Obesity as a Function of Personal Behavior

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

Recently, a lot of debate has gone around about whether or not obesity is considered a disease or not. It is very difficult to pinpoint one sole reason obesity is occurring in people, there are many different justifications for what causes a person to become obese. Obesity is a disease that is currently sweeping the entire world. Percentages of not just adults, but children are skyrocketing like never before. People have never been so overweight until now. I am going to examine why obesity is considered a disease through a scientific, economic, historical, and futuristic lenses.

There are many people who believe that obesity is a matter of personal responsibility. Many people think it is Americans are the ones who to blame and not the fast food industry. Many people may say that it is easy to blame obesity on what Americans eat. However, these people do not realize that many Americans cannot afford healthy foods. So, since fast foods are cheap and affordable, it may be why many people choose them. In the article “Physical activity and childhood obesity” Green, Riley, and Hargrove explain “a greater percentage of adolescents from families living in poverty are obese (23%), compared with those from families of a higher socioeconomic status (14%)” (915). Additionally, this statement demonstrates that although obesity may be caused by genes or psychological influences, the environment is the most important factor. When families are in poverty, they are not looking for what is healthy and what is unhealthy. They are looking for food to survive, and so many times fast food is the only option. Following this future, there is indication that obesity, extremely affects certain minority youth populations. The National Health and Nutrition Examination survey found that African American and Hispanic adolescents ages 12-19 were more likely to be overweight at 21 and 23 percent, respectively, as compared to non-Hispanic White adolescents (14%) (915). Furthermore, these statistics show that there is a strong relationship among race or ethnicity, poverty, and

Over the previous decades, obesity has developed into a major global epidemic. In the United States, more than two-thirds of adults are overweight and one-third is obese. Research to date has accepted at least four main groups of economic influence linked with the obesity epidemic. Direct medical costs, productivity costs, transportation costs, and human capital costs are all prime examples. Although more complete analysis of costs is needed, large economic influences of obesity are identified in all four categories by existing research.

This assignment will examine the relationship between social determinants of health in obesity, and its significance as a public health issue on a local, regional, national and international scale. The essay will first consider what is obesity, and why it has become such a major problem within England, and locally in the North West. Secondly, the epidemiology and causes will be explored, addressing issues such as diseases linked to obesity, and the affects it has on society and the economy by drawing on statistics and current trends. Next, it will closely examine both the modifiable, and unalterable issues of contemporary social determinants. This will be followed by how these problems are addressed in relation to regional, national and global policies and

In recent times, obesity has come to be regarded an issue that needs prompt intervention. This book thoroughly reviews a number of approaches that can be adopted to prevent obesity from a public health perspective. In its 4th chapter, the book critically evaluates the various health consequences of obesity. This text can be viewed as an update of its previous edition. This has the effect of enhancing its credibility.

After reading the article, Can Behavioral Economics Combat Obesity? I have a new perspective when it comes to the use behavioral economics. This article makes a strong point about how most people using behavioral economics to guide regulations can be misguided and counterproductive in term of obesity. I will agree with that point that people have bounded rationality, but I do not think using behavioral economics is the solution. Many obese people are aware that they are obese, and have their own reasons and plans on how to lose the weight. Based on evidence from the article it is clear that there is a growing demand for weight reduction evidence through diet books, health foods, weight loss centers, exercise equipment, athletic clubs, etc.

This essay discusses how social constructions have an effect on obesity and what combination of causes and contributing factors it includes can lead to obesity. `Obesity is the term used to describe someone who is overweight and unhealthy. Obesity shortens life by an average of 10 years. It is very common in the UK and results from a study back in 2014 showed that a whopping 65.3% of men and 58.1% of women are obese here. (UniversityOfBirmingham,2016) Being over weight is generally associated with being lazy and unpleasant. There are a lot of media groups that have influenced our society’s perception on obesity and many factors that lead to the disease. Obesity can be life threatening and can be the start of lethal conditions such as diabetes,

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.

