Obesity is the most common problem in today’s society. There are many fad diets, and weight losing options out there that are temporary. In this essay, why diets fail and don’t necessarily lead to long term weight loss is discussed as well as the causes of Obesity and the Set Point Theory .
A woman’s body image plays a big role in her self esteem. Around 50% of young women have reported to be dissatisfied with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, and Martinez 2006). According to the NHS Information Centre, Obesity is a term used to refer to a condition where there is excess amounts of body fat and weight is more than what the height requires. The NHS also reported, in 2008, nearly a quarter of adults aged 16 and above, 24% men and 25% women were reported as obese in the UK. There are many causes of obesity such as over-eating, genetics, stress, depression and many more.
The role of media is listed as one of the many reasons of obesity particularly in children (Boyce, 2006). A study by Dietz & Gortmaker (1985) suggests, for each additional hour of television children aged between 12 -17 viewed, the prevalence of obesity increased by 2%. On the other hand, food being the most advertised product on children’s television, advertisements make quite an impact on unhealthy consumption (Boyce, 2006). Children who watch this advertisements are more likely to choose the foods advertised compared to the ones who don’t (Coon & Tucker, 2002). The image of body presented by the media is expectable, obese characters are commonly portrayed as unattractive, unpopular and unsuccessful (Brown & Witherspoon; Parallel as cited in Boyce 2006). This portrayal or image of obese people can be harmful for their self-esteem and can cause stress, anxie...
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...ting self for what one is. A benefit of this would be to avoid the disappointment that may come after all the weight is once again gained back. Wadden & Stunkard (1993), have documented that although weight loss can cause psychological improvement in those who are distressed by their weight, there is evidence that it can cause more psychological distress when followed by weight regain.
Another good point made by Allison & Pi-Sunyer (1995) is, it is traditionally believed that obesity is voluntary and the reason is likely to be poor self control and the only treatment to this is to reverse the obese state. Instead of trying to reverse this with ineffective treatments like dieting this should be replaced with treatment emphasizing on self esteem, self acceptance and help them lead healthy lifestyles by giving them health eating options rather than starving.
Obesity is a huge problem that needs to be resolved because it affects all people, unlike most issues. People of every gender, every age, and every race are at risk of being obese. Obesity rates in America have nearly doubled within the last twenty years. Something must be done not only to prevent obesity rates continuous rising, but also to dramatically increase the percentage of obese people in America altogether.
In the documentary Killer at Large, former Surgeon General Richard Carmona remarked that “Obesity is a terror within. It’s destroying our society from within and unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9/11 or any other terrorist event that you can point out…” Carmona is indeed right, with the rapid increase of obese children, America is on the fast track to producing a generation with a life expectancy shorter than their peers. One of the main factor is the media representation of obesity (Greenstreet 2008). In today’s society parents are not only worrying about televisions influence on their kid’s behavior but their weight and health, too. According to study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, that researched the role of media in childhood obesity, stated the obesity increased by 2% for every hours of television in adolescent’s ages 12 to 17. The advertisement of food and beverages present a very strong influence on the children. Most of the products being advert...
Hype words like ‘epidemic’ have been used to stress the relevance of obesity in today’s generation. The situation has been mainly accredited to poor parenting as well as the accessibility of high sugar and low quality food in developmental stages. However, this issue is not limited to cost and upbringing. It is crucial for parents to be aware of the media that exists encouraging children to partake in challenges similar to what is seen on Man v. Food.
According to Mark Dolliver, “foods account for 39 percent of TV advertising seen by 2-7 year olds, 95 percent of that seen by 8-19s and 92 percent of that seen by 13-17s.On a typical day, the 2-7 year olds are exposed to 4:51 minutes of food commercials.” (Dolliver, 2007. p.1) Dolliver used statistics to show much how children are seeing these commercials. Throughout the rest of the article he talks about the increasing amounts of time that children spend watching television and the types of foods that are being advertised. Depending on the family dynamic in the household, children could be watching more television than the statistics that Dolliver presents in his study. This is what would be characterized as the advertisement of obesity in todays society. Before televisions were made, there were print advertisements that contributed to the purchasing of junk or fast foods like the 1956 Canada Dry Ginger Ale Print Ad. Although for 1956, there is not a lot of information about the obesity epidemic, it contributes to how powerful advertisements can be. These advertisements whether it is from the 1950s or if it is from today, largely influence the food quality that children are wanting or expecting. When children are exposed to television advertisements about unhealthy products in large quantities, they are more susceptible to the risk of obesity. Television
Jane Collingwood. Obesity and Mental Health. 4 December 2013. Psych Central. 4 December 2013. http://psychcentral.com/lib/obesity-and-mental-health/000895
“Look at her, eating at Macdonalds, maybe if she stopped eating so much she would lose some weight”. This statement is constantly made by thousands of people who do not know the truth about obesity. Humans are quick to make judgements based on what they see in front of them. If an obese person is eating, the first thing that comes to mind for many people is, “Its their fault that they are overweight”. The details of the obese individuals story are often overlooked. People do not realize that there are many factors that contribute to obesity such as; genetics, medical disorders, and the lifestyles being passed on to current and upcoming generations. Likewise, the story of a woman named Claire illustrates how a person can be deemed overweight from the beginning of their childhood. She was raised by a family who used the “clean your plate” method. Since the age of 3, whenever she was being fed, Claire would be forced to finish the enormous portions of food on her plate completely. If she refused, even due to feeling sick, Claire would be punished by being locked up in a garden room by her parents. She now suffers being morbidly obese, having a weight of 392 pounds at age 43 (BBC News Magazine, 2012). These causes are all substantial evidence that obesity is not brought upon an individual at their own fault, however, due to the circumstances they face in their life.
