Obesity As A Disease Essay

Obesity or overweight has become, a common factor for millions of people in America and other countries. Since the 1980’s the number of obesity or overweight adults and children has more than doubled. Today nearly one third of 2.1 million people are either overweight or obese. Here in the

It is no doubt that obesity exists worldwide, but it is a very prevalent issue in the US. This pandemic has certainly risen in focus in the past decade, with a rate of obese children that has quadrupled since the 1970s. Though this issue seems quite new, obesity exists in every generation, and the adults in the current generation are living with thirty-four percent of their fellow adults obese. This amount may seem high, and

Obesity has played a major role in media over the last decade. With growing concern over the issue, a controversy over whether obesity is a disease itself or not has developed. Obesity, by definition, is a condition that is characterized by excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body, usually indicated by a body mass index of 30 or greater. According to the currently accepted definition of disease, a condition of the body or one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms, it can be concluded that obesity does not meet the criteria to be classified as a disease.

Obesity in the United States continues growing alarmingly. Approximately 66 % of adults and 33 % of children and teenagers in the US are overweight. Obesity is the result of fat accumulated over time due to the lack of a balanced diet and exercise. An adult with a BMI (body mass index) higher than thirty percent is considered obese (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011, pg. 271).

How would you feel if I told you that there is no one state with an obesity rate lower than 20%? Take this information and compare it to twenty years ago when every state had an obesity rate lower than 15%. Obesity has become not only the number one cause in death, but according to David Zinczenko, editor-in-chief of Men’s Health and author of “Don’t Blame the Eater”, it is the number one cost in health care with numbers rising well over 100 billion dollars a year (196). There are many people we could blame, such as the food industry or the government, but before we start pointing fingers elsewhere, individuals need to stand up and take personal responsibility for their own actions and health. Either way it is evident a

Obesity is a common disease that makes a person massively overweight. This disease can potentially be lethal if not treated correctly. In addition, this could also lead to other common diseases such as heart disease and diabetes and cancer..

     Obesity is the net result of an excess of energy consumption over expenditure. Factors that must be considered as contributing to causation are: heredity, and altered metabolism of adipose tissue, the list goes on and on. Overeating is clearly a prominent contributor to obesity. Feeding behavior occurs in response to hunger and to appetite induced by the presence of food.

Obesity is the storage of excessed body fat that is higher than what is considered to be a healthy weight for a given height and may have a negative effect on health. In the last 2 decades, obesity has doubled. In 2011 there was an approximated 1.4 billion overweight people and of those 500 million were obese (Han et al., 1998 and Barofsky et al., 1998). Almost one in three adults are measured obese and one in six children from ages 6-19 also meet the standards for obesity. No matter where you go, you are more than likely to see an overweight population. Since there are 300 million clinically obese people worldwide, it’s no surprise that obesity is categorized as a growing epidemic in America. Obesity comes from many causes and these reasons

Obesity rates are soaring throughout North America (What Is Obesity?, 2013). With obesity reaching almost epidemic proportions in the United States, and the threat of a global epidemic, we must watch this alarming increase carefully ( Health Risks of Obesity, 2013). Obesity is defined as: "…an excess of adipose tissue…" (A Report of the Surgeon General, 2014). The two most common measures of obesity are Body Mass Index (BMI is a ratio of weight to height) and relative weight index, such as percent desirable weight (Body Mass Index , 2013). BMI is the most frequently used measure of obesity as it has a strong correlation with more direct measures of adiposity, such as underwater weighing (A Report of the Surgeon General, 2013). Some

Attention Step: How many of you all know of someone who is overweight? How many of you all know of someone who is dead because of weight problems? Obviously, a serious factor that is going on across the United States is obesity. According to The Gale Encyclopedia of Fitness written by the authors Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt and William Atkins, the definition of obesity means that it is a health condition where an excessive amount of body fat is inside the human body. This excessive body fat can cause health related issues including illness, disability, and worst of all, death (Carson-DeWitt and Atkins 615).

Obesity in the United States has more than doubled over the past four decades. Prevalence of obesity cause many other disease such as diabetes and heart issues. Obesity can be described as a health condition of a person or people of a population that have excess body fat. Diabetes is a disease related to high level of blood sugar in the blood. Obesity and diabetes are among disease that have direct relationship with each other. As obesity increase in a population, diabetes increases too. Jennifer B.Marks, Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller researches in “Obesity in America: it’s getting worse”, Roger Z. Joanne a public health provider in the Obesity Action Coalition group researches in “Obesity and type 2 Diabetes”, Eckel H. Robert, Professor of Medicine in Colorado University researches in “Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: What can be Unified and What needs to Be Individualized”, and Obesity Society group researches in “Your weight and diabetes”, mention that while obesity and diabetes have different definition in medical process, the reason why people become obese and diabetic as well as how to prevent them is same. Eating larger portion size than what the body needs , lack of physical activity, and putting foods without good quality in diet are the major reasons that people become obese.

Obesity refers to excess body fat while overweight refers to excess body weight in terms of excess fat, muscles, bone or water. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (2009–2010), about 69% of the adult population in the U.S. is overweight or obese, with more than 78 million adults being obese. Consistent with the survey, at least 2 in 3 adults are overweight or obese and more than 1 in 3 adults are obese. In addition, more than 1 in 20 adults in the U.S. are said to have extreme obesity. The obesity and overweight ranges are calculated using body mass index (BMI). An overweight person has a BMI of 25 to 29.9 while an obese person has a BMI of 30 + (Flegal et al. 493).

Over time, individuals all around the world have been struggling with the debilitating effects of obesity. In the article, “Why the Surge in Obesity?” by Lane Kenworthy, he makes the point that obesity not only leads to fatigue, but it also leads to long term health issues such as high blood pressure, depression, and puts people at risk of developing Diabetes, some forms of cancer, and premature death. These are only some examples of how detrimental obesity is to the human body. Not only does it affect the body, but it also affects the brain and the state of mind. Obesity has shown to cause depression, food addiction, and make it extremely difficult to lose weight. Not only is this detrimental to the state of mind of the eater, but it affects the body with excessive weight gain. Obesity has impacted the lives of many individuals, smothering the silent screams of refusal. The best way to resolve obesity in today 's society is to find its root problem by identifying who is to blame: individuals, restaurants, businesses, and the government are all partially at fault due to the fact that they each play a role in the lack of exercise and poor food choices consumed.

The article reviews peer reviewed scientific U.S. based literature to examine the state laws and local policies and the impact of the public policy strategies on schools and other environments, individual activity and nutrition related behaviors and obesity and weight outcomes (Chriqui, 2013). However, the studies that were used and have been used, focus primarily on the school environment and the influence of physical education and physical activity policies as well as food and beverage policies. The author used several studies, to observe implementation and the influence of the policies stated

Obesity has become an epidemic in our over indulgent North American society. In addition to body image issues, obesity causes significant health issues. Society often views obesity to be a disease when it is actually a sign of a disorder, genetic or environmental. The percentage of our population that is growing overweight is increasing every year, and can become a very serious issue if it is not dealt with urgently. Problems relating to self-confidence, self-consciousness, and isolation can occur as a result.