Obesity is a key dilemma that we face in the United States. A person whose weight is higher than what is considered as a normal weight adjusted for height is described as overweight or having obesity. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH), about 1 in 13 adults are considered to have extreme obesity. Society has a mind-set that a person who is obese is strictly due to having no control over what they eat. This is not the case. Obesity can happen to anyone and for many reasons but it can also be reversed in many ways. There are several origins for obesity in America, including fast-food restaurants and their marketing, depression, stress, and people reacting to the stereotypes in the media that …show more content…
I am just trying to say that it is not always a person’s eating habits that got them to where they are weight-wise. As someone who lives in the reality of trying countless diets and failing, it’s all about learning to love yourself just the way you are. I just wish that instead of being so critical of society all the time, we could just realize that everyone is different but we all feel the same pain inside due to not liking our big feet, cellulite or weight. According to Eating Disorder Hope, spring break is often a time that promotes diet fads and crazes because you need to look your best in a bathing suit. If you already have a poor body image, this can make you have even lower self-esteem and be susceptible to self-criticism. These are the same people that want to “drop a few pounds” or “get healthy”. Often these people will choose some sort of crazy diet and the misinformation that goes with it. The pressure to fit in is dominant during the school year. A body has become perceived as a billboard for expression of someone’s successes, power, desirability and status. It’s not uncommon to hear someone complain about their body or express dissatisfaction with a particular body part. As a culture, we are engrained with the damaged ideas of body perfection, living in a society that repeatedly reminds us that we are not good
Each year, there are about 112,000 deaths from obesity that are preventable. In the past few decades, the number of cases of obesity has been on the rise in the United States. It has tripled among children and doubled among adults. In 1990, Connecticut’s obesity rate was at 10.4 percent. Then, in 2000, it was at 16.0 percent and currently it’s at 26.0 percent.
The high obese population can be explained by culture, portion sizes, food companies and restaurant policies, diets, and traditions. Obesity is not only an individual issue; it is most importantly a national matter. It raises both individual and collective problems related to economic and demographic dynamics. Therefore, based on the alarming rate obesity is growing, it is crucial at this point to find a solution in order to slow down and hopefully stop this epidemic. Comparing diets of different countries and taking a look at the background story of American nutrition and regimes, it is clear that the American diet is very different from other nationalities and has worsened over the decades.
To sum it up, obesity is terrible and deadly disease that is affecting many of our youths today. It is caused by many different things, and has a lot of negative health effects. But, there are plenty of ways to fix this epidemic, both at home and as a whole. As a nation United, America has overcome many challenges and struggles, and this is simply another one that can be
One of the main causes is the abundance of unhealthy food options. Fast food restaurants and convenience stores that sell highly processed and calorie-dense foods are ubiquitous, making it easy for people to consume more calories than they need. Moreover, these foods are often cheaper than healthier options, which can be a significant barrier for individuals on a tight budget. Another factor that contributes to the obesity epidemic in America is the sedentary lifestyle that many people lead.
The obesity epidemic is only becoming more world wide spread as years continue to pass. Obesity has dramatically caused many negative effects on America and the way we live today. Obesity is simply defined as having excessive body fat usually resulting in serious medical problems. More specifically, though, obesity occurs when a person's Body Mass Index (BMI) — or, their weight in kilometers divided by the square of height in meters — exceeds 30 or greater. Studies have shown that about 13 million children and adolescents ages 2-19 are obese according to the article “Childhood Obesity: Can it Really Be Child Neglect?” by Abbie Goldbas.
With there being many efforts to aid with the growing number of cases of obesity in the United States, obesity is still a public concern that can affect just about anyone. Although obesity is thrown around in the news it is not clearly defined, the public knows little of its causes, the long-term effects, how to go about treatment for someone who is obese, and how to prevent its
Some have stated that race or socioeconomic status plays a big role in obesity. However, while some groups do have higher rates of obesity, every group has been gaining weight at the nearly the same rate. This suggest that race doesn’t play a role, and something else is behind the cause. With food being cheap compared to income and with it being more convenient than ever, Americans can’t help but get their fill of these unhealthy foods. “We have a survival instinct that drives us to eat constantly, because in human history starvation was the problem," Sturm said.
Looking at the people today it amazes me that we do so many great things yet we can’t control ourselves when it comes to what we eat. We have a community full of obese people except for a small part of the population. When you look outside you no longer see anybody walking around, there are only cars. On each street there are at least 10 different fast food places and occasionally you’ll drive by a whole foods, but it will be mostly deserted unless you’re able to afford the food in there. Everything you see is always in close proximity to make sure no extra walking is required.
In It’s Portion Distortion That Makes America Fat a Sacramento Bee news article by Shannon Brownlee, she discusses a survey conducted by a marketing whiz named Elliot Bloom, “... these guys ate at fast food joints because they had absolutely no interest in cooking for themselves and didn’t give a rip about the nutritional quality of the food” (8). Most individuals get the idea of permitting such behaviors by fast food commercials being aired on television of the hours children and teens are home. Since the introduction of the television more ads on what is the sociable norm to eat is. Magazines were no bigger help showcasing woman with bodies unattainable due to the restaurants they were consuming. It is up to the millennials to change this problem for their children to be at lower risk of these distemperments.
It is a very touchy subject with most people, which is why it isn’t discussed largely in the average American home. Obesity has a wide variety of categories to chose from to discuss; however, the research used throughout this essay was conducted with the basics of obesity, such as causes, effects on people and the nation, and opinions of experts that believe they may solve the controversy of obesity. The data was collected through a mixture of several different experts in books, online magazine articles, and online newspapers. The information was evaluated by comparing these experts opinions and observing how they compared with one another. Much of the material is very similar to one another; therefore, these authors understand the seriousness of the problem and are able to determine what the problem is.
Obesity has become a major dilemma within America, mostly childhood obesity which has become in my eyes an epidemic. Childhood obesity will bring about adult obesity, health issues, psychological problems, and will even damper on sociological issues when pertaining to relating to culture and other people on a daily basis ( ex: brings about bullying or being bullied, social issues with kids, and low self-esteem and confidence). These include but never restricted to the fact of physical, social, environmental, psychological, and health issues all within a wider scale mostly if the pattern of obesity starts at an early age and then progress to adolescence and adulthood. The factors given in obesity has once again become a worldwide issue and concern for family, friends, and the child.
Theresa Van Damme Mrs Gruben ENG 4U September 19, 2017 Obesity: It is Time to Rid America of the Problem Weighing on Most of its Citizens Today, over two-thirds of adult Americans can be deemed overweight or obese (“Overweight & Obesity Statistics”). Two thirds. Not too long ago, people were dying all over the world, simply because of starvation. Now, everyone is dying from problems like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease (“Overweight & Obesity Statistics”), mostly due to obesity and lack of exercise.
In America, as a nation, there is currently a huge battle regarding the obesity problem being paced in the United States. Obesity is likely being caused by the increase in the amounts of unhealthy foods available in our local schools and supermarkets as well as the difference in price between the healthy foods and unhealthy foods and how the food industry works. This obesity problem in the United States has recently evolved and is progressively worsening as the time goes on. Throughout the use of many different articles, there is clear evidence that this problem will continue to worsen until an effort is made to make a change and educate all the American citizens of how much damage is actually occurring to their bodies. More often than not, Americans will be driving through their city and realize that they are hungry.
So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.
The harmful effects of body shaming among teenagers include lowering their self-esteem and confidence, leads to their poor mental helath and causes weight gain. Firstly, body shaming lowers a teen’s self-esteem. It is common for young people to feel