Obesity, Choice, and Community
Have you heard of NAAFA? That is the National Association for the Acceptance of Fat, a civil society organization whose only and unique goal is stated in its name. And why does anyone have to “accept fat”? Most people probably because fat has become a problem in America. Anecdotal evidence and personal observation point to the spectacular increase in numbers of fat people on the streets of every city and suburb.
These impressions are backed by some undisputable facts, such as an increase in average weight in men and women in the United States by twenty pounds over just two decades (Doyle, 2013). Is it some medical condition that has been unnoticed? Is it that people just enjoy the large choice of abundant and high quality food in restaurants and grocery stores? The opinions vary greatly as to what exactly is the cause of the increase of overweight people in proportion to the general population. At any rate, this growth in the average person’s girth in America has a medical and financial cost. There are many diseases linked to obesity, from diabetes to cardio-vascular affections. These ailments fill the hospital wards, and incur increasingly large costs for the national community. At one point, obesity is compared to cigarette smoking in terms of its health impact, evaluated by the Center for Diseases Control at 400,000 deaths a year (JAMA, 2004. Quoted by E. Oliver). So the focus is on the means to reduce the number of overweight people, and subsequently the impact of obesity on the American society.
The many efforts associated with the fight against obesity have led to a strong controversy on what the leading factors to obesity are. This debate is framed in terms of whether the condition of obes...
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...J. (2014). Trends in Global Obesity. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 29 (2). P. 16-20. Retrieved May 30, 2014 from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library. ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=09b5e51e-4725-4908-b81d-34a6a 577c8de%40sessionmgr4001&hid=4210
Oliver, J. E. (2005). Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic. Oxford University Press, London, UK. 240 p. Reviewed by Haney, M. T. (2007). Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 32(1), pp. 130-138. Retrieved May 29, 2014 from http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID =10233602
Randall, A. (2012). The Politics Of Fat In Black And White. In Talk of the Nation (NPR). 05/15/2012. Transcript. Retrieved May 29, 2014 from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy- library.ashford.edu/eds/detail?vid=6&sid=f1ee2ce2-29f2-4fa4-
Brody, Jane E. “Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause.” New York Times. 12 September 2011. Print.
Their goal was to be cast against public health officials and they wanted to be “represented as the voices denying the health risks of obesity” (Johnston & Taylor, 2008) and for them to recognize “the gender and class implications of fat
The article “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance” is written by Mary Ray Worley, a member of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. She writes of her firsthand experience as a “fat person” in society. Throughout the article, Worley explains what it is like to be obese and describes the way society treats those who have a weight problem. She attacks the idea of dieting, criticizes medical professionals for displaying an obscured view of health risks, and defends the idea of exercising to feel good rather than exercising to lose weight. Unfortunately, her article seems to reflect only own opinions and emotions rather than actual facts and statistics.
“Fat Acceptance”: An Argument Lacking Validity Cynara Geisslers’ essay “Fat Acceptance: A Basic Primer,” was published in Geez Magazine in 2010. The focus of the essay is to refute the pressure of society to be thin and promote self-acceptance regardless of size. While this essay touches on many agreeable points, it tends to blow many ideas out of context in an attempt to create a stronger argument. The article takes on a one-sided argument without any appropriate acknowledgement of the opposition, overlooks the risks of ignoring personal health, and has a strong feminist ideology associated towards the essay which tends to make the validity of her argument questionable.
The article “Rethinking Weight” was written by Amanda Spake, and is about the hardships of losing weight and keeping it off. She makes note of the fact that healthy weight loss (medically supervised, slow and gradual weight loss) is a completely unfair playing field against fast weight loss. She also talks about whether obesity should be classified as a disease so that it gets better treatment in the medical field. The article “Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance” was written by Mary Ray Worley, and is about learning to live in a “new world” as the author, Worley, describes it. This new world is one she experienced while at a NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) convention.
