Obesity: An Epidemic

1526 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Obesity issue around the world

Obesity is a medical condition that affects children, teenagers and adults, and in recent years has caused many disorders that are potentially life-threating. All individuals consist of fat in their body, but sometimes body can store more fat than needed in the body due to a disorder or excessive eating, therefore they would be classified as obese. According to Professor Jane Wardle, obesity rates started to rise soon after 1984 and she explained that it steadily raised under one percentage a year. Furthermore, obesity is believed to be a started from America, as throughout WW2, the world witnessed America dominate with new powers and develop new technology. This technology started to replace physical effort in both work and leisure. This reduced the amount of energy that was spent and a prime contributor was the creation of fast foods, which increased the amount of energy intake creating an energy imbalance. Subsequently, the list of contributing factors grew larger, whether that was the mass production and use of cars, the introduction of microwaves or the birth of strategic advertisements. Not to mention, children born during the technological boom grew attached and adapted to technology. Today teens’ food choices are an outcome of social influences, which are leading to an escalation of obesity rates, thereby creating an unhealthy lifestyle. This paper will discuss the three main factors contributing to the epidemic obesity. The factors being the changed food eating ways over the years, advancements in technology and lastly strategic advertisements. Firstly, the food eating habits have evolved, fast foods have taken over fresh and healthy foods. Not to mention, fast food making processes are very unhealthy and the habit of... ... middle of paper ... ...usiness Education (2011): 1-25. Http://simmedia.eu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/1272-5039-1-PB.pdf. American Journal of Business Education, Jan. 2011. Web. 29 Oct. 2013. "Sugar." Britannica School. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013. . Thompson, Derek. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. N.p., 8 Mar. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. . University, YALE, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Fast food FACTS. Fast Food Facts – Home. YALE Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, June-July 2012. Web. 29Oct. 2013. "What is Childhood Obesity?." What is Childhood Obesity ?. Child Obesity Foundation, n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. .

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Fast Food And Obesity

    2105 Words  | 5 Pages

    The American diet has changed dramatically in the past couple centuries and so has the restaurant industry. The result of this change in Americans actions and diets is a rising obesity rate among children. In the 1970s, the childhood obesity rate was five percent of children (2-19 years old). The obesity rates doubled in the 1980s and by 2008 16.9% of children were obese (Grossklavs and Marvlesin). The percentage of obese children has more than tripled in the last 40 years. The growing epidemic is dangerous and alarming. There are many factors that contribute to the dramatic rise of obesity children. As obesity has grown, so has the fast food industry. “Between 1977 and 1995, the percentage of meals and snacks eaten at fast food restaurants doubled,” (...

    Read More

  • What Is The Killer At Large Essay

    617 Words  | 2 Pages

    This documentary shows great examples on how obesity is a rapidly growing epidemic as important as terrorism according to Former Surgeon General Richard Carmona. He stated, “Obesity is a terror within. It destroys our society from within….” If we don’t take responsibility and change our horrible eating patter we are going to be doomed. One of the main reasons for obesity other than the lack of a healthy diet is the modernization of our world. In the years when our parents...

    Read More

  • Reaganomics and The Decline of The United States

    2061 Words  | 5 Pages

    Thompson, Derek. "The Atlantic." The Atlantic. Reuters, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. .

    Read More

  • Obesity In Don T Blame The Eater By David Zinczenko

    1675 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of American society. Everywhere you turn you can see a fast food restaurant. An industry that modestly began with very few hot dog and hamburger vendors now has become a multi-international industry selling its products to paying customers. Fast food can be found anywhere imaginable. Fast food is now served at restaurants and drive-through, at stadiums, airports, schools all over the nation. Surprisingly fast food can even be found at hospital cafeterias. In the past, people in the United States used to eat healthier and prepared food with their families. Today, many young people prefer to eat fast food such as high fat hamburgers, French-fries, fried chicken, or pizza in fast

    Read More

  • Goffman and Stigmatization: The Stigma That Obese Individual Suffers From

    2594 Words  | 6 Pages

    In order to take a sociological viewpoint into account when one examines obesity, first it is important to understand how obesity is recognized in current society. According to today’s news articles and magazines and advertisements and other mass media about health and healthy life, one can easily realize that a great number of people have an eagerness to be healthy. Also, one can assume through these mass media about health that everyone wants to be attractive, and they are even prone to transform their own behaviors to gain attractiveness. This is because most people live a life where social interaction is frequently required and must engage themselves into social interaction every day of their life. Therefore, based on these ideas and proofs throughout this mass media, obesity is regarded as one of the characteristics that is disgraceful and undesirable in society.

    Read More

  • Overview of the Obesity Epidemic

    1810 Words  | 4 Pages

    There is no doubt that obesity has taken its seat as one of the top disease that strikes the world today. In America, obesity has now spread through the country leaving 2 out of 3 adults either overweight or obese, and worldwide 1.5 billion are overweight or obese (Overweight). The cause of this disease stems from multiple reasons such as the increase in modern food production, putting out ample amounts of food causing the prices for meat, groceries, and especially junk food to plummet. Subsequently, Americans especially were more inclined to purchase more food and showed an increase in the average American house hold food intake by 1,000 more calories a day (Dreifus).

