United States citizens consume too much of what is irrelevant for the body and not enough of what is demanded. “Americans need to consume more fruits and vegetables, especially dark green and orange vegetables and legumes. Nutritionists must help consumers realize that, for everyone older than age 3 years, the new recommendations for fruit and vegetable intakes are greater than the familiar five servings a day” ( Guenther 1371-379 ) When traveling around America, noticing the eating habits of each state is important and hard to miss. Eating what you want, when you want is okay, as long as you are canceling it out with exercise. Being obese and being overweight are completely different. Americans have created programs like jenny craig and weight watchers to influence others to become healthier. But in reality no one wants to spend numerous amounts on eating programs when paying their house payment in this economy has become difficult. If the nation as a whole would realize that paying 8 dollars for a hamburger and paying 1 dollar for a hamburger could make a big difference in the future. The cheaper hamburger will be the root cause in more doctor bills. So you see the more expensive hamburger cost more upfront but is more cost-efficient in the future. Or even eating the cheaper hamburger, if one eats the cheaper hamburger then a gym membership should be in the question. Gym memberships are about 30 dollars a month and could gradually increase your health: heart, metabolism, etc. Speaking of cost, if companies employees would consider becoming healthier their insurance premiums would decrease dramatically. Homosapiens should concider things like not being so lazy, then maybe their health care test would not come back so abnormal. “According to a recent food and health survey, 52% of Americans polled believe it’s easier to do their taxes than to figure out how to eat
Healthcare costs Canada upwards of 192 billion dollars per year(Flood). A fraction of that is a direct result of obesity, but the majority of healthcare costs are from non-preventable sources, whereas obesity is preventable and should not cost the taxpayers a single dollar to treat: “Obesity costs Canadians between $4.6 billion and $7.1 billion annually in healthcare and lost productivity”(Ogilvie). So not only does obesity cost actual currency, but it also lowers individual job productivity and employment rate(Ogilvie). Individuals that suffer from obesity are much more likely to become sick and are generally less efficient on the job than a healthy individual. And it is not only the individuals that suffer from the lost productivity, as the poor performance affects the overall efficiency of the Canadian workforce. An easily preventable chronic illness is sucking billions of dollars from other areas that would greatly benefit from funding; the implemented counteractive systems to prevent obesity would literally pay for
...ter for obese individuals than for average weight individuals. The healthier workers are, the fewer medical services they use. The five leading causes of death in the U.S., heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes — are directly linked to unhealthy lifestyles. Clearly, encouraging healthful habits presents an opportunity to improve workers’ well being, reduce the need for medical services and help control costs.
Obesity is a global medical issue where people are confused between eating and dieting. I am an Omani student, and back in Oman, it has the same issue as the United States does. Both society try to stop their people from having obesity. However, “What You Eat is Your Business” written by Radely Balko explains how government allow unhealthy food to spread out over the country, and in return the government tries to push people to focus on health care systems where people may not be able to do it. Beside on that, American people try to reduce their meals or eat just a few amount of food without differentiate between health and unhealthy food, and that is because they want to become healthier, which Mary Maxfield clarifies that on her article “Food
There’s no doubt that obesity is a growing problem in the United States. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 17% of American
U.S News Health has come up with the worlds top ten most obese countries. Amongst the top ten obese nations the United States ranked overall number one in having a population that is obese. They claim that 31.7% of males, 33.9% females, and 25.8%, of children are overweight or obese. (“U.S News Health”). In David Gratzer’s book titled “Where Would You Rather Be Sick?” He talks about the health risks that American’s face in comparison to Canadians. Gratzer states, “Americans have higher rates of diabetes (6.7% vs. 4.7%) arthritis (17.9% vs 16.0%) and high blood pressure (18.3% vs. 13.9%). Americans are also more likely to be obese and live a sedentary lifestyle.”(Gratzer 250). Are mortality rates surpass any other country in the world because most americans consider eating to be a hobby or even leisure time. Us Americans live an unhealthy lifestyle because of the amount of food we consume daily versus the amount of time we actually spend trying to burn the calories we obtained from eating. Americans are not as active as we use to
Eating is extremely important, it is also important to eat healthy. Most Americans eat without any concerns; they are not questioning or researching what they are feeding themselves or their family. A lot of that has to do with their financial stability, not having the time to prepare a meal due to their time-consuming work schedule, also lack of knowledge and education on what they are consuming. In this bibliography, I will go over all three articles and explain what they are about.
