely than females to be overweight, females were more likely to be obese or morbidly obese. The health risks for individuals who are overweight or obese are clear. If obesity is not managed, chronic health conditions will develop and this will impact public health resources and communities when offenders are released. They are at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health problems.

Statistical information confirms: obesity and overweight have already turned into an issue of national concern. In 2002, “a National Survey conducted by American Sports Data revealed that 61% of adults in the U.S. felt that they were overweight, 19% admitting that they were ‘considerably’ overweight” (American Sports Data). The major causes of obesity, overweight, and similar nutritional problems included genetics, population trends, hurried lifestyles, high-carbohydrate diets, less demanding workplaces, smoking cessation, and social class aspects (American Sports Data). That hurried lifestyles and a less demanding workplace contribute in the development of obesity trends is clear. But even more importantly, because the number of those who are overweight or obese exceeds one half of the American population, the government must control our diets. The information about the costs of obesity and related diseases is even more compelling.

In today's society, obesity plays a very crucial role in many people's lives. It is the condition of being overweight, caused by eating too much and involving in less physical activity. It is mainly caused by eating excess amounts of fats and sugars, which remains stored in our body as fats. A Canadian community health survey shows that 29% of the Canadians who are 18 and older are obese and 41% of them are overweight, in children and adolescents 8% were obese while 18% were overweight. Obesity is associated with a number of health conditions such as strokes, cancer, diabetes and mainly heart disease. The articles introduced in this annotated bibliography are written regarding the topic of obesity and relationship with cardiovascular diseases.

Obesity is one major healthcare issue worldwide. This occurs in any race, gender, and ethnicity. In fact, individuals have been struggling with this problem way before the simplest sexually transmitted diseases were ever discovered. Buchwald (2003) states that, “An individual usually is considered obese when his or her body mass index (BMI) is over 30 percent.” Although it can occur in any individual, obesity is determined after a few factors: gender, height, and age. A physician is usually the one to determine BMI and whether an individual is obese or not. An individual who is obese but can easily take proper precautions to control their weight is not that serious. On the other hand, those who are way over a 30 percent BMI may have a bigger problem. For example, A 30 year old women weighing 500 pounds who only stands about 66 inches tall can be a bit risky. After this is discovered, individuals usually make surgery decisions if he/she cannot take control of their own weight. Often times, to jumpstart their weight loss, patients usually choose gastric bypass surgery. Gastric bypass surgery does not take all of the excess weight off of an individual but it starts the process. The surgery is very risky. Gastric bypass surgery causes a series of health problems, causes financial burdens, and navigates to lifestyle changes. Therefore, dieting and exercising should be the only decision an individual should make when thinking about how to lose weight.

Tackling obese or overweight is a complex process that requires a proactive approach and interventions from the individual, society, local authorities, and public health service and partner organisation (PHE 2016e). In response to obesity as a public health issue, the government introduces no of polices, strategy and health campaign to tackle this problem, including Change4life campaign and Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A call to action on obesity in England. Chang4life is a public health campaign in England, which started in 2009 supported by the Department of Health to tackle growing problem of obesity. This was the first campaign to adapt social marketing approach to address obesity by making significant improvements in an individual’s diet, being physically active and alcohol consumption to improve their health (NHS Choices 2016a). Beside this health campaign, a consistent nutritional label system was launched in 2013 by the Public Health Minister Anna Soubry. This system combines colour coding (red, amber, green) and nutritional information to demonstrate the amount of sugar, salt, fat and calorie contain in the food products. The colour-coding will helps people to comprehend the level of nutrients in the food that they are eating (Gov.uk. 2013).

Food has always been around as a source of energy for humans to survive. It revolves around us in our daily lives. There are many issues relating to food that is happening in the world, such as obesity. Obesity is a public health problem that exists in many countries and one of the countries with a high number of obesity is Mexico, ranked fourth for its prevalence of obesity. As a rising issue, obesity is triggered by the abundance of eating unhealthy food, such as fast food and drinking sugary beverages, causing Mexico to determine ways to reduce the amount of people from becoming obese or overweight by enforcing soda taxes and improving the environment so that their people can become healthier. Studies have proved that obesity is a result

Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. National Heart, Lung and blood Institute. 1998. Surgeon General’s Call to Action.

We as Americans are in the midst of the fight against one of the biggest factors harming our well-being…obesity. This epidemic is somewhat of a new problem for our modern society, as generations before us generally faced the inverse problem. Obesity has been on a steady rise for many years now due in part to the modernization of our country and the technological benefits that go hand-in-hand with those advancements. As obesity has become a commonplace problem, we are now adapting aspects of our society for this epidemic, such as enlarging the size of seats in movie theaters to accommodate our ever-increasing waist lines. Along with forcing structural changes, obesity and the many health problems that follow, cause our society to devote

Obesity is classified as one of the extremely common and serious public health problems in the world. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading global risks of mortality in the world (World Health Organization, 2009). Furthermore, they are one of the major factors of for a number of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer (World Health Organization, 2005). According to NHS UK, obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more for adults, and the UK 1990 growth reference curves are used to define obesity for Children (Cole TJ, Freeman JV, Preece MA, 1995). The growing challenge of obesity of Europe countries is remarkable among Asian countries .In 2008, 1.4 billion adults (35%) aged 20 and over were overweight and 500 million were obese (11%). More than 40 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2012(World Health Organization, 2014). That is the global obesity situation. Furthermore, the obesity problem in the UK is not optimistic, the UK has the highest obesity rates among Europe countries, and this trend has strikingly increased over the recent years to the point where more than 20% of the population are now obese. (University of Birmingham, 2014) However, the obesity situation in Singapore is more worrisome. In 2010, 40% adults aged 18 to 69 were overweight and 10% were obese which is more than double the level seen in 1992. (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2010) This essay will

Obesity is a major problem in America. This is a health problem that affects people of all the ages. Although this disease has always existed recently, has increased due by the lack of knowledge of the people. People who have this disease suffer not only of physical problems but psychological as well, such as low self-esteem, depression, and bullying. Other significant elements that contribute to obesity are stress, anxiety, and inactivity. You must be aware that obesity is a disease that if left untreated can cause death. Is important to take this disease seriously and seek professional help as soon as possible before is too late. Today we see that more children are suffering from this problem due to lack of parental knowledge and lack of physical activity in children. In order to stop childhood obesity, the government and the parents have to encourage the child to eat better and to do more out-door activities because this problem has increased drastically over the years.