Obesity is a prevalent condition in America that undeniably leads to a plethora of health complications, including heart disease, diabetes, and depression. However, while medical interventions can be useful for addressing obesity, treating it as a purely medical condition can decontextualize this growing issue. Additionally, it can support the use of ineffective but potentially harmful treatments by a group of disproportionately empowered medical professionals and industries, that are incentivized to maximize their profit. Obesity exists in the context of a society that moralizes eating habits and stigmatizes fat bodies, and the medicalization of obesity impacts not only those who are obese, but also those who become obsessed with avoiding obesity. Combatting obesity is hence a complex problem that should be treated with both medical and societal interventions, and a failure to do so will result in serious consequences. Medicalization is the process of defining a condition in medical terms, and using medical interventions to treat it (Conrad 3). The medicalization of obesity gives medical professionals and related industries authority over the definition and treatment of obesity, which incentivizes doctors to maximize their profit by expanding the meaning of obesity, and by treating it in a medical setting. Harriet Brown states that bringing obesity under the medical realm allowed doctors to profit from its treatment, which made them open to performing radical procedures
Obesity is defined as a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduce life expectancy and/or increased health problems. “The problem of obesity is increasing in the United States. Understanding the impact of social inequalities on health has become a public health priority in the new millennium. Social, political, and economic factors now are acknowledged to be "fundamental" causes of disease that affect behavior, beliefs, and biology.” (Goodman, 2003) In the United States today, obesity has become an enormous problem. In the last 3 decades, the number of people overweight has increased dramatically. Obesity has not always been seen as a medical
Obesity has been a growing problem in the U.S. for more than a decade. Various reasons and theories are thrown around as to the cause of this severe problem by psychologists, dietitians, and professors trying to pinpoint a single cause. Due to America’s vast supply of resources, luxurious living standards, and moral of the country, there is no one cause for obesity contrary to advertisements offering a quick-fix drug. America’s obesity problem is rooted much deeper than just cheap fast food and poor choices. Medical conditions, influence of genes, unhealthy lifestyles, and mental illnesses are all contributors towards obesity in any one person. Obesity is a serious problem in America with multiple contributors and one lone solution
Obesity is one of the main topics in America including one of the main reasons of death.-(begin with a subject) Detecting obesity is easy, but treating it can be very hard to do. Never have there have been so many teens and children not only overweight but obese. In some ways, it could be called the plague of the twenty- first century due to adolescents and teenagers indulging themselves in a plethora of food for every meal they have, therefore becoming overweight and morbidly obese. In the eighteen hundreds there was not a fast food place to go to unlike these days, so children were not obese like they are
People are usually identified as obese based on their Body Mass Index (BMI). The average BMI is ranged from 18.5 to 24.9, and overweight BMI is 25-29.9 (Defining Overweight and Obesity, 2012). When a person’s BMI reaches 30 and above, he or she is probably obese. At least one out of three people in United States suffer from obesity which means one third of the nation population needs treatment. In 2013, obesity has been officially recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association. The debate for obesity as a medical disease has never stopped ever since. However, while smoking and alcoholism are addictive and harmful, we hardly consider them as diseases. So why should obesity be a medical disease? Does labeling obesity a disease help calm the epidemic? If obesity is not a disease, how should we label it?
Obesity has become an epidemic across the United States. Americans have continued to gain weight, increasing the amount of people that are considered obese by millions every few years. More and more experts have come to a consensus: weight needs to be addressed and changed in America. Many experts, however, have not found a way to completely solve this problem at large. In the article, “Rethinking Weight”, senior writer Amanda Spake directs attention to the barriers our society has built for obesity treatment. Through this attention, it becomes evident these barriers have developed from the changing ideals in our society. Roberta Seid, a lecturer at the University of Southern California, argues in “Too “Close to the Bone”: The Historical Context for Women’s Obsession with Slenderness” how our body ideals have changed the way our society views obesity. Both authors emphasize the problem our society faces with obesity becoming an epidemic, and how that needs to be changed so our society can live happier and healthier lives. Although both authors are achieving the same point, Spake concludes that obesity has stemmed from pharmaceutical problems and biological factors, while Seid holds that obesity has come from the changing fashion and body ideals in our society. By reading both articles in conjunction, it becomes clear that the root of this problem is our societal issues, obesity has become an epidemic because of the way our society neglects obesity from all aspects.
