Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
An argumentative essay about obesity
Essays Over Obesity
Controversy reversing the obesity epidemic
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: An argumentative essay about obesity
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. …show more content…
The BMI scale is a measurement to determine if a person is obese, overweight, or underweight using their height and weight. This topic has progressed into one of controversies. Reasons would be that obesity rates have doubled from 14% to 31% in the United States since the mid 1970’s. The increased number of fast food restaurants, and processed food are being blamed for this yet there is freedom to choose what and where to eat. Back then, many people bought food that was grown and produced by farmers who produced fresh products. This is considered the logic behind obesity rates being intriguingly lower than they are today. Also, an estimated 300,000 deaths were because of unhealthy weight in 2013, being the third highest cause of death, behind high blood pressure and smoking. The large spike of deaths sparked interest in medical associations and doctors to begin “making a move” to fight …show more content…
Associations like the AMA are focusing on using these different treatments on people who are already struggling with obesity. These supporters who say obesity is a disease are only considering the people that already have the “disease”. They are not as concerned for the increasing numbers of obesity rates meaning they are not planning to do much for obesity prevention. Research has claimed that the fast food industry has spent $4.9 billion on advertising. The targets of these advertisements are usually young children. It is too easy for someone to go through a drive-thru and pick up high calorie meals with many fat grams for the whole family. Not to mention that there are always fast food restaurants around the corner waiting to treat you and your family. In the past, people had to usually prepare their food and most of it was naturally grown and picked. Note that this is when obesity rates were as low as 12%-15%, depending on the state. Today, Americans have spent an estimate of $117 billion yearly on fast food overall which can directly relate to the increased obesity rates in the last decade. The choice to eat out is one that almost every American has to make each day and many follow through with it. The fast food industry is a big support in obesity and doesn’t realize the effect it has on people when
The blog post “Why are Americans Obese?’’, provides details on the classification of being considered obese through a body mass index chart (BMI). The source also, describes how Americans through increased food portions, confusing dieting, the lack of physical inactivity, have all played a major role in the epidemic obesity in Americans. The source concludes with ways to prevent obesity on a small scale through exercising, lowering calorie intake, eating smaller food portions, and asking for a medical professional’s opinion. The purpose of this source is to inform the audience of the epidemic issue that obesity is a real serious problem in America and that serious cardiovascular issues could lead to death. The source is not very useful, for reasons that the author of this post does not have the professional qualifications to know that all the information that was posted is accurate or reliable. Even though, the post was written recently, it was opinionated and biased to only certain forms of ways to deal with the subject matter. It only offered a few solutions out the many that are available to the public. In conclusion, the blog post provides general information about obesity and confirms that people don’t know the optimal way to prevent or treat obesity, but can only offer
Childhood obesity is a chronic health problem in the United States. Today, "nearly a third of youths are overweight or obese" (National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research). Obesity affects children psychologically and physically. Obesity is a chronic imbalance of more calories consumed than expended each day. Childhood obesity is closely linked with housing and food securities, children without stable homes are more likely to suffer from hunger, chronic disease, and malnutrition. Demographic, socio-structural, and environmental variables also play a significant role in the childhood obesity prevalence and incidents. For instance, environments with lower than the average neighborhood, availability of healthy foods and higher than
Without recognizing the reality of and suffering the results of living with obesity, together with the feeling of losing control with a continually growing weight and avoiding acknowledging the reality of being obese, a desire for change will not foster. The aspiration and willpower to make a change is initially conveyed in several failed efforts to lose weight and is supported by the wanting to take back control and to reverse the issues stemming from the excess weight. A journey of gathering information follows, that ultimately guides the overweight individual to information about gastric bypass surgery. Sometimes this will happen due to chance, but in most cases it is consequence of endlessly seeking for aid outside the conventional methods
All parents believe, or would like to believe, that their children are in a state of perfect health. In some cases, this is incorrect due to the parents and children 's lack of knowledge on what the actual state of optimal health is for children. For example, a hot topic around the world today is the issue of childhood obesity. This topic caught my eye because it is truly beginning to have a negative impact on today’s society and is something that needs to be addressed. Currently, my job at the Littleton YMCA provides me the with opportunity to work with children and teach a variety of fitness classes for kids. This has helped me to become passionate about promoting a healthy lifestyle, and showing younger generations ways in which to go about this. Gaining more information on this topic can help me to better
Obesity is a modern epidemic in America and is starting to become our society’s “norm.” According to an article in Progress in Health Sciences, childhood obesity is the most frequent eating disorder (Koukourikos). There are several factors that contribute to the childhood obesity epidemic. Should we solely shun the parents of obese children for this? No, we should not. There is not one single person to blame, but several people, along with our society. Family, friends, and schools all play a very important role in teaching children about healthy food choices and exercise. Children may have a greater risk for obesity due to genetic factors. We need to constantly remind our children how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle so that
Put the cookies down! Over the past several years childhood obesity has severely increased. Children all over America are subjected to unhealthy foods more so than healthy foods. With all the different ways of advertising through television, internet, billboards, magazines, etc. children are bound to crave unhealthy foods. Especially since many advertisements are used to target children. Within the past few years larger portions of foods have amplified, the number of less healthy food advertisements have increased, and the parents poor eating habits have all contributed to childhood obesity.