Throughout American society today the relationship between health and income proves to be inevitable. It is a recurring theme throughout the United States that the lower your income, the less healthy and “in shape” you are. The factors which create this issue are essentially inaccessibility of healthy food to all citizens, and exercise, or the lack there of. There are a great deal of solutions to these problematic factors which play a role in why there is a lack of available healthy food and resources of exercise for the low-income socioeconomic class in the United States. Solutions to counteract the negative correlation between income and health in the United States can be brought into play with easier and cheaper access to healthy food,
Canadians are eating out 4.7 times a week, spending a total amount of 39 billion annually. Although some annalists may look at this stat and report it as good news because the economy is thriving health officials on the other hand see this as bad news because this means people are eating more fast food which is high in calories. These high calorie foods five times are the cause of people in our society becoming obese which in turn costs the government 3.1 billion dollars a year because people need more medical assistance and develop diseases form becoming so overweight. North Americans are unfit and even the slightest exercise would benefit them. The epidemic that is sweeping the nation is one of type two diabetes. The sole cause of this type of diabetes is the consumption of fatty foods and little to no exercise. Obesity contributes 21,000 people a year to the death toll; this number is on the rise say the analysts who figure if the rate of obesity stays up so will the death toll.
America is one of the largest countries in the world, and the population is one of the largest also; but not in numbers, unless those numbers are on a scale and coincide with the amount of excess fat that is on the average American. In asking why Americans are so overweight, the fast food industry is not to blame entirely. Although Americans consume more fast food than any other nation and the mass of the population reflects this fact, no one is forcing anyone to eat fast food. Americans eat so much fast food because they are lazy, hurried, addicted, and financially downtrodden. Because of these lifestyles and misfortune, America has become overweight-- an epidemic for which there does not seem to be a cure.
...ions are ageing and increasingly, people are living with one or more chronic conditions for decades (World Health Organization, 2011). If the government can assist in regulating preventive health measure for citizens it will years down the line prove to be a cost effective measure. World Health Organization (2011) states that many chronic conditions were avoidable had the person ben able to receive the preventive education and care needed. Business owners may experience a slight inflation in cost to insure their employees but it does not amount to nearly half as much that will be saved by all citizens having access to preventive medical care.
“Is it just a coincidence that as the portion of our income spent on food has declined, spending on health care has soared? In 1960 Americans spent 17.5 percent of their income on food and 5.2 percent of national income on health care. Since then, those numbers have flipped: Spending on food has fallen to 9.9 percent, while spending on health care has climbed to 16 percent of national income. I have to think that by spending a little more on healthier food we could reduce the amount we have to spend on health care” ― Michael Pollan. If current trends in the growth of obesity continue, total healthcare costs attributable to obesity could reach $861 to $957 billion by 2030, which would account for 16% to 18% of US health expenditures. Education is the key to solving our health care crisis.
Most Americans do not care enough to take a look at the nutritional values of the food that he or she is consuming. That is why America has the highest percentage of obesity in the world. This is a serious problem because one in every three adults is obese, and one in every six children is obese. There are many factors that go into the regular American diet, but most of those factors are not appealing nor is it healthy. Americans put way too much processed food into their daily diet. Some would say that other countries diets superior the American diet because of nutritional values that it carries. Other countries have proven that an active lifestyle is a huge element in the average weight of the country. There are many things that Americans could change about their diets and lifestyle that would help them to become healthier.
The government must have a say in our diets. Because the issues of obesity have already reached national scales, because the costs of obesity and related health issues have gone far beyond reasonable limits, and because fighting nutritional issues is impossible without fighting poverty and other social issues, the government should control the range and the amount of available foods. The cost of healthier foods should decrease. The access to harmful foods should be limited. In this way, the government will be able to initiate a major shift in nutritional behaviors and attitudes in society.
In the United States over seventy percent of adults are considered to be overweight. Maintain a healthy weight. "Determine whether you are overweight by checking your body mass index. If you are overweight, it can lead to a higher risk of chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and certain cancers."(How) Although the price of a burger is going down the prices of salads goes up. The fast food industry grows daily so while more jobs are being provided more and more people die from a heart attack. "Often a result of unhealthy eating habits and increased weight gain. Dietary habits established in childhood often carry into adulthood" (The importance) As a culture we know that cheating is wrong so why do we cheat our diets or our work outs. We often make new year resolutions but often give up shortly a couple days later, why? To achieve a healthy lifestyle all you have to do is look at the big picture, plan ahead, maintain a healthy diet, and exercise.
Why do Americans overeat to the point of becoming obese and what are the effects on the body? As the world looks at society today, clearly Americans have an issue with being overweight and becoming obese especially compared with other countries. “Approximately 17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2—19 years are obese,” and “more than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese” (Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 2013, Data and Statistics).