Obesity in the United States Essay

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

Today we have a much greater understanding than any time before on what if affecting our health that has led to an alarming rate of chronic conditions, including heart disease, obesity, asthma, depression, and diabetes. These are directly linked to poor diet, lack of exercise, and land-use patterns, including access to transportation, urban design, and housing characteristics that can make an impact on people’s ability to participate in physical activity. The land-use pattern that has plagued the United States and Florida since the end of World War II has been suburban sprawl that has led to auto-dependence, air pollution, and a much higher risk of respiratory disease. However, we have the ability to combat these tragedies by shaping

The episode from designing communities that was covered in this video was about the connection between the increase in obesity and how living in the suburbs could be a cause of that rise. The video also talks about different ideas and methods that could be used to change the need to use motor transportation and increase the community’s activity levels. Jackson talks about not only the need to lower the cost of healthier food, but also when people live in the suburbs it requires more commute time in regards to getting to jobs and stores therefore decreasing people’s daily activity levels.

In his essay “Do We Look Fat in These Suburbs?” included in the August 2014 edition of the Atlantic Monthly Magazine, senior editor of The Atlantic, James Hamblin raises question about if street networks are what contributed to obesity. Hamlin’s piece suggest that dense, more urban areas tend promote a healthier lifestyle because places in cities are in close walking distance as to those in suburbs where places are usually only assessable by car. With sprawling subdivisions on the raise and the obesity rate only growing, heart healthy cities will soon be a thing of the past.

The readily accessible spaces to the community and the policies that shape them have a significant impact on how much physical activity we get into daily life, in the same manner that the lack of physical activity is a major contributor to high obesity rates. Impacto will analyse Hunt’s Point urban and social environment conditions and systems, looking into reinventing activity-friendly spaces and structures: parks, playgrounds, streets, buildings, and communities that encourage physical activity and neighbourhoods where people feel safe. Safety along the route, whether from traffic or strangers, is a key factor in whether children walk or bicycle to places (Carver,Timperio, Crawford, 2008).

People may make decisions based on their environment or community. For example, a person may choose not to walk to the store or work because of a lack of sidewalks. Communities, homes, and workplaces each shape health decisions. With fewer options for physical activity and healthy eating, it becomes more difficult for people to make good choices. The Surgeon General’s Call to action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight and Obesity 2000 identified action steps to prevent and decrease obesity and overweight. Below is a table listing the steps related to possible environmental factors.

Did you know that up to 80 percent of youth obesity continue this trend into adulthood. I belive that every city should have a free place to exercise. IT could help people from having a serious disease, help prevent child obesity, and help the people that want to be fit can be fit for there special purposes. Serious diseases can be helped by exercise and can have important health benefits. Child obesity can be prevented by exercise.

The article A Qualitative GIS approach to mapping urban neighborhoods with children to promote physical activity and child-friendly community planning is focused around the role that neighborhoods have in supporting children’s physical activity, especially in low-income areas where children are more obese than their wealthier counterparts. The researchers stress that understanding neighborhood context in how it shapes children’s perceptions, subsequently affects children’s access, and use of community spaces. Some of these community spaces could be used to increase children’s physical activity levels in the neighborhood. Additionally, it is important to instill a want for physical activity in children while they are young so that they will continue these beneficial behaviors in later life. The problem that this research looks to address is the perception and values that children have about their neighborhoods and how these attitudes relate to their physical activity levels.

I am personally interested in this topic because I believe that access to environments that promote healthy lifestyles should not be restricted to the wealthy, and that city governments should concentrate on increasing bike-ability and walkability in lower income neighborhoods. Several studies have shown replacing car travel with cycling and walking decreases obesity and increases overall health5, and one study in Kansas even showed a significant decrease in employee healthcare costs following investments in local cycling programs3. However, before interest groups launch advocacy and infrastructure expansion, it is important that they understand the effects of that expansion, and integrate consideration for future housing affordability into their plans.

For instance, areas with safety concerns can discourage physical activity while areas with good pedestal connection can encourage more walking and bicycling for transportation. In terms of choice of food, poor and minority communities may not have equal access to the variety of healthy food choices available when compared to wealthy communities. (K. Morland, S. Wing, A. Diez-Roux, C. Poole, 2002) The built environment consist of urban design factors, land use, and available public transportation for a region, as well as the available activity options for people within that space (S.L. Handy, M.G. Boarnet, R. Ewing, R.E. Killingsworth, 2002). Promoting physical activity is of public health importance because of its health benefits. According to Bize, Johnson, Plotnikoff (2007), physical inactivity is associated with increased risks of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic diseases. However, interest to participate in

This article starts from one prominent explanation that children are spending too little time playing outdoor activities and too much time watching television, and that low level of outdoor activities are due to mother’s concern about neighborhood safety. It particularly focuses on young children’s physical activity, which few studies have focused on, and addresses two questions: (1) Are children’s activity patterns (outdoor play and television watching) associated with their weight status (BMI)? / What is the expected return to the weight status of children in their activity patterns? (2) Are children’s residential contexts are associated with their activity patterns? / What is the expected return to the children’s activity patterns to

Paper 2: Features of the built environment related to the Physical activity friendliness and Children’s Obesity and other risk factors (Public Health Nursing).

An emerging issue is that of urban sprawl. While some aspects of urban sprawl has been seen since ancient times, this phenomenon has started gaining the most momentum in the past century, aided by the advancement of technology, especially with the rise of mass produced automobiles, houses and highway systems. Many people unknowingly contribute to this environmental problem, as is the nature of it. Urban sprawl deals with the growth of the suburbs, the area between the urban and rural areas of a city. Most of America’s largest cities and states, in terms of population, are prime examples of urban sprawl. Opponents of urban sprawl usually cite the government as a major cause of sprawl. The government may be a major catalyst of

There are various barriers that hinder the improvement of children’s sedentary lifestyle. Consequently, it is important to identify these barriers to facilitate a healthy atmosphere for our children. Even though sedentary behavior usually keeps children in the safety of their homes, sedentary lifestyles can cause serious health problems and must be stopped. Environmental and social barriers/factors can prevent or minimize the access to outside physical activity like hiking, biking, running, etc., targeted advertisement makes eating unhealthy food and promotes games that require very little physical activity, and friend and family behaviors can influence the children to adopt unhealthy sedentary behaviors. These barriers can lead to obesity, heart disease, and death, just to name a few.

Different ways of transportation are not the only negative impact urban environments have on the physical activity of its inhabitants, Urban environments are known for the number of jobs that are more stationary than rural environment jobs. Office jobs in urban environments are plentiful and often pay more than rural jobs that tend to be more physically involved. Due to this, many individuals since the Industrial revolution have moved into urban environments.