Globalisation has created conditions, which contributes to the consumption of high-energy foods. In addition, the availability of cheap fast food from all around the world with the advertising from multinationals such as McDonalds has resulted in pressures which have led to a growth in the consumption of energy-rich food among the poor. It is difficult to argue that obesity is a social condition, which negatively affects those in low paid and short term jobs. It is obvious to say, obesity does have a significant biomedical component. What happens inside the body after you have eaten your Big Mac clearly requires psychological/biochemical explanation. Thus, to conclude, there has been a combination of both social and biological factors which have contributed to the growing cases of obesity which is putting a strain on our health budgets (ten percent of the total NHS budget is allocated to obesity and related illnesses), creating many early deaths, and even lowering peoples self-esteems. By 2060, sixty percent of men, fifty percent of women, and twenty-five percent of children are likely to be obese. Obesity is a worldwide epidemic which needs to be dealt with appropriately. There are many ways to tackle obesity. The WHO’s 1997 interim report argues that it is not enough to tackle obesity at individual level and that a society-wide public health approach needs to be employed. This includes better and much improved medical profession, the government working with the food industry to promote a healthier diet for everyone from childhood to adults, and also more information provided to the public about illnesses such as obesity and ways of maintaining weight loss by promoting sustainable changes

The cost of teenage obesity is very large. In one year, the costs of obesity can rise up to 210 billion dollars. These costs include medical and productivity costs. There are both direct and indirect medical costs. The direct costs include preventive, diagnostic, and treatment. Indirect costs include mortality costs including productivity. Productivity costs include absenteeism costs, presenteeism costs, premature mortality, and disability. The cost of absenteeism due to obesity ranges between 3.38 billion dollars and 6.38 billion dollars (“Overweight”). Every year, over 20 billion dollars is spent by people who want to lose weight. The money is spent on surgeries, multiple pills, and many different diet books (Abraham). Even though preventing obesity is costly, it can still be done.

There are more than one billion overweigh adults in the world with at least three hundred of these adults being obese. In North America, obesity has increasingly become one of the most important public health problems (Flegal, Graubard, Williamson, & Gail 2005). With cases of obesity increasing, there has also been more exportation of research being done into the topic. Moreover, social, psychological and biological factors are being investigated to determine aspects that may influence the onset of obesity. This paper will focus on two specific domains of the biopsychosocial model of health with a focus on psychological and social factors that affect obesity.

There exist a small previous literature related to the economic analyses of obesity. The addictive aspects of weight control was considered by Cawley (1999). Obesity’s economic costs to society are presented by Keeler et al (1989). Related analyses of the impact of physical appearance or weight on wages are presented by Hamermesh and Biddle (1994), Loh (1993) , Register and Williams (1990) and Behrman and Rosenzweig (2001). Chou, Grossman, and Saffer (2001) consider the relationship between regional growth in obesity and the growth in fast food-and other types of restaurants. Philipson (2001) provides a qualitative discussion of the forces contributing to world-wide growth in obesity population wide in rich countries and among rich sub-populations in poor

Louise Townend in her research concerning the moralizing of obesity addresses the issue across a wide spectrum of categories such as economic, health and social policy. She enumerates the different social contexts of the obesity debate and begins by stating that obesity is no longer a trouble but an epidemic which is now a “significant issue for health and social policy, with major ramifications for general economic productivity across the globe”. (Townend) 2009: 3. She points out obesity is often associated with stigma such as laziness, dirtiness, illness and poverty (Townend, 2009). This connects the problem of obesity with the history of poverty and creates the question of why is laziness connected to obesity? And why does that consequently turn into poverty.

When it comes to eating food, every person should calculate their personal intake on calories consumption. However many don’t pay attention on what they consume daily. Numerous statistics display how young adults and children are in a higher risk to become obese at a very young age. This topic could be very controversial because various people don’t agree that your daily food habits affect your everyday life, which in this case it does. If young adults don’t keep track on what they consume, they will either have health problems in the future or will become obese. In this case, they should track their calories so they can prevent these problems. Countless young adults don’t realize what they consume and don’t keep track on the calories they take in, which they should keep in mind because there could be so many consequences.