Trade Liberalism: The Role Of Obesity In The United States

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.

When tourist come to America they see the bigger food portions on our plates than what they would see in other countries throughout the world. In the U.S. obesity is a one of the major problems we have because people are free to buy and eat what they want without anyone to tell them differently. The cost of healthier foods are also more expensive than buying fast food or anything else that’s not healthy. As the obesity issue becomes a bigger problem new problems start to rise. For example health issues are increasing for the obese.

Moreover, Obesity is a vital root of many life-threatening diseases, like diabetes type 2, high blood pressure and even strokes. Most people who are obese are often associated with type 2 diabetes because obesity can cause resistance to insulin that produces the hormone to regulate sugar in the blood. Malnutrition motivates obesity whereby producing a lot of cholesterol, which closes up the bloodstream in the body, causing high blood pressure the process by which the heart is not able to pump the blood needed by the body. All this threaten the life of Americans and can lead to early death. Most obese Americans seem as if they do not care about what they eat nor drink. Their greatest concern about what they consume is fast food because they

Obesity is becoming one of the biggest problems in the country, but there has to be reasons for it. It can be the economy, society now, or people and companies. It’s time that our country starts to realize that we can’t live like this anymore. We need to see what is causing the sudden rise in obesity, and what we can do to fix it. Education of risks and solutions can be very helpful. Obesity is killing so many people, yet is still 100 percent avoidable. Our country is beginning to care less and really let themselves go. The fast food industry, supermarkets, and schools are the ones at fault for the spreading problem of obesity.

As Americans we have made food not only a way to live but all help us with life events, whether emotional times or celebratory events we turn to food. However our society has been consumed with unhealthy food options readily available. This has in turn caused a huge medical epidemic in America. Obesity has and will put people at risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer. More than one-third of American adults are obese (Ogden et al., 2012). By looking in depth at the obesity epidemic in America through the three major sociological perspectives (structural functionalist, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist) we are able to better discern this medical issue impacting the health of American people.

….Overweight and obesity are advancing rapidly in the developing world as well… [While] 80 percent of world’s hungry children live in countries with food surpluses. (World Watch Institute)

Obesity does not discriminate against social status, sex, or race; it can take a person’s life and turn it upside down in the blink of an eye if they are not careful. Some people think of obesity as a worldwide killer because there is no outrunning it if it overtakes a person’s body. Every 1 in 3 adults are obese right here in America, that should give each and every individual some type of hint that there is a major problem occurring. The obesity epidemic is not something that has just caught the attention of people recently; it has been going on since the 1950’s! This epidemic is a major problem; over 2.8 million people die each year as a result of being obese or extremely overweight and over 40 million children were said to be obese in

It is well known that obesity has a negative impact on human health. However, few think about the fact that population obesity also causes sizable expenses for the global economy. Some of the consequences of population obesity are reduced work productivity, higher transportation costs, as a result of higher fuel consumption, rising medical expenses, and high correlation with income inequality.

Obesity is a very serious subject that a lot of people take lightly, especially us as Americans. America is the most obese country in the world. Statistics show that 300,000 people die a day in the United States of America due to obesity. This clearly shows that we have a serious problem that is massively underestimated. Obesity is also something that countries all across the world suffer from. For example, Australia is also one of the most obese countries in the world, and 50,000 people die a year from obesity in Australia. That’s 140 people who die per day in Australia. To solve the problem of obesity the prices of junk food should be raised and the prices of healthy food should be lowered and more convenient.

Income inequality also causes obesity however; we mostly blame individuals for being obese. Being obese can have a serious impact on mental and physical health. it is an illness that is associated with stereotypes. The biggest one is “if poor people become obese they cannot be not poor”. People in this mentality also exclude the structural and social conditions that cause illnesses such as obesity. Social life affects the health of people, especially the socioeconomic level. How much you earn monthly is a factor how fit you are. The risk of being an obese is lower for the wealthy individuals. Poor people are obese because they have no money to buy healthy food, they have no time to exercise, they have stress that causes them to eat constantly, they lack education, they do not have access to the healthcare, they do not have social support and so on. It is mostly about the income inequality.

In their paper, Guthman and Dupuis make the argument that the obesity epidemic can be understood using the historical lens of neoliberalism. They argue that neoliberalism has led to the “commodification of everything”, by creating markets for once common items and by creating needs where there were previously none. An example of this would be the rise of the fast food industry which is able to exploit the work force by paying low wages and provide an outlet for surplus foods, both of which contribute to obesity.

The first reason Hastings et al., mention is the weight gain as a result of eating food with insufficient calories. Hastings et al., stresses that almost 50 % of the population from Samoa has been diagnosed with obesity when compared to 30 years ago. In other words, the number of obesity has increased due to the people choices of consuming canned corned beef, popular in England. However, the authors do not detail if this source of obesity is only related to the canned beef consumption, presumably there might be some unclear evidences that played roles in gaining weight. By the same token, the authors also remark that a similar case had been noted in Fiji due to the swap from the production of their own fresh fruits and vegetables practices to canned soda and sheep fat

Do you know what’s the number one cause of death in America? Well the number one cause of death is heart related diseases. Many of these heart related diseases are caused by obesity. Obesity is “the condition of being grossly fat or overweight.” It is not just being thick boned, or even hereditary. Obesity has become a growing epidemic around the world! A very colossal problem here in the untied states of America; What is sad is that it is a disease one has caused due to their own choice of life style.

Linked with health problems is a poor diet. Variations in our food environment have made it challenging to maintain a healthy weight. Society tends to want to eat more fast-food rather than cooking at home because it is cheaper and less time-consuming. We have become lazy when it comes to our diets. We don’t take into consideration the Food Guide and basically eat what we want, when we want. Obesity is also a major drain on the economy. The amount of money being spent on health care because of obesity-related diseases is astronomical. The Globe and Mail had an article headlined, “Obesity costs economy up to $7-billion a year” (Picard). By eating right and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, our society can cut down economic costs drastically. All we need to have is some discipline, the proper diet, and exercise.