Obesity In America

Within the recent years obesity has become a growing issue within modern society, and Americans blame the lack of exercise, increase in portion sizes, and more desirable junk food. Fast food chains are targeted as the dominant contributors to those extra pounds that have appeared recently on the average American. Although, there are underlying factors in the society of American people that could or could not be contributing to further obesity, but it is easy for those to jump on the bandwagon of blaming restaurants for their unhealthy food instead of taking responsibility for their unhealthy decisions. Controversy has arisen whether the recent rapid increase in obesity rates labels it as a disease; obesity is not contagious like the flu, but

According to recent findings that suggest a variety of possible factors, now the the causes of obesity involve other things besides the amount of food a person consumes, and lack of exercise. The increase in weight gain and obesity is not only the lack of nutrition and exercise but also other socioeconomic factors (Holden). According to David Berreby in Aeon Magazine the American people are getting fatter as well as laboratory animals such as rats and monkeys; domestic animals and pets including dogs and cats in rural and urban areas are included too. It is a possibility that the increase in the size of Americans and its animals is a direct correlation to the progressive industrialization because of the production of more food and demand of less manual labor. Not only does Berreby point out that animals that have gained weight over decades have not changed their diets, but he also states that even though humans have changed diets, this rise in weight gain is out of their control. Something else is contributing to the

The increase of obesity rates among adults is important because of the impact and influence of eating habits and nutritional knowledge taught to kids. Berreby uses statistics from 2010 provided by the National Center for Health Statistics to support the rising obesity claim: 30% of the adults in Alabama are classified as obese compared to the 10% recorded in 1986. This increase is minimal when compared to children's obesity which has risen by 147% as seen in the same statistics given by National Center of Health Statistics. The substantial growth of obesity of young children is bad news for the future of obesity in the United States. The kids that are obese as children took after their parents’ eating habits, and genetics making it likely that most of them will grow up overweight all their life and will influence their own children to do the same. If we as a country want to stop this epidemic then we need to focus the importance of nutritional knowledge, healthy eating habits, and exercise. Parents should facilitate this in order to be a model for their children’s