Obesity

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Fat people are everywhere! Well maybe that is not entirely true but the percentage of obese people has been rising for the last few decades. What exactly is obesity? According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, “Obesity means having too much body fat.” Being overweight and being obese are not the same medical condition. A person can be overweight from having extra muscle, fat, bone, or water within their body. An obese person is only overweight from one thing: excess body fat. Obesity is usually caused by consuming more calories than one's body will burn. The excess calories that are not burned by the body are turned into fat. While caloric intake is just one way a person becomes obese, there are others such as alcoholism, lack of exercise, an under-active thyroid gland, stress and other factors. But for the most part, obesity is caused by excess calories and lack of exercise. (US NATL LIB MED)
Obesity affects much more than the just the physical appearance of a person. There are several medical problems that can develop from a person being obese. Obesity increases the chance of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain cancer types and osteoarthritis. Obesity not only affects the obese person's health but it affects the economy as well. Insurance premiums increase due to the extra medical care required for obese people. This economic cost could be greatly reduced if the percentage of obese people were less. (US NATL LIB MED)
According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination in 2005, approximately 45% of children aged between 2 – 19 years of of were considered obese or overweight. Specifically in Florida, 26% of children were overweight or were at risk for becoming overweight. (HKHJ 4) The...

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...activity. The Coalition supports enforcing a state law that requires 150 minutes of physical activity for elementary students and 225 minutes for middle school students (HKHJ 21).
An important part of the legislation is parental involvement. It mentions the support and guidance for an obese child through family involvement but it lightly touches the concept personal responsibility. “Americans need to be more active and take greater responsibility for their diets. (JOURNAL 378). One might think the policy initiative enforces this but it does not. It gives a child the opportunity to understand the consequences of what different types of food does to their body but the policy does not teach about being responsible for one's own actions. The challenge is to combine personal and collective responsibility approaches in ways that best serve the public good. (JOURNAL 382)”

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