Today obesity is talked about as a major physical health problem. It can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, immobilization, and many other problems. However many articles fail to mention what is one of the most important and most destructive problems. This is the effect of obesity on one’s mental health and wellbeing. Being excessively overweight usually instills in it’s victims a sense of self worthlessness and gives them a very negative self-image. This can lead to an array of problems that affect the person in a way that is much more direct and difficult to deal with than physical problems. While the problem is known to affect men, it strikes women much more often.
Millions of Americans and people worldwide are overweight or obese. Obesity develops when “calories consumed exceeds calories expended” (“Obesity and Genetics”). “Obesity rates have more than doubled in adults and children since the 1970’s,” and in the present day it is estimated that “two – thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese” (Ogden). Being overweight or obese highly increases the risk of deadly health problems, therefore this statistic states that the majority of the United States population is at risk of obtaining life–threatening diseases. Around forty years ago obesity would not effect this abundant number of people; however today’s society consumes more fast food in addition to spending most of their hours doing sedentary activities (Green). There are now many causes of obesity such as environment, genetics, bad habits, culture and economic level. Obesity has many negative impacts on the human body. It can very likely cause diabetes, joint pain, sleeping problems, depression, and many hazardous diseases (“Explore Overweight”). In contrast to this, there are some possible solutions to obesity such as physical activity, dieting, and surgery. Obesity is a widespread epidemic that unfavorably affects the body, but with exercise fused with dieting the disease could be kept to a minimum.
Ever since 2013, obesity has been one of the leading health problems in America and around the world. Obesity is a poor decision choice because it’s obesity isn’t the food types people buy; it’s a result of the the food types people buy, lack of exercise and food addictions. People can come over and lose weight to help get rid of obesity. To help lessens the chance of getting fatal diseases from getting obesity as well.
Obesity means having too much body fat. It is not the same as being overweight, which means weighing too much. Someone may be overweight from extra muscle, bone, or water, as well as from having too much fat. (Bing health). Obesity is a major problem that is occurring in parts all over the world. Currently, the fattest nation is America . Many people are overweight because the do too little or no exercise at all. This is especially true in countries like America, where as people are bombarded by fast food stores on virtually every corner. Obesity can not only cause health problems, but as well mental ones. Obese people may think of themselves as a useless human being because they are too fat and can’t accomplish anything, because of their weight. Though this is incorrect, many people believe this and end up taking their life. In this paper we will describe the causes of obesity and ways to combat the “everlasting epidemic.”
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.
Hingle, Melanie, and Dale Kunkel. "Childhood Obesity and the Media." Pediatric clinics of North America 59.3 (2012): 677. Print.
In recent discussions of obesity, one controversial issue has been if the medical condition is a disease that needs treatment or if people themselves are the cause because of poor lifestyle choices. On the one hand, many organizations including the AMA (American Medical Association) argue that obesity is a disease and people diagnosed with it should be treated by doctors and prescribed medicine. On the other hand, many people argue that obesity shouldn’t be considered an illness because they say it is only a risk factor to other life threatening problems and it is preventable. My perspective is that obesity is a preventable risk factor to other diseases, but the condition of being extremely overweight itself is not because it is controllable.
Though not interfering the brain directly, a person who is obese is eight times more likely to be unhappy about their body compared to people who are not obese. This could make life extremely difficult for people who have obesity due to the fact every time they look at themselves in the mirror there are reminded by their “none perfect self’s.” This can cause a person to lose all of their self-confidences. Causing that individual to become depress, and not get the medical help they need because of the fact they believe they will be stuck like that forever. Another reason why obesity can affect the mental health of a Pearson is on social aspect. People who are obese tent to stay to themselves of even reaching out to a support group of others obese people. Mostly on online chats or internet forms they sit behind a computer and try to make themselves feel better about the way they look. Some people might think that obese people chatting on the web is a positive sign. But the true fact is that same person on the chatroom is so unhappy with their body they do not want to go out and meet people face to face due to the fact they are scared to being judge. Not being physical able to get up and go outside is one thing but when a person is so self-conscious they rather stay inside and not have to go through a store without feeling they will be judge plays on a huge difficult for
Obesity and overweight have became a global problem in the last decade, according to the World Health Organization back in 2005 approximately 1.6 billion adults over the of age 15 were overweight, at least 400 million adults were obese and at least 20 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight. Experts believe if the current trends continue by 2015 approximately 2.3 billion adults will be overweight and more than 700 million will be obese. The scale of the obesity problem has a number of serious consequences for individuals and government health systems. Obesity is a concern because of its implications for the health of an individual as it increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions. Being obese means having so much body fat that your health is in danger. However, being fat is simply not an opinion. Having too much body fat can lead to many diseases. Obesity and overweight have become a global problem in the last decade.