Obesity as a Social Issue Essays

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

Drawing from a number of bases, author Robert Peralta assembles the underpinnings to the insinuation against that of the individual determination of fate, with special emphasis on the obesity epidemic. Assistant professor of Sociology at the University of Akron and with a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of New Mexico, Peralta wields his insight in order to better allocate the true origins of the near exponential growth in body size throughout the years ("Member Profile…” np). In his opus “Thinking Sociologically about Sources of Obesity in the United States,” Peralta effectively perpetuates the mantra of societal responsibility and of demographic divergences as a filter for sources of obesity.

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.

“The Cato Institute’s” Policy analyst, Radley Balko, in his article “What You Eat Is Your Business,” talks about the idea of obesity and whose fault it is. Balko’s purpose is to convey the idea that obesity is the individual’s responsibility, not the government’s or anyone else’s for that matter. Ultimately, Balko’s “What You Eat Is Your Business” has a strong hold on ethos, pathos, and logos, making for a successful and persuasive article.

Our culture uses health and wellness with food to divide groups as well. Julier ("The Political Economy of Obesity: The Fat Pay All") discusses how obesity vilifies certain groups and how poverty and obesity have a function in society, serving the industry and the economy. Julier says rhar obesity vilifies women, the poor, and people of color, groups of people that are already marginalized, and the stress of life as a marginalized group can lead to a disordered relationship with food. Americans are incredibly intolerant of individuals who have let themselves go, and get even angrier when those individuals don't do anything about it to get to the socially accepted normal: skinny (Mead "Why Do We Overeat?"). Julier ("The Political Economy of Obesity: The Fat Pay All") gives 13 political, economic, and cultural functions of poverty and obesity, one of them being the idea that when fatness is related to irresponsible behavior, those who aren't fat and stick to the socially constructed normal of thin are able to maintain and create public agenda to control and vilify the obese and overweight.

The sociological aspect of obesity shown through the impact of families, the government and the economy. The rapidly growing, fast-paced, technological society creates an epidemic of sorts. Families pursue the use of technology, restaurants and fast-paced eating as well as single parenting and parental denial. The government sets a significant health care cost to obesity, which prevents a solution and increases risks. A non-stable economy brings about a society filled with unemployment or multiple jobs as well as both parents working to stay above absolute or relative poverty leading to distractions from a healthy lifestyle. Obesity is a concern, not just for an individual but also for

The purpose of this paper is to study the social aspect of obesity and an individual's personal experience of being fat. I understand obesity as a socially and politically meaningful divergence that is analogous to other significant differences based on the body, for example: disability, gender, and ethnicity (ef. Cooper, 1997&1998; Young, 1990). In my research, I approach obesity as a discursive category that is created, produced and reproduced through various social practices, such as: medicine and health care system, school, religion, and the media (e.g. Foucault, 1979).

Health is defined based on three dimensions: physical, mental and social health; a fairly recent modification from the 18th century viewpoints (Ware,1987). Health is perceived differently according to the different models of health that help in guiding and understanding of health and health issues. In relation to the following essay, two models; biomedical model and social model will be discussed and compared in terms of their relevancy in the modern times. The second half of the essay will focus on the effectiveness of the social model in explaining the increasing prevalence of health conditions related to the obesity epidemic.

For somebody who does not have sociological creative energy being overweight is the consequence of awful individual decisions or hereditary inclination. Being overweight may have been the aftereffect of past individual battles that were brought about by wrong individual basic leadership or conduct. Weight's impact in the public arena can find in the quantity of long lasting and conceivably life-debilitating infections and conditions, similar to hypertension, coronary illness, and diabetes. Likewise the effect on stoutness that is connected to maladies that add to early passing. A sociological creative ability may accuse these to people in general strategies that add to the issue fast food restaurant that serve cheap and simple get to sustenances

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,

One grate use of The Ecological Model is observed in the problematic question of Obesity in modern societies. Despite the growing awareness of obesity and its potential risks to health,

One night, sipping 2008 Didier Dagueneau Silex on the balcony of Mary’s new apartment overlooking a beautiful garden with musical fountain, we began to theorize why (despite all weight related bullying, suicides, and unemployment) is obesity still not considered a larger social problem, and why is it repugnant to openly discriminate against gender, race, or sexuality, while people can still easily get away with fat-shaming? “Even as I am losing weight, I still have that fat girl body image,” she said, contemplative. “I know it is the best for my health lowering the risk of diabetes or high blood pressure. And I know I will never look beautiful without a surgery, but the psychological scar will never fade away.” And indeed, judging people based on their weight carries a moral component. There is a strong societal belief that overweight and obesity are self-inflicted, and therefore these people deserve to be judged and fat-shamed. Ironically, this is in the country with the most obese population in the world. Historically, there was a religious notion that overweight people are the ones who lacked self-control, and therefore, were prone to sins of sloth and gluttony. In the Middle Ages, in the poor living conditions for the most people, only wealthy aristocrats could be seen overweight; thus, this overweight condition began to be associated with laziness and royalty, which continued to amplify the growing resentment. After the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of

The social issue that was chosen is obesity in America. Anyone who is remarkably beyond his or her ideal weight is considered to be obese. Today, over 60 percent of Americans are considered to be overweight and over 27 percent of Americans are considered to be obese (Kobayashi, 2015). Obesity is an important social issue because it can easily contribute to a variety of health problems. About 78 million adult Americans are at risk for heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, and some forms of cancer all due to obesity (Kobayashi, 2015). Obesity is one of the biggest and most controversial public health issues.

In seeking to classify obesity as a disease, the people hope the condition will attract the attention it deserves via insurance and/or enhanced governmental health financing. While the intention in this case is noble, the approach remains untenable in the long-term. McKnight (2006, p.72) points out that it is highly possible that unnecessary focus is being “placed on the impact of medication and not lifestyle changes…” Branding obesity a disease will effectively increase the number of those seeking “treatment” for the same. Indeed, in such a case, it is possible that obese people could end up seeking unnecessary medical attention/treatment thus neglecting or avoiding the role they should play at an individual level in seeking to reduce weight. Hence instead of working on their diets and embracing physical exercises, individuals having weight issues will most likely prefer formal obesity treatments including but not limited to drugs and surgery. Given that it is through the adoption of a certain lifestyle that individuals become obese, the war against obesity cannot be won without the active involvement of those who happen to be obese.

One of most significant health issues today is obesity in which many adults and children face also today. “Obesity means having too much body fat. It is different from being overweight, which means weighing too much. The weight may come from muscle, bone, fat, and/or body water. Both terms mean that a person 's weight is greater than what 's considered healthy for his or her height.”(Medline Plus, 2013) people that are obese may suffer from strokes, arthritis, some cancers and heart disease also economy cost goes up. “The economic costs from the excess morbidity and mortality attributable to obesity-related diseases go beyond health-care costs alone, perhaps most notable are the consequent losses in productivity” (Wang, McPherson, Marsh, Gortmaker, & Brown, 2011) Better eating habits should be focus on and physical activity needs more focus. Included in this essay are three scholarly sources of literature review which are based on obesity. It includes academic knowledge on local and global communities of social elements. It includes active citizenship issues on obesity and the impact it will have five years from now and two blogs on obesity will be shared.