OBESITY MANIA 3 Obesity Mania Fast Food and Obesity Everyone knows about the obesity epidemic in the United States, however the fact that obesity effects 33% of adults and 17% children is not something to shrug off (Scinta,2015). Obesity is a real epidemic. It may not affect people the way Ebola or AIDS does, but it is a serious medical issue. There are many factors that cause obesity, and it is not just junk food that causes obesity. Obesity affects all of the United States, not just the obese people. Obesity is an epidemic, and there are ways to stop it. It may seem easy to isolate what causes obesity. Junk …show more content…
Calling obesity a disease changes things; a new awareness is created, and people should research why obesity is a disease (Scinta,2015). People’s obesity affects non obese people as well. Each individual person is responsible for their health. A healthy person will not view obesity as an epidemic because it does not affect them. In reality American citizens are paying for obesity. The obesity epidemic is presented in a way that puts the focus on the health consequences of obesity not the economic consequences. The obesity epidemic costs the United States 190 billion dollars a year for healthcare (Scinta,2015). If the obesity epidemic was nobody would have to pay for this. Obesity also affects the workforce too. Obesity costs employers 45 billion dollars a year (Healthy eating is good for business,2011). Obese workers are more likely to take extra time off, and their health insurance costs more (Healthy eating is good for business,2011). With a different look on the obesity epidemic more people should be willing to help stop it. The first solution that people go for is to eliminate junk food. Eliminating junk food will not work …show more content…
It isn’t a simple process though. Solving the obesity epidemic requires the efforts of multiple people. Food just can’t magically be made healthy. People cant be forced into eating healthy. To solve the obesity epidemic the root of the problem needs to be solved, and then from there we can stop obesity. What is the root of the problem? OBESITY MANIA 6 Solutions to Obesity A good place to start is actually with is the children of America. Seventeen percent of the children are obese (Scinta,2015). Children are influenced by adults, and if they aren’t taught how to be healthy then they will not be healthy adults. America’s education needs to have a new emphasis on teaching children about health. In the years 1991-1999 the number of students taking physical education classes dropped from forty-two percent to twenty-nine percent (Lüsted,2008). The lack of PE is not the only concern but children’s lunches as well. In 1946 President Harry S. Truman implemented the National School Lunch Act to provide nutritious lunches
After reading chapters 15 and 21 in our Current Issues and Enduring Questions book and viewing Forks Over Knives, I am afraid I do not see this worrisome food issue in America improving in the near future. Obesity is a known epidemic and it is widespread throughout the entire country. According to the documentary film, Forks Over Knives, “We spend $2.2 trillion a year on healthcare: over five times more than the defense budget.” This quote reveals the issue regarding the state of health and by maintaining a healthier diet not only do people benefit, but the government does as well. The current relationship between food and health industries brings an uncertainty that should be seen as a critical concern to the eyes of the public. Too many people
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.
In the United States the society needs to work on controlling this problem known as obesity. It is a problem that if does not get controlled sooner than later, will spiral out of hand even more. Before this spirals out of control society needs to take action to reducing the cost of healthy food amongst middle-low class citizens so they can eat the
It’s no secret that obesity is a serious worldwide issue and a diseased affecting many people’s lives around the world and becoming a huge health problem. In the book titled I know someone who is obesity written by Sue Barraclough stated that over 400 million people on Earth are conceder obese since 2009. “In Nov. 2010 the US Surgeon General reported that an estimated 500,000 deaths per year were attributed to obesity. “According to BBC news Obesity was the third leading cause of death in 2015, after smocking and high blood pressure. For years scientists and studies have been trying to identify if obesity is a diseased or more of a condition.
High obesity rates cause many diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, gout, tooth decay, and many more.
Every year our country has over three hundred thousand deaths due to obesity. People have trouble with portion sizes, eating right, and admitting that obesity is in fact a disease. People also are considered obese when their body-mass index (BMI) is thirty of higher (World Health Organization 22). “Obesity-related illnesses already are expanding the nation’s health care expenses and costing us $147 billion annually (this was in 2008) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is an ongoing epidemic in the United States and in other countries. Today, children eat out more often than ever, portion sizes have increased substantially, and worst of all some schools have started to serve fast food. In the United States, one
When we eat food, we consume it with the thought of it providing nutritional support. Suddenly it has become easier to obtain by just driving through a drive thru and ordering meal instead of it being home-cooked with no thought of where it came from. People believe that the food they eat is giving them nutritional value, but in truth it is only doing more harm than good. While some may argue that it is ultimately the responsibility of the consumer because no one is forced to eat, but the main problem it to stop eating a Western diet that America has been accustomed to. Because of the amount of processed food causing chronic diseases, inflation of the pricing of the health care industry, and the constant fact that food is readily available without properly knowing what they’re eating, it is not publics fault for obesity it’s the food industry’s fault.
Relevance: In the U.S. today, people are becoming more likely to become overweight or obese every day and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down unless each individual does something about it.
Obesity’s primary cause is due to the unhealthy nature of peoples diets, and how they don’t believe that their diet is un-healthy for them. In todays day and age, many people have false beliefs on what an healthy diet consistensts of. Because of the misrepresentations they have seen on public televison, social media, as well as their own doctors. The diet most Americans beleive is good for them, consisents of foods high
The current generation, more than there before is grappling with the menace of obesity. It is a fact that there are many parts of the world, especially in the African and Asian countries where people literally die of starvation, malnutrition and under-weight circumstances, yet it is a fact as well that the world is more obese that any other time in history.
More than 78.6 million of U.S. adults are obese, that is almost one-third of the whole U.S. population. The U.S. ranks 27th on the scale of most obese countries (out of 188). America is the only country where the poor are more obese than the rich or middle class. Today’s generation might be the first in which parents will outlive their own children due to obesity related problems. The lives of the 20th century differs from this generation because of lifestyles, eating habits, GMO’s and lack of exercise. These situations could be resolved, by making this generation realize the hardships one could possibly phase if not taken into action. Is it that people just have poor living choices? Is it the businesses fault? Is it the government’s? How can people have a healthier lifestyle?
On common ground people can agree that food is a necessity to life. As a society we would be foolish not to acknowledge that food can also be harmful and lead to death. The food we fill our bodies with is a silent, but deadly factor that is causing an extreme increase in obesity. Obesity is a very touchy subject, for we neglect to voice our opinions in fear of offending someone, but the truth is when we fail to discuss the issue of obesity another human is in danger of falling prey to this disease. In order to make a change to benefit society, we must contemplate what is causing obesity in the first place. Because each and every person has different circumstances, it is not valid to blame all of obesity on one cause. For example, their are
The first of several stakeholders for the prevention of obesity and the facilitation of food access is the government. Obesity places a large financial burden on the government’s health care expenses, and is now nearing cigarette smoking as one of the major preventable causes of death. The sources for obesity are complex and require not only societal level participation but also government funded programs to curb the increasing rate. Since obesity has become a public issue, Congress has seen the political advantages and possible capital that there is to gain from the problem. It also can be used as a tool for reelection, as politicians can base their propositions and laws around obesity in order to achieve this goal.
Today, one of the most common public health problems is obesity that have disturbed all
One contemporary problem of health is obesity. Obesity is considered a lifestyle disease since it is not infectious or contagious and because it is chronic. But since it is labeled as a lifestyle disease, many people, both lay people and experts, only look at overweight and obese individual’s lifestyles and criticizes them. But not to look at wider possibilities that could be having a great influence on this epidemic (Warwick-Booth, Cross, and Lowcock, 2012). This can be seen in how people talk about obesity and also obese and overweight people. It also affects how people try to solve this problem.