Fumento uses humor to open the article by stating “the Land of the Fat, Home of the Broad” is how America should be defined. However, this statement might offend people who are obese or anyone in general. Fumento shows that he is unhappy with those people who have been carelessly giving out information on the low-fat diet and claims that much of the obesity epidemic can be laid at the feet of the food industry, diet-book authors, and government health officials. Throughout the piece, Fumento expresses his concern about the rising obesity epidemic and claims that health officials must stick to science if they want to help defeat the epidemic, but “first, do no harm.” The impact of the increasing obesity statistics have concerned Fumento so much that he has also written his own book, “The Fat of the Land,” to discuss this controversy. In the book he discusses the misinformation given out to the public on loosing weight and how they reap billions in profit. Intrinsic ethos takes a positive toll on Fumento’s argument which creates a better chance of getting his point across to the
“Fat Land”, a book by Greg Cristler, a health journalist who was formerly considered overweight, explains how America became the fattest people in the world. Before writing this book, Cristler was told that he needed to lose forty pounds and so to do so he enlisted a competent doctor, the prescription weight-loss medication Meridia, jogs in a congenial neighborhood park, a wife who cooked him healthy food, and access to plenty of information. Cristler is quick to add that those weren’t the only factors that led to his weight loss, but money and time were a big part of it. Cristler lost the weight, but he states “the more I contemplated my success, the more I came to see it not as a triumph of the will, but as a triumph of my economic and social
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.
Overweight and obesity problem is becoming more and more serious in Australia. Not only Australians but also the world’s problem obesity is studied as one of the main causes of chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and sleep apnoea as well as other serious conditions, which put national economies and individual lives at risk. Obesity is also regarded as epidemic. Obesity is caused by a calorific imbalance between diet intake and consumed calories. Obesity has become the biggest threat to Public Health in Australia shown by Australia Bureau of Statistics (2013). Also, the prevalence of obesity is predicted as the ratio of obesity in adults and children will be doubled by 2025 (Backholer et al.2012). It is believed that this phenomenon is happening due to many social determinants of health, which have a strong negative impact on not only individuals but also society and economy. (Wilkinson and Marmot 2003) The social determinants of health are explained as conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age by WHO (Wilkinson & Marmot 2013). Different circumstances can be formed depending on their finance, power and global resources. These social determinants seem to be responsible for health inequities, which seem to be unfair and avoidable. Social determinants of health including social gradient, high calorie food intake, excessive amounts of stress and poor early life care are the relevant factors to contribute to be or being obesity. It is important to understand that the correlation of social determinants of health and obesity to manage the health problems and enhance public’s health.
This country places great value on achieving the perfect body. Americans strive to achieve thinness, but is that really necessary? In his article written in 1986 entitled “Fat and Happy?,” Hillel Schwartz claims that people who are obese are considered failures in life by fellow Americans. More specifically, he contends that those individuals with a less than perfect physique suffer not only disrespect, but they are also marginalized as a group. Just putting people on a diet to solve a serious weight problem is simply not enough, as they are more than likely to fail. Schwartz wants to convey to his audience that people who are in shape are the ones who make obese people feel horrible about themselves. Schwartz was compelled to write this essay,
Libal, Autumn. "The Poor Get Fat, The Rich Get Thin?" Social Discrimination & Body Size: Too Big to FIt? 2005. 40-55. Print. 10 Nov. 2013.
Obesity and overweight remain the two major social problems in the United States. Apart from the fact that obesity and overweight are dangerous by themselves, they also cause a variety of negative health consequences. Our lives our overloaded with tasks and obligations, and we often choose to eat something fast. “Fast”, however, does not necessarily imply “useful”, and more and more people face the risks of becoming obese even at young age. Because obesity has already become a national i...
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...
Over the course of the last few decades, the U.S. has seen a drastic rise in the spread of obesity. Through the rise of large-scale fast food corporations, the blame has shifted toward the mass consumerism of these global industries. It is, however, due to poor lifestyle choices that the U.S. population has seen a significant increase in the percentage of people afflicted with obesity. In 1990 the percentage of obese people in the United States was approximated at around 15%. In 2010, however, it is said that “36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher”(Millar). These rates have stayed consistent since 2003. The obesity problem in America is
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.