Obesity Essay

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.

Why do Americans overeat to the point of becoming obese and what are the effects on the body? As the world looks at society today, clearly Americans have an issue with being overweight and becoming obese especially compared with other countries. “Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese,” and “more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese” (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2013, Data and Statistics).

In article one Maia Szalavitz, wrote an article titled, “Viewpoint: Defining Obesity as a Disease May do More Harm Than Good.” She is a neuroscience journalist from Time Magazine, who talked about the harmful effect classifying obesity will have on one’s life, as well as others around them. In article two Dr. Keith Ablow’s article is called, “Obesity is not a Disease- and Neither is Alcoholism.” He is a psychiatrist and a member of the Fox Medical A-Team who talked about the solution to obesity, may be as simple as raising someone’s self-esteem. Both these articles talk why one should not classify obesity as a disease, but only one talks about the solution to solve the problem of obesity. Even though Szalavitz and Ablow are similarly matched rhetorically by taking a world-wide problem and discussing the issue of classifying it as a disease; Ablow is more rhetorically effective, because he uses more examples and evidence from different sources to back up his reasoning.

Causes of obesity include lifestyle choices such as diets, lack of physical activity, psychological, environmental, genetics, medical conditions, effects of medication, lack of awareness and its implications as well as lack of education in the community. According to Sethi & Vidal-Puig (2007) there is a high risk of developing a wide range of health problems including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, infertility and osteoarthritis when obese and puts

Obesity does not discriminate against social status, sex, or race; it can take a person’s life and turn it upside down in the blink of an eye if they are not careful. Some people think of obesity as a worldwide killer because there is no outrunning it if it overtakes a person’s body. Every 1 in 3 adults are obese right here in America, that should give each and every individual some type of hint that there is a major problem occurring. The obesity epidemic is not something that has just caught the attention of people recently; it has been going on since the 1950’s! This epidemic is a major problem; over 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being obese or extremely overweight and over 40 million children were said to be obese in

Even with awareness of becoming obese, individuals are struggling nationwide with the prognosis of adult obesity. It has become more apparent that obesity is far more complex of an issue to address. The Center of Disease Control (2016) states, that obesity is associated with poorer mental health outcomes, reduced quality of life, and the leading causes of death in the U.S. and worldwide, including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some types of cancer. The Mayo Clinic (2015) describes obesity as not just a “cosmetic” issue. Risk factors of becoming or being obese can be a combination of multiple factors. Obesity can be linked to a variety of contributing factors such as genetics and the amount of fat your body stores or unhealthy eating habits.

Fast food and obesity has been a major link that makes the American dining experience and unfortunately American Health most noteworthy to world specialists. About 60M of the American population is considered obese. Most significantly is that the impending danger of obesity concern has become a world phenomenon. The problem of obesity has crept quickly as fast as the spurt of fast foods all throughout the world. Though, people could not blame McDonaldization and Globalization.[6]

Obesity is excess of human body fat. The persons accumulating too much body fat are known as obese people. Obesity is an alarming threat globally. In medical terms, the individuals having at least 20 percent higher bodyweight are to be considered obese, which is able to affect their health in negative manners. The persons with BMI (Body Mass Index) from 25 to 29.9 may be considered as over weighted, and they may also have several health Problems. In 1997, the obesity has been declared as a global epidemic with major health implications by WHO (World Health Organization) (WHO, 2001). According to the findings of an annual survey from 1999 to 2000 by National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in the United States, the prevalence of obesity and overweight in both youth and children was noted as over 15 percent. While since the 1960s, this figure has been tripled as well (Ogden CL et al, 2003). Additionally, around 80 percent of youth with obesity has also been supposed to continue with the trend of their obesity even into their adulthood (Whitaker RC et al, 1997 and Guo SS, Chumlea WC, 1999).

Obesity can be an issue for any age group in America, adults, adolescents and children. The obesity rate in the last 30 years has more than tripled. It is a critical issue to be addressed because the statistics show over the years; the amount of people suffering from this has only increased dramatically and will continue to do so if something isn’t being done about it. It’s not good for anyone to be overweight; it makes living harder and is also fatal. Being healthy and having a correct weight size will make you physically and emotionally happy and enable you to perform daily task without any problems and less health issues in your futures.

2007), additionally, to strategic targets and policies of national anti-obesity (Reilly & Wilson, 2006; Reilly et al., 2010).

Obesity continues to grow as a problem in America, and it affects nearly 30% of people 17-24, affecting their health and their workability. People concoct many plans to combat obesity, but many of them fail due to being too expensive. The plan has to break former habits and start new ones, and economical enough for schools or the common person to afford.

Many Americans today face the problem with obesity. This happens to be one of the most concerned health problems in the United States and what is even worse is that the age group that we are most worried about is the young children. Certain measures are not being taken to protect the health of our children. The diet and physical activity have taken a turn for the worst. Those are the two main factors to a healthy lifestyle and when they aren’t being enforced at a young age then kids most likely aren’t going to choose to live healthy as adults. According to Asheley Skinner, an associate professor medicine at Duke University, kids with severe obesity aren’t being helped by small or single interventions. Choosing small things and doing small things is not enough for kids with severe obesity. Obesity requires thinking at every level, and thinking across the entire population (Park, 2016). An intervention is the full range of strategies designed to protect health and prevent disease, disability, and death. One thing to consider is that public health problems are rarely completely eliminated with one intervention (Riegelman and Kirkwood, 2015). This essay will go into detail and provide statistics about a few interventions being done to further help kids on the brink of obesity or who are already severely overweight.

Fast food is the most popular food in the United States. There already is over 200.000 restaurants in America, such as Jack in the Box, McDonald's, In and Out, and have 50 million people Americans eat at one of them in a single day, and fast food industries can earn $200 billion as their profits for every year . In addition, the attraction of fast food is not only by their low prices, which is affordable by any society class, but also they provide multiple flavor available for people choosing. However, America has the most obese people compared to any other single country, the main reason is that people cannot control themselves for eating fast food, which contains a high calorie and fat. If people intake of fat and calorie excessively, which will lead to people have health problems, such as obesity, heart attack, and other health issues. Even though the negative aspect of eating fast food is horrible. In contrast, it can give people benefits that other restaurant cannot, such as saving time for waiting the food be cooked, prices are cheap and easy to earn money. Currently, fast food restaurant tends to grow rapidly, and it offers a variety of options that positively benefit society.

It seems like a larger number of children are being diagnosed with obesity everyday, yet most of today’s community is trying nothing to change the unsettling fate of these children. The laziness in adults is an inexcusable reason to potentially ruin or risk one's life. Over the past 30 years the percentage of obese children have dramatically increased by more than double it was in the 80s. Thousands of nonprofit organizations, communities, and school have taken part and begin to try and dig down to the root of the problem and slowly reverse that damage that has been done. Obesity, defined: Is a person who is grossly overweight. The difference between being overweight and obese, is when a person who

Fast food is an alternative food source for many people around the world who have little time or money for a homemade meal or for a meal cooked at a restaurant. However fast food can also cause many problems with our bodies if it is consumed to often or in very large quantities. The fast food epidemic has caused increasing amounts of people being labeled as overweight and obese. “As many as 30 percent of American adults or 60 million are either overweight or obese. Most alarming to health officials is the fact that 9 million of these obese adults are severely obese” (Loonin).