More than one third of U.S. adults are obese along with nearly a fourth of the children. As someone raised in the United States, I was surrounded by the harsh fact of obesity; those within my own family have been drastically affected by it. I have seen them struggle with it and I know how hard losing weight can be and even how easy gaining it can be. Many times I witnessed the battle and how many are unable to overcome it, but I have also seen people through hard work, exercise, and dieting, lose the weight and keep it off. Many people I know speak of causes for their obesity. Their excuses range from their genes to even the chemicals in their environment. In “The Obesity Era,” David Berreby persuasively supports his claim that an outside factor is the cause of obesity; however, Berreby loses his audience when he neglects to acknowledge the prior successes that show that weight loss comes from hard work, diet, and exercise In Berreby’s “The Obesity Era,” it is claimed that obesity is not the fault of the person but the fault of an outside factor. Berreby wrote about the report done by David B Allison and his coauthors at the University of Alabama in Birmingham that found that as the average weight of the American people increased so did the average weight of many animal species. Berreby used this research to show that if the weight of both humans and many animal species increased then there must be an outside factor causing the increase in average weight of humans.
When it comes to the topic of obesity, most will readily agree that it is a growing dilemma. This argument has many writers bringing different responses. Two explanations are debated in What You Eat is Your Business by Radley Balko and Don’t Blame the Eater by David Zinczenko. Both pieces create a good stance on the topic of obesity. Balko’s piece, however, has a better all around flow, organization and consistency.
In the article, the obesity era by David Berreby the main idea is that there are many alternative theories regarding the rise in obesity. Berreby believes weight gain is not the result of lack of exercise and poor diet. I agree with the author’s argument in regards to the effects of chemicals in the environment and lack of nutrients in fast foods, and other cheaply made food products, the artificial thermoneutral zone, and economical disposition of lower class.
Dalton revisits the controversial issue of whether obesity should be declared a disease or not. In the author's opinion, obesity is not a disease. With that in mind, this book will offer a sound basis for my assertion that obesity cannot be regarded a disease but a contributing factor to ill health.
Consumption of the wrong foods and no exercise cause obesity to step into the lives of many within America but on the other side of fence, complicated reasoning can run behind factors that hold a place with the individual’s overall characteristics, attitude, genetics tendencies and environment. The Effectiveness of obesity is the medical cost that takes place treat individuals that experience obesity; this increases the family expenses and causes
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 been measured or defined in various ways. Many researchers have differing opinions on the origins and effects of obesity. The rapidly increasing rates of obesity are often linked to a high calorie diet and little to no physical activity. Although obesity is seen as a disease that affects a person’s weight, it actually affects a lot more than that. Obesity can affect individuals in both adolescence and adulthood, their families, and the healthcare system. From an outside viewpoint, obesity looks like a disease that careless, inactive people develop. Not always is this the case. Obesity is not a disease that affects solely the weight of a person. To be considered obese, your BMI (body mass index) would have to be 30 or higher. Almost 70 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. Not only does obesity affect the weight of a person, it can also lead to increased risk for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep apnea, and many other things. Questions posed on this dreadful disease by many people are on the origin of the disease, the effects and exponential growth of the disease, and the actions that are being taken to help provide a healthier environment for Americans and to establish programs and preventative methods across the country to help fight the ever increasing obesity rate.
There is a myriad of problems that occur in America a day. One of the most main concerns is obesity. Obesity occurs when there is an excess amount of body fat. People become obese from either not eating healthy, not getting enough exercise, and not making the proper life for themselves or their families. There will be discussion about statistics and prevalence of obesity in America. The main concern is what is the cause of obesity. I will be discussing if obesity is caused by environmental factors, genetics, or if it is psychological. In American, statistics have shown that every two in three adults are overweight or obese, more than one in three adults are obese, more than 1 in 20 adults are extreme obesity, approximately one-third of children
Our life is something that is so precious. Every choice we make impacts our life wether it be physically or mentally. When we choose to make poor life choices, it will reflect on us as individuals. Poor choices in what we consumed or how active we are will lead to a life that can lead to an early death. Obesity is an epidemic health problem that has been one of the leading causes to death. The disease itself causes sever health conditions as well as mental health issues.no one wants to become obese, but in today’s society we have been given the perfect recipe that will land us in a fight for our life. Obesity is not something that simply happens, but a lifetime of poor choices. We must discover the source of obesity and attack the health issue from the primary leading factors. We start with the source in order to help improve the lives of people everywhere who are battling this disease, as well as those who are predisposed to a higher chance of developing it.
