The Virus Of Corporations And Capitalism

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

Since the 1980’s obesity rates have soared. Between 1980 and 2000, obesity rates doubled between adults and children. Twelve years later in 2012, the Center of Disease Control and Prevention estimated more than one third of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. Being overweight is defined as having excess body weight from a combination of height, fat, and muscle. On the other hand, Obesity is simply having too much excess body fat. Being overweight and obese are the result of caloric imbalance. Society tends to consume more calories than calories expended. Obesity can lead to more serious medical issues such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and even cancer. I believe that there are many causes of obesity, but there are just as much solutions for a healthier life.

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.

Obesity in the United States continues growing alarmingly. Approximately 66 % of adults and 33 % of children and teenagers in the US are overweight. Obesity is the result of fat accumulated over time due to the lack of a balanced diet and exercise. An adult with a BMI (body mass index) higher than thirty percent is considered obese (Whitney & Rolfes, 2011, pg. 271).

An Obesity epidemic is disturbing the financial and social stability of the United States. As stated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “our modern environment has allowed these conditions to increase at alarming rates and become highly pressing health problems for our nation“(U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Efforts made by authority figures have been enforced to solve this severe crisis. Obesity has become a concerning problem in the United States. This epidemic is interfering with the success of American citizens and it is also impacting the American economy negatively. The obesity epidemic endures negative impacts to the United States’ economy; even though others argue it is contributing to the economy through the growing weight loss industry.

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.

It is no surprise that obesity is becoming an increasingly prominent health concern. In fact, since 1980 global obesity has almost doubled. (1) “The percentage of children aged 6-11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12-19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.” (2) “35% of adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008, and 11% were obese.” (1) To put these percentages into perspective, in 2008 the world population was at almost 7 billion, more than 1.4 billion adults, 20 and older, were overweight, roughly 500 million were obese. (1) Obesity can no longer simply be a concern; it is a

The WHO classifies an adult with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or above as being obese. The BMI tool is used globally, and is calculated by dividing a person’s body weight in kilograms by their height in inches. Bostram and Eliasson (2006) argue a serious weakness with BMI is that the measure cannot differentiate between fat and muscle mass, and that a change in girth or abdominal circumference is a better reflection on the onset of obesity among other associated problems such as type 2 diabetes. Obesity is one of the major public health issues affecting society and is fast becoming a major cause of death across the globe. Seidell & Halberstadt (2015) indicate that the prevalence of obesity is growing at an alarming rate, and over the last thirty years, overnutrition and obesity has transformed from a minor health issue which affected only the most affluent of societies, to being a major threat to public health throughout the world.

According to The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America 2015, a report from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, obesity is defined as “an excessively high amount of body fat . . . in relation to lean body mass.” Body Mass Index (BMI), while not a diagnostic tool for children or measurement of body fat directly, is an indicator of body fatness and is used to assess whether a person is overweight or obese (as well as normal or underweight). BMI differs for children and adults, as well as males and females. It is measured by dividing a person’s weight by the square of height. Childhood obesity is defined when BMI is at or above 95th percentile. Generally, obesity is associated with higher energy intake and lower energy expenditure. Egger and Swinburn (1997) call it a “traditional” view and suggest the need in a paradigm shift; their ecological approach to the problem suggests that the impetus for rising obesity is the “increasingly obesogenic environment” (p. 478), which they define as “the sum of influences that the surroundings, opportunities, or conditions of life have on promoting obesity in individuals or populations,” rather than individual’s genetics or metabolic disorder (as cited in Lake and Townshend 2006:262). Hence, Egger and Swinburn (1997) see obesity as a normal physiological response to a pathological environment. Increasingly, researchers view obesity epidemic as the product of changes in vast and underrated

To understand whether or not an obesity epidemic exists, one has to define obesity and determine what suggests an epidemic. According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) (2015), obesity means having too much body fat which can occur when one has more caloric intake than one uses, which is different for each person. In comparison, overweight means weighing too much and may result from bone, fat, muscle and body water (NIH, 2015). In both obesity and overweight, an individual’s weight is considered greater than what may be considered healthy in relation to their height (NIH, 2015). Contributing factors that may affect weight are eating high fat goods, overeating, genetics, or not being physically active (Akabas, Lederman, & Moore, 2012; NIH, 2015).

Obesity and overweight have become the global health burden of the recent times. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, in 2008, more than 1.4 billion people worldwide were overweight; of these over 200

Obesity. It’s the thing that people really scared of but just couldn’t get away from it. It’s that one thing that haunt most people even though their physicals are not even slightly going towards an obesity. Many people freak out when knowing that their BMI index is between the ranges of 25 to 29.9 kg/m2. They have a misconception of reading a BMI index. Actually, a person is considered as an obese when the BMI index of his or her is more than 30kg/m2 while 25 to 29.9 kg/m2 is only considered as an overweight. The way for a person to calculate his or her BMI index is by using that person’s height and weight either in meter and kilogram or inches and pound. The formula is weight divided by height2 if that person is using kilogram and meter unit but if he or she is using the pound and inches unit, the formula is different where the weight is divided by height2 and times 703 which is the conversion factor. Even obesity have three different classes according to BMI index. Obese class I is from 30.0 to 34.9 while a person with a BMI index of 35.0 to 39.9 is classed as an obese class II while a person with a BMI index more than 40.0 is considered as an obese class III. The problem with obesity is that they are fatal because the medical condition of an obese person is the body fat has accumulated to the extent of it to have a negative effect on that person. The most related disease of all is diabetes or diabetes mellitus

Obesity is steadily and inexorably becoming the greatest health problem in the developed world. It has recently been estimated that 237,600,000 teenagers² are overfed and overweight, a number that rivals the number who are underfed and underweight. Overweight becomes the disease of obesity when excess fat has accumulated to the extent that it may adversely affect health. This point is most commonly defined by the body mass index (BMI). Although a BMI >25 can be associated with a reduced life expectancy

Obesity is a condition in which the over accumulation of adipose fat tissue causes the weight of a person to increase abnormally. Their weight exceeds by 20%, as a factor of their ideal body weight. According to recent analysis, statistics show that more than one third of the world’s population is targeted by obesity. Research shows that overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight. Obesity occurs greatly amongst adults who are 18 years or older. An estimated 600 million adults were obese out of the 1.9 billion that were overweight, around the world in 2014. One in three adults in Mexico, New Zealand and United States are obese, and one in four adults in Australia, Canada, Chile and Hungary are obese. In contrast, rates of obesity are much lower in Asian countries, where approximately 2-4% of adults have obesity. In countries such as Mexico and the United States, Latino and Africans have the highest rates of obesity amongst all the individuals. However, along with adults, statistics show that the rates for obesity are also high among children within and below the age of 5. As calculated in 2013, the number of children across the world that were either overweight or obese was 42 million. Since then, the rates have increased by 30% more in in low- and middle-income countries than in developed countries. Due to the fact that this condition continues at higher rates across the world, several organizations, such as the World Health Organization, are working with and

There are many serious health issues today in society. A few of them are anorexia nervosa, bulimia, diabetes, and obesity. Today, obesity is one of the most popular diseases around the world. Obesity typically means having a body mass index of thirty kilograms or more. If taken in more calories than burned, it leads to being overweight, and eventually obesity. Since the 1960s, people in the United States and other industrialized countries have become heavier on average. Excess weight is the cause of more illness than virtually any other medical condition. Most people still do not practice healthy behaviors that can prevent obesity. Obesity is mostly caused by poor eating habits. People do not eat healthy foods, have larger portions than