Obesity has been measured or defined in various ways. Many researchers have differing opinions on the origins and effects of obesity. The rapidly increasing rates of obesity are often linked to a high calorie diet and little to no physical activity. Although obesity is seen as a disease that affects a person’s weight, it actually affects a lot more than that. Obesity can affect individuals in both adolescence and adulthood, their families, and the healthcare system. From an outside viewpoint, obesity looks like a disease that careless, inactive people develop. Not always is this the case. Obesity is not a disease that affects solely the weight of a person. To be considered obese, your BMI (body mass index) would have to be 30 or higher. Almost 70 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. Not only does obesity affect the weight of a person, it can also lead to increased risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea, and many other things. Questions posed on this dreadful disease by many people are on the origin of the disease, the effects and exponential growth of the disease, and the actions that are being taken to help provide a healthier environment for Americans and to establish programs and preventative methods across the country to help fight the ever increasing obesity rate.
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
For years cartoons have depicted obese kids rolling down streets, however, this may become an unfortunate truth. The issue of the obesity epidemic in America has become an enormous issue. Obesity, which is the accurate term to describe being above overweight on the body mass index (bmi), is an epidemic with many causes that can have staggering effects. Industries have found ways to market their food products in order to gain money, uncaring of the trouble and harm they may be causing to others. The obesity epidemic has become a very controversial political topic being discussed nationwide. Despite how bad things have gotten there are ways to fix this broken country.
Obesity is a constantly growing issue in the world, but mostly saturated in the United States. As the amount of people with extreme obesity increase rapidly are increasing as well. People with morbid to severe obesity often experience physical and psychological distress, and limitations with daily life activities. Stigma and the visibility of obesity is a huge issue in our society, media portrayal of obesity and popular culture are also contributors and how obese individuals are viewed.
A full-scale epidemic is currently sweeping over the nation of America. This plague is infamous for causing diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, and numerous other ailments. It affects one in four Americans and approximately 400,000 people die from it each year (“Obesity”). This disease that I am referring to is unbiased, as it is capable of affecting anyone and everyone, even children. Today, obesity is the leading cause of a multitude preventable deaths. There are many consequences of obesity, from medical to psychological ones. In order to conquer this growing problem, one must first understand what causes it.
Nearly a third of adult Americans are obese (NCHS 2003). The occurrence of obesity in the United States’ adult population has more than doubled in the last 25 years, from about 15 percent in 1976 to more than 30 percent in 2000. Since obesity in the US has reached epidemic levels, it is important to understand as many aspects of the social determinants of this disease as possible. Obesity is not a standalone disorder; rather it has caused increases in increasing risks of disability, related diseases, and death as well as important and burdensome increases in the cost of health care (Allison, Zannolli, and Narayan 1999; Wang et al. 2003). Further, obesity is estimated as contributing to almost 15 percept of deaths in the US each year (Allison and Fontaine et al. 1999; McGinnis and Forge 1993; Rogers, Hummer, and Krueger 2003; Sturm 2002).
Imagine being at a friend’s funeral, where the parents had to lamentably bury their young child, all due to poor food and health that has dispersed throughout America. Although America is one of the most prosperous countries in the world, it is also the unhealthiest country. The world’s view of American society consists of people having a Big Mac in one hand and holding a remote control in the other. Obesity has begun to be a growing epidemic that has been in debate. The definition of obesity is the condition in which an individual has an abundant amount of grossly fat and being extremely overweight. Obesity has since been officially recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association an action that could put more emphasis on the health
I claim that in American culture, a thin body is held as the "original", normal body; whereas obesity is viewed as a `temporary disruption' to the balance of the body. According to our cultural understanding, an obese body is viewed as being in the process of constant transformation. The idea of a permanently fat person is unacceptable and an obese body must be standardized and normalized. The goal is to transform and
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
We are conditioned at a young age to believe the only way to be normal is to be