For the very first time in history, we live in a country where today’s generation may not outlive their parents. To say obesity is the plague of 21st century American’s would be putting it gently. Statistics show that 31.8% of children and adolescents in the United States are overweight or obese; of that 31.8%, 16.9% are obese (Ogden, Carroll, Kitt, Flegal 2012). Even more shockingly, it is estimated that 50% of the United States population is overweight or obese today (Ogden, Carroll, Kitt, Flegal 2012). Obesity is a rising prevalent health issue, reaching epidemic proportions. As we get older, we develop habits and
The recent upsurge in obesity, rates has reached alarming heights with over 30% of Americans now categorized as obese. This has transpired regardless of the fact that our awareness about the importance and effects of maintain a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise are at an all-time high. If one were to impartially examine the statistics on obesity, the only rational assumption is that we are losing the fight on obesity. With countless exercise and diet programs being found to be inadequate to produce significant results, the question becomes were we designed for obesity?
With over 22.5% of the current U.S. population considered to be clinically obese, compared to only 14.5% in 1980, there does not seem to be a cessation of this epidemic in sight (Hill & Peters, 1998). Goran and Weisners' (2000) proposal that "... the inherently lower resting metabolic rate in women versus men is responsible for the higher adiposity rates in women..." is wanting, especially since the potentially modifiable factors of; less physical strength, less daily free-living physical activity, and lower total energy expenditure are more likely the cause of the differences in observed adiposity between men and women. Since our genetic makeup has not appreciably changed in the last twenty years, we cannot strictly attribute the explosion of obesity to genetics. As these biological causes of obesity are disproved, a focus on the environment as a reason for obesity is taking centre-stage.
The battle against obesity is one of the United States’ greatest struggles as a nation. It causes a number of preventable health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and a plethora of other health detriments which now includes cancer. Individuals may believe that as long as they are within a normal weight range, the state of those individuals that are overweight has no effect on them personally. However, this is not even remotely true considering that, as we learned in class, the costs of procedures and various emergency services which cannot be covered by the individual receiving them are either absorbed by the hospital or dispersed among others receiving services at that same hospital. In other words, obesity is costing
More than one-third (34.9%) of U.S. adults are obese. These numbers are scaring me. They call me to go out and scream people: “Wake up, let’s fight not only with smoking, but also with overweight!” The obesity is not the only problem of food and bad genes. Obesity is a life choice to sweat a lot, to have problems with breathing, to have a probability of heart attack, diabetes and many other deadly diseases. Some may argue that people this is this is a disease and you can’t change it.
Each year we are swarmed with back to back advertisements about losing weight and “fitting into that bikini”. The older we get the harder it seems that it takes to shed that weight, especially around the thighs and mid-section. If we would've paid attention to what we were eating as children and knew the future affects that it would have on our body we might have changed our eating habits. Today obesity has wreaked havoc in the lives of not only adults but of children too. When I was young there weren't many children who would have been considered “overweight”, yet as adults we now are considered overweight and even in some cases obese. I cannot imagine that if we had been overweight children how our bodies would look now, it might even be worse. Childhood obesity is growing each year across the world, not just in America. In fact America doesn't even have the highest percentage of overweight children, Greece does. America is fifth in childhood obesity averaging at about eighteen percent of children are overweight or obese, and Greece is a staggering forty-four percent for boy and thirty-eight percent for girls. The top 4 countries with overweight or obese children are all located in Europe. Now in adults, America does lead the “overweight or obese race” by staggering numbers. Though we might be doing better with our children. Even poor countries have recently seen a rise in obesity among adults and children. “In the past 25 years, the number of overweight or obese children
Have you ever seen someone on Instagram or Facebook that posts all about being “healthy and fit”? It’s annoying sometimes, I get it. But what if they are actually right? We tend to make excuses as to why we don’t have time to work out or why we can’t make better food choices for ourselves. The answer is simple. We want easy. Sitting on the couch is easy. Going through McDonalds or Wendy’s is easy. What if making these “easy” choices are actually harming us in the long run? According to the CDC, “more than one-third (36.5%) of U.S. adults” and 17% of children and adolescents have obesity (CDC, 2017). Those are alarming and eye-opening statistics. We as Americans need to realize that obesity is a problem and in order for this issue to change, we need more education about healthy habits. A few years ago, I came to the realization that I was not happy with the way I felt physically and mentally. I ate a lot food that was not good for me and at the time I didn’t realize how much it was affecting me. Now someone looking at me from the outside probably would have never said I was “fat” but I was far from healthy. I didn’t want to keep feeling the way I felt about myself so I began doing some research on ways to live a healthy and fit lifestyle. I figured out that there are some important basic steps to starting a healthy lifestyle that anyone can do if they have just a little bit of motivation.