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America grows every day. Not the land mass, the mass of the people. Almost thirty six percent of all Americans are obese (“Obesity and Overweight” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This number increases daily. This condition causes a myriad of health issues. If Americans do not change their lifestyles, as soon as the year 2037 there could be more obese, unhealthy Americans than healthy Americans.
The percentage of obese Americans rose 21 percent from 1980 to 2013 (“Prevalence of Overweight”). That equates to a .62 percent increase annually. In 1990, not one state in the U.S. had an obesity rate of over fifteen percent, by 2010 not one state had an obesity rate of under twenty percent and almost a quarter of the states had obesity rates over thirty percent (“Obesity Trends”, 2). Obesity rate percentages between men and women have risen at approximately equal levels. Among American women, those with a college degree are less than half as likely to be obese. While obesity levels rose equally across all economic levels in the U.S., those in lower income brackets are almost twice as likely to become obese (“Adult Obesity Facts”). Obesity is becoming more prevalent in our youth. Among six to eleven year olds the obesity rate rose from seven percent to eighteen percent between 1980 and 2013. Among twelve to nineteen year olds the obesity rate rose from five to almost twenty one percent in the same time period ("Childhood Obesity Facts")
The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed and calories expended ("Obesity and Overweight” World Health Organization). There has been a marked increase in sugar content in the average American diet. Most processed foods are high in sugar con...

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