    Read More

  • Obesity Epidemic and Nation's Health

    1691 Words  | 4 Pages

    The obesity epidemic and our nation’s health as a whole have many factors that include socioeconomic status in particular. Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Obesity will always shape our nations vision and mission with what we do with healthcare. Healthcare in America is in a major reconstruction faze, and is in much need of it, obesity and socioeconomic status are going to be the major contributors to this reconstruction.

    Read More

  • The Obesity Epidemic Sweeping the Nation

    901 Words  | 2 Pages

    Repeatedly the news will highlight a story about the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation. Although the news and health experts bombard the common citizen with quick and easy ways to eat healthier and exercise more, the source of the issue is kept hidden behind closed doors. Before placing blame on the eating habits, it’s essential to take a closer look at what is being consumed. With rapid change in the food industry, progress must be met with caution because “The way we eat has changed more in the past fifty years than in the past 10,000” (Pollan and Schlosser). It is easy for the common man to provide the blanket statement of eating “better”, yet few actually proceed to do this. The average American has one of the worst diets in the world although opportunity and variety of options are overwhelming. Food industries are deceiving by masking the true process of how their food is produced. Not only does the eye not see how the food was made, but there is also a false sense of variety in the grocery market. The grossly unbalanced American diets and genetically modified organisms both coexist to create a greater problem than previously thought of.

    Read More

  • Obesity in America

    1216 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident is that food intake is higher than the calories burned in physical activity. Excess of energy from food is stored in the body as fat causing an increase of weight. During the course of the last 40 years, obesity has grown enormously in the United States and the rates remain on the rise (pgs. 272-273).

    Read More

  • Overview of Obesity

    2044 Words  | 5 Pages

    "Obesity is defined as having an excessive amount of body fat" (Zeratsky). Obesity is not just about being overweight or eating unhealthy food. Obesity itself is much more complicated than that and has become a worldwide problem. People are considered obese if our body fat percentage is high enough and also if you are thirty-five pounds overweight (Hellmich). Body Mass Index is something a lot of doctors talk about in the health world and it is abbreviated BMI. BMI is how we measure if we are at a healthy weight or not. Determining if we are healthy or not based off of our BMI is not the best or most accurate way to go. Measuring by our BMI could tell us that we are healthy, but really our body's fat percentage could still be too high. Obesity is not just about being unhealthy and weighing a lot more than one should, they could weigh a normal amount and still be considered obese. Normal body weight is also obese as it was just pointed out. This is so, because while our weight is healthy, our body fat is high enough to be considered obese. No one is immune to obesity and it can occur at any age. With this being said, everyone should watch what they eat and get enough exercise throughout their lives.

    Read More

  • Childhood Obesity: Fast Food Companies Are To Blame

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to “Burger Battles” from the Weekly Reader, obesity is defined as a person whose weight is 20 percent higher than recommended for their height (Burger Battles 1). When this condition begins to affect children lives, it is then known as childhood obesity. Within the United States of America, around 15 percent of children are considered to be obese (Holguin 3). Increasing tremendously, this outbreak has actually tripled in the amount of obese teen and doubled in children up to the age of thirteen (Burger Battles 2). One of the factors that is usually overlooked in the cause for obesity is the role of television. Not only does it reduce the amount of physical activity, the advertisements and commercials are targeting innocent viewers. In a survey completed by Gary Ruskin of Commercial Alert, the average child watches nearly 19 hours and 40 minutes of television a week (Ruskin 2). With that amount of time spent watching television, advertisements for fast food will be entering the children’s minds.

    Read More

  • Obesity as a Social Issue

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ournal articles support the thesis that Obesity is more than an individual’s problems and it affects more than their personal surroundings. It however affects nations economically, began the phenomena of “Globesity” and has been influenced by the body conscious era of time in which we live in. These are ties which we have woven

    Read More

  • Is Obesity a Disease?

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • The Differences Of Healthy Food And Fast Food

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    Food has been known as an unavoidable component of life which makes it a basic necessity. There are two main types of foods:healthy food and fast food. Although they have some similarities ,there are a lot of differences between them. Healthy foods provoke energy and decrease the risk of so many diseases. On the contrary, fast foods are high in sugar and fat, which may lead to many health issues like heart and liver diseases. They both can be tasty and have several varieties to choose . On the other hand,there are two main differences between the two types. The first one is related to health . The second one is related to cost.

    Read More

  • Cause and Effects of Obesity

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    Obesity occurs in all countries and it is one of the gravest problems in modern society. Obesity problems have become one matter of concern for individuals all around the world. What is more is that Obesity rates continue to rise all around the world. One of the chief causes is unhealthy diets. Obesity is also due to lack of exercise and lack of education and awareness. Therefore obesity has various effects including the risk of suffering from a range of health conditions, increased expenditure on health care and lack of self-esteem.

    Read More

More about Obesity: An Epidemic

Open Document