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Film Analysis: The Weight Of The Nation

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The Weight of the Nation is a four-part film that focuses on the consequences, choices, children in crisis, and challenges of obesity in America. In class, we watched the segment about consequences, and it definitely opened my eyes to many things. Watching this film made me realize and acknowledge all the problems, causes, and possible solutions to this crisis. Coming from a family with many people who are obese, hearing these facts hit me very hard. With obesity comes many problems and complications, most of which are reversible and preventable with weight loss. In America, 68.8 percent of people are overweight or obese; that’s more than half of our country. Being obese puts people at a high risk for heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and a plethora of other health issues. One misleading fact that I always believed, is that heart …show more content…

Personally, I believe the stop to obesity begins with the communities that we reside in and the accessibility to grocery stores and means of exercise, such as playgrounds, open gyms, etc. In 2009, Maida Galvez and several other researchers did a collaboration in East Harlem, NY on the relation between childhood obesity and neighborhood store availability in inner cities. The researchers surveyed several blocks in the area which one of their subjects lived, and convenience stores were present in 55 percent of the blocks, while fast food restaurants were present in 41 percent. With this amount of junk food around, it is simple to gain weight. Lots of families in the inner city can’t afford to purchase groceries every week, let alone pay to travel to a grocery store. That is why it is so much easier to just pick up food from McDonald’s, Burger King, etc. Maybe if more grocery stores were available and the prices of groceries were lower, than more people would be able to purchase them for their

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