Obesity In Canada Essay

Given the growing trend of obesity across the country and the strong connection to heart disease and stroke1, the organization has chosen to focus on obesity prevention and control as one priority. Obesity is a global epidemic2. In Canada, 60% of adults and 31.5% of children are overweight or obese.3, 4 Rates of obesity among children have tripled in the last decade.4 This generation of children may be the first in history to have a shorter lifespan than their parents as a result of premature death due to the early onset chronic disease like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and hypertension as a result of unhealthy behaviours.5 Moreover, obesity directly contributes a national economic burden estimated at $4.3 billion annually.6 The main direct causes of obesity are poor diet including excess consumption of foods high in fat and sugar along with physical inactivity leading to an energy surplus. A range of theoretical models have been put forth to explain obesity, and an increasingly accepted one is the ecological model, positing that individual (intrapersonal), social and institutional environment (interpersonal), physical environment (community settings) and macro system (societal) factors all contribute to obesity.7-9 HSF is particularly

Canada is the largest North American continent by land area. It is also the second-largest country in the world in terms of land area. Canada is home to 35 million people. It borders the United States. Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is also the fifth most populous city in Canada.

Over the years obesity has become more and more prevalent in the United States. Currently, approximately 35% of Americans are obese. The Center for Disease Control statistics on obesity are alarming. They have reported the obesity rate to be higher in Non-Hispanic blacks than Hispanics. 47% to 42%, while 32.6% of Non-Hispanic whites are obese. In addition to ethnicity, the CDC looked at obesity among age groups. Obesity was found to be higher among middle-aged adults 40-59, rather than younger adults age 20-39. As far as socio-economic groups were considered, Non-Hispanic black and Mexican American men with higher incomes are more likely to be obese than those with low income. When genders were factored in, the opposite was found. Non-Hispanic

There has been an increased availability, accessibility, and affordability of food, this could explain the excess energy intake and weight gain among different populations. In addition to the easy access to food, there has also been decreased opportunities for physical activity in the recent years. Researchers have proposed a range of interventions to reduce obesity, these include, restricting the advertisement of unhealthy foods to children, improving school meals, using taxation to reduce consumption of unhealthy foods and providing subsidies to increase intake of healthy foods, and supply-chain incentives to increase the production of healthy foods (The GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators.

What is not widely known is that the risk of health problems can start with someone who is slightly overweight and that the likelihood of problems with increases as someone becomes more and more overweight. These conditions can eventually cause long-term suffering for individuals and families, not to mention the costs for the health care can be extremely high. The number of things that can impact people’s health caused by obesity can increase including:

Childhood obesity is a health crisis impacting children both in Canada and around the world. As of 2017, 30% of children ranging from age five to seventeen are considered obese (Government of Canada, 2018). That is almost one-third of all children in Canada. Although the rates of childhood obesity in Canadian children have not significantly changed since 2014, it is still a prominent health issue around the country (Rao et al., 2016). Childhood obesity can be defined as anyone from the age of 0-17 having a body mass index greater than or equal to the 95th percentile on the Centers for Disease Control growth chart (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023).

As a Canadian population, trends have proven that obesity has become a major concern. Around the globe, there are 400 million people who are obese and one billion people who are over weight. Therefore in today’s world obesity plays a very vital role in human lives. Obesity is the state of being overweight, which is caused by consuming large amounts of fats and sugars, which is gathered and stored in our bodies as fats. If a person’s bodyweight is 20% higher than what it should be, it results in the person being obese.

