Mississippi is the fattest state in America. According to Lauran Neergaard from the Huffington Post, more than 32.5 percent of all adults in Mississippi are obese, and that has been for five years straight. She also states that not only are adults obese, but 44.4 percent of all Mississippi’s children are also obese. That is almost one in every two children. Tommy Rodgers from the Education Resources Information Center notes: besides being able to claim that they are the fattest, the residents of Mississippi also have the claim to being the poorest state in the United States, with 20.6 percent of the population living in poverty. Mississippi has these two chart toppers: most obese and lowest per capita income, but Matthew Engel says that the residents of Mississippi are at the bottom chart in their quality of education. These three factors create a strong succession of impoverished obese people who have little chance of ever escaping the grueling cycle.
Poverty and obesity would seem like two qualities in people that would not likely go together. The truth is, the less money one has, the more bang they are going to try to get for their buck. The correlation between obesity and poverty shows that people who are destitute are more likely to have problems controlling their weight.
Obesity has become a definition of American culture. Obesity is having so much excess fat on the body that it poses medical risks (George L. Blackburn). Not only is there a difference between overweight and obese, but classifications of the grades of obesity: for instance, obese, morbidly obese, and super morbidly obese are some of these classifications. More than one billion people worldwide are obese. With 300,000 Americans dying each year fr...
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Neergaard, Lauran. "America'sFattest States: Mississippi Still Tops List, But Alabama Closes In." Huffington Post 07/01/2009, Print.
"Poverty." Def. 1,2. Dictionary.com. Ask.Com. Web. 23 February 2012. .
"Researcher Links Rising Tide of Obesity to Food Prices." Science Daily. 05/Jan/2004. Science Daily, Web. 22 Feb. 2010.
Rogers, Tommy W. "Poverty in Mississippi: A Statistical Analysis." Education Resources Information Center 469. ERIC. .
Super Size Me. Dir. Morgan Spurlock. Perf. Morgan Spurlock. Kathbur Pictures, 2004. DVD.
23 July 2018. Print. The. Brody, Jane E. “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause.” New York Times.
Studies have linked obesity to many things from ear infections, to pollution, to air-conditioning, to socializing with obese people. The reason Americans are obese is because of the increasing luxury available to them. Obesity is a rising problem in the United States, and with all the privileges given to its citizens, the country has become increasingly lazy. With portion sizes rising and physical activity decreasing, it is easy to see how obesity rates have skyrocketed.
Holden, Diana. "Fact Check: The Cost of Obesity." CNN. Cable News Network, 09 Feb. 2010. Web. 06 May 2012.
Interest in the social aspects of obesity is nothing new. Jeffrey Sobal has written extensively about the social and psychological consequences of obesity , including the stigmatisation and discrimination of obese and even overweight individuals (Sobal 2004).
As poverty remains, the residents of the Mississippi Delta continue to suffer from the cruelty of poverty due to poor healthcare and poor job opportunities Regardless, of how poverty is measured, deprived people in rural places like the Mississippi Delta that deal with the challenges of being poor are more likely to have health issues and limited job opportunities. This entire region of Mississippi is suffering from high density of bad health. In the Mississippi Delta, many residents do not have the income to afford proper health insurance. For example, Tunica County illustrated one of the highest percentages of families living below the poverty level of 50.5 percent, and the highest unemployment and uninsured residents, which was at 17 percent in the state of Mississippi.
Goldstein, Hesh. Why There is an Obesity Epidemic. 16 Nov. 2009. 12 Nov. 2011 .
... Mississippi Delta Counties is to inform her readers of the hard times of the Delta. And to show the reasons why the Mississippi Delta “it is the way it is” and how we can change it. Jones backs up her thoughts and claims through research of her own and that of other significant people. She uses census tables taken by the government and focus groups as evidence to display the credibility of her claims. She also reassures her claim by using direct quotes from books of other authors such as Michael B. Katz and his book The Underserving Poor: From War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. There will always be poverty in the Mississippi Delta, but for many different reasons.
When thinking of poverty, numerous people first think of third world countries like Africa. What people may not know is the amount of people living in the United States in poverty, specifically children. There are over sixteen million children living in poverty; the poverty line is considered to be below $23,550 a year for a family of four. To put this number into perspective, the amount of children living in poverty today is twenty-two percent of all children in the United States (“Child Poverty”). With such a large number of people in the country in fiscally unstable environments, it can easily be seen that they also are susceptible to other problems compared to those who are financially established; one major concern being obesity.
Furthermore, Abdularhman El-Sayed (2010) also argues that the real reason for the obesity epidemic is down to poverty and cheap food. He describes a study conducted by one university of Glasgow which found that deprived neighbourhoods are twice as likely of becoming obese compare to residents in more affluent neighbourhoods, (El-Sayed 2010).
Holguin, Jaime. “Fast Food Linked To Child Obesity.” Cbsnews.com. CBS News, 5 Jan. 2003. Web. 8 May 2011.
Over the course of a few decades, states are consumed with obesity. Statistics show no state in the United States, had an obesity rate over fifteen percent until recently. Now days the United States is ranked the second most obese country in the world ! We now have an increasing rate of twenty-five percent, according to the Campaign to End Obesity.
Many health problems are caused by obesity. All-in-all the problems start at home and the lack of knowledge about dietary guidelines.
"Is Fast Food to Blame for Obesity?" The Premier Online Debate Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Obesity is a serious condition that has generated a discussion on whether or not to be classified as a disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity is the body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, which is calculated based on the person’s height and weight. For years, our society has been facing the obesity challenge, which can be extremely costly once it leads to several diseases. Thus, because of the constant increase of percentage of people with obesity, the American Medical Association (AMA) proposed in June 18, 2013 to classify obesity as a disease. Their argument was that obesity increases the risks of countless health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension etc. Moreover, it increases morbidity and mortality. By considering obesity as a disease, their aim was to maximize researches and funding, which will focus on obesity from different medical and health approach levels. Their idea of classifying obesity as a disease was in accordance with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s declaration of 1995. The institute declared, “ Obesity is a complex multifactorial chronic disease developing from multiple interactive influences of numerous factors.” In 2012, the CDC data showed 34.9% of adults obese and 17% of obese children. These numbers are very alarming especially since the struggle to deter certain factors contributing into this condition is still a challenge. Among the struggles, there are the people’s rights versus health regulations to keep them as healthy as possible like the former mayor Bloomberg regulation on soft drinks size cut. During CNN’s show GPS of Sunday 2, 2014, the host Zacharia...
All in all, poor or rich people should be more aware of the affects of obesity. Moreover, they should pay attention on how it affects on their health. This issue rate is spreading and will not stop spreading until people understand that obesity is a really dangerous. Obese, or fit people should be encouraged to have a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy , and exercise.