Obesity and Its Impact on Today's Australian Culture and Society

In medical terminology, while a person with a BMI of 30 and over 30 is considered as obese. It can refer to abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that reflect in health risks (Australia’s health 2016). Obesity as a one of the more serious health issue in Australia has influence millions of people’s daily life and work. It also as one of the biggest challenges to the society and public health system.

Obesity carries many baggage throughout an obese person’s life and affects many Australian’s throughout the state. In current times, obesity in Australia has made its way to being one of nine National Health Priority Areas that was brought to the attention of Australian governments. The problems with obesity is that it carries many health conditions such as obstructive sleep apnoea, cardiovascular disease, renal dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, cognitive impairment and depression, cancer, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and osteoarthritis. Access Economics (2008) reported various estimates on obesity-related burdens in Australia. Obesity-related burdens comprises of cardiovascular disease by 21% with a population of 644,843, 24% of type 2 diabetes with a population of 242,033,

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 best referred to as the "red alert health zone". The thing that makes obesity that dangerous is the fact that today's society does not view obesity as a serious threat. It is important to understand the fact that obesity is not just being fat or having a BMI i.e. Body Mass Index greater than that of an overweight person. Obesity is a serious problem that can fatally damage the physical as well as mental health of a person. While all of us understand how obesity can affect the physical health, a few of us know how mental health is affected due to obesity. A person suffering from obesity is termed as obese. Such a person is usually a victim of mockery and insult due to his appearance. No matter how educated we are we as a society have failed to keep in account the fact that obese people are also humans and deserve to be treated normally.

Obesity is a condition where the fat in the body is collected and stored in huge amounts. It is the Body Mass Index (BMI) which is the comparison between the weight and the height of a person that would help in identifying obese cases. If BMI's is greater than 25, the person would be called overweight and if it is more than 30 than he would be called obese. Obesity is an issue of public concern because of the threat it has towards the physical and the mental health, to the relationship, development and the overall well being of an individual. It is not only limited to a particular age group, gender, culture or a part of the globe. Instead, every individual is in danger to its bad affects.

Overweight is fast becoming an ubiquitous trait in Australia. According to the 2005 National Health Survey, 53.6% of Australians reported being overweight, defined as having a Body-Mass Index (BMI) of over 25%. (AIHW, 2005, p. 182). This is partly caused by diets which are high in saturated fat and dependent on processed foods over fresh foods. It is also caused by a continuously sedentary lifestyle, as most Australians perform their job sitting down in an office setting and are, furthermore, compelled stay tethered to their computers lest they miss an important communication.

Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in developed countries Overweight and obesity is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as “abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that presents a risk to health.” Body Mass Index (BMI) is a common measurement used to determine the classification of a person’s weight. A BMI above 25.0 is considered to be overweight, and a BMI above 30.0 is considered obese. In most countries around the world, obesity poses a huge risk to the quality of life for all people.

An example would be the “Australian Paradox”, a study at the University of Sydney in which from 1980 to 2003 the levels of obesity in Australia increased threefold although consumption of sugar reduced by 23 percent (Luciani). It is true that sugar is not the only thing that has attributed to obesity. A high-calorie diet combined with a sedentary lifestyle is another big factor in the epidemic of obesity;however, the government cannot control the way of life of the average citizen. For this reason, the government is limited to only being able to impose a sugar tax; even if it does not save America from obesity, it could be the beginning of an important cultural change A sugar tax may not be the single solution to the obesity epidemic the

There is a rising prevalence of obesity and a steady increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) worldwide described as a “global pandemic”. Between 1980 – 2013 the proportion of adults with a BMI of 25 kg/m or greater increased worldwide from 28·8% to 36·9% in men, and from 29·8% to 38·0% in women. Overweight and obese children and adolescents in developed countries increased substantially; 23·8% (22·9-24·7) of boys and 22·6% (21·7-23·6) of girls were overweight or obese in 2013” Lancet, 2014. Overweight and obesity is a huge public health issue in Australia.

In this essay I will demonstrate how social factors are a major contributor to the issue of obesity in Australia. I will use ‘Personal responsibility won’t solve Australia’s obesity problem‘ (Sacks and Cameron 2014) from The Conversation website to reinforce how societal structures contribute to this issue. Charles Wright Mills described the sociological as ‘a quality of mind that seems most dramatically to promise an understanding of the intimate realities of ourselves in connection with larger realities’ (Germov 2009, p.5). Obesity, according to the World Health Organisation, is defined as ‘abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health’ (World Health Organisation, 2014). The Conversation article presented by Sacks and Cameron states that close to two-thirds of Australians are overweight and that unhealthy diets contribute to more

For people all over the world, obesity has reached an all time high and will only continue to climb. Obesity is the accumulation of excessive body fat on an individual that increases the chance of developing health complications. Obesity is a health condition that can cause much damage to an individuals mind and body, and has become linked to a shortened life span. It has caused an increase in blood pressure, strokes, high cholesterol, high blood sugar and heart disease. It has cause

Obesity is a chronic state of being overweight. It 's a life threatening condition and current research has shown that obesity is the leading cause for the increased health threats that persons of the developed world face. Obesity increases a person 's threat for contracting diabetes, strokes, heart problems, certain kinds of cancer etc. What 's worse is the over two thirds of the industrialized world 's population is suffering from obesity and that 's putting them in greater health dangers. In recent years, policymakers and medical experts have expressed

Overweight and obesity is an alarming situation, it threatens the health and employment of the people in Australia and around the world. For working people it is the biggest threat to cause unemployment and inefficient work. Obesity and overweight have seriously affected and economic development of many national educations as it affects young labour force and ability to do the job of the people. Particularly Australia, obese people have jobs accounted for 60% and this figure may rise, while obese people unemployed (44%). But in fact that person aged 18-24 unemployed due to obesity and overweight accounted for 3%. Moreover, the person who worked full-time at risk of obesity than those who work part-time. That shows chalk causes obesity is due

It is a real danger that anyone can succumb to. In a statement by The American Diabetes Association they talk about how prevalent obesity is, “Nearly two-thirds of adult Americans are overweight or obese. Despite the attention of the health profession, the media, and the public, and mass educational campaigns about the benefits of healthier diets and increased physical activity, the prevalence of obesity in the United States has more than doubled over the past four decades.” Obesity is a growing epidemic and without any help or prevention of it people are going to suffer consequences that not only affect them but those around them. With warnings at every corner people don’t get a hint that what they do on a daily basis in their eating habits has a lasting effect on them. It is a single persons choice what they do and they have to accept those consequences of their decisions whether or not they like

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).