The obesity rates are rising because of the influence of the social media, and its lack of coverage. In the last 50 years, the responsibility was left to parents of education of healthy living, do to most healthy habits start at an early age according to Dr. Tanya Altmann, author of (What to Feed Your Baby). It takes about 10 times of feeding of one food item for a baby to start to like the food. If you mash fresh fruits and veggies and eat the food with your child, your child will more likely become a Healthy child. Eating with a child will tell them that you eat this food and they should eat it too. So in order for this to be affective it would be helpful if parents and as well as school systems provide healthy eating options and less "fast

AYSUN SHEKARI June 7, 2016 ASSINGMENT LIST A-2 CAN105-C1C Obesity in Canada as a Social Issue On average, Canadians are getting fatter day by day. In fact, North Americans are the fattest people on the planet, and Canadians are ranked in the second place after Americans. Statistics Canada shows that 46 percent of Canadians are overweight, and another 15 percent are medically obese (Ko, 2002). Obesity is a problem because this can put Canadians at risk of sudden death, heart disease, colon cancer, and other medical conditions such as type 2 diabetes.

Many entities living in the city occupy an inactive lifestyle, which can easily clout the intake of calories every day and overpower the number of calories charred through routine daily activities. Family members tend to share similar eating and activity habits, if someone in a household is not very active, they will not burn as many calories. Similarly, a child may not have been educated on healthy methods of eating, or a family may not be able to afford healthy food options. Consider the average family in a Toronto household, parents are working, unable to cook the healthiest of meals; a diet that is immense in calories, lacking in fruits and vegetables, and full of take-out contributes to weight gain, whether someone realizes it or

In medical terminology, while a person with a BMI of 30 and over 30 is considered as obese. It can refer to abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that reflect in health risks (Australia’s health 2016). Obesity as a one of the more serious health issue in Australia has influence millions of people’s daily life and work. It also as one of the biggest challenges to the society and public health system.

It is no secret that obesity is huge problem in the United States. About 40% of the United States’ population is obese (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2015). According to CDC, obesity causes: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and is the second most preventable disease in the United States (2014). If that’s not enough of a public health problem, than add the 147 billion dollars spent in healthcare expenses just in the U.S. alone (CDC, 2014). According to the text, Public Health 101, “the prevalence of obesity has been steadily rising in the U.S. over the last 50 years; increasing over 250%” (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015, p. 114). The obesity percentages increase when a family is in poverty. The facts are that if you make about $30,000 a year; the children of that family is almost twice as likely to be obese than a family that is making 350% above the poverty level, which is about $136,000 a year (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015, p. 114). But, to make it even worse, the Mexican Americans and non-Hispanics black populations don’t even follow those statistics; they have a high obesity level in all socioeconomic levels (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015, p. 114).

It is obvious that past generations have been much more fit than how people are now. During the year 1900, the average weight of a college-age man in America was 133 pounds, while the average woman was 122 pounds (Staff, N.p.). These statistics compared to the weight averages today are mind blowing. Today, the average male weighs 180 pounds and the average female weighs 155 pounds (Cutler, Glaeser, and Shapiro 93-118). Because there are so many different factors that have led to the substantial increase in weight, it is very hard to peg what is causing all of this. In the early 1970s, fourteen percent of the population was considered to be obese, and today, the rate is two times higher (Cutler, Glaeser, and Shapiro 93-118). Although there are so many causes that may have been a factor in this epidemic, no one wants to take the blame.

“Obesity is a disease that affects more than one-third of the U.S adult population (approximately 78.6 million Americans). The number of Americans with obesity had steadily increase since 1960, a trend that has slowed down in recent years but show no sign of reversing”.

Statistical information confirms: obesity and overweight have already turned into an issue of national concern. In 2002, “a National Survey conducted by American Sports Data revealed that 61% of adults in the U.S. felt that they were overweight, 19% admitting that they were ‘considerably’ overweight” (American Sports Data). The major causes of obesity, overweight, and similar nutritional problems included genetics, population trends, hurried lifestyles, high-carbohydrate diets, less demanding workplaces, smoking cessation, and social class aspects (American Sports Data). That hurried lifestyles and a less demanding workplace contribute in the development of obesity trends is clear. But even more importantly, because the number of those who are overweight or obese exceeds one half of the American population, the government must control our diets. The information about the costs of obesity and related diseases is even more compelling.