Visit any public park or any school playground and you are sure to find young children that are above the national recommended weight for their ages. These children range from being overweight to being obese. Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have a negative effect on health and is defined by body mass index (BMI). In the United States, the rate of childhood obesity has been on a high rise over the past few decades. Obesity is a growing epidemic that has lasting, economical strain, psychological effects, contributes to major health issues because of, a lack of physical activities and education.
Obesity is a physiological condition characterised by an excessive accumulation of body fat, specifically the build-up of adipose tissue beneath the skin. In recent years, the number of people diagnosed with clinical obesity has increased dramatically, with governments desperately trying to tackle the obesity epidemic and its associated consequences (McLannahan and Clifton, 2008). Studies have found that the prevalence of obesity once stood at an estimated 9.8% (Kelly, Yang, Chen, Reynolds & He, 2008), a considerable figure representing almost 400 million individuals worldwide. Even though obesity has now been recognised as a major problem the number of people affected is increasing rapidly, with almost 300,000 deaths attributable to obesity in the USA each year (Allison, Fontaine, Manson, Stevens, & VanItallie, 1999). Excessive amounts of fat can prove dangerous as the condition has a very high comorbidity rate with other long term health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and cancer (Pi-Sunyer, 1993). Numerous examples of media, medical journals and educational literature concerning obesity refer to the condition as a disease, with an increasing use of the word ‘Epidemic’ to describe the somewhat recent surge of obesity cases in western societies (Boero, 2007), however there is little material available that offers evidence for obesity meeting specification for disease. Instead it has been proposed that obesity is alternatively a risk factor for developing other potentially harmful diseases, influenced by a variety of other factors i.e. genetics, cultural ideals and biological impairments.
America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Take a look around. Fast food chains on every block, more and more technology to make our lives easier, and high amount of stress are just a few factors to weight gain in our country. There are many different views on obesity and how the people think it should be resolved, whether it's government making the change or the people taking care of themselves. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Are we doing enough to bring these statistics down? No. In the last 40 years, there has been a growth to more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America (“Adolescent and School Health”). Restaurants (such as Wendy's, McDonald's etc.) serve more than 50 million people per day, generating about 65 million in sales annually. Only since obesity has become a national epidemic have fast food restaurants changed their ways. But we need to do more than just change the kind of oil the french fries are fried in. Better yet, why don't we remove, or intensely decrease the number of the unhealthy fast food chains, and spread more healthy fast food chains, such as Subway? Is it something government could take act in? Should the United States government take measures to fight the rise of obesity in the country, or are choices concerning diet and nutrition better left to the individuals, free of government interference?
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...
When promoting plus sizes and television shows, are self-esteem or heart disease also being promoted? People throughout the world struggle with being anorexic, bulimic, overweight, or obese. TLC’s now popular reality TV show, My 600 Pound Life, displays the daily struggles of morbidly obese people. While encouraging women to love their body is appealing, there are many dangers in the fondness of obesity. Glorifying obesity can lead to being morbidly unhealthy, as demonstrated by Dominique Lanoise, a woman who died from morbid obesity.
There is an epidemic running rampant across the United States and most people do not know the effects it has on society; this epidemic is none other than obesity. In the last thirty-five years, the obesity rate has more than tripled. Obesity has many ill effects and is the cause of many diseases. Washington Post journalist Wil Haygood, elaborates, “A lot of our medications are for ‘disease states,’ such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, things that can be adversely affected by increased weight” (411). Speaking with a pharmacist, Haygood explains how obesity can lead to serious disease and further health implications that are difficult to overcome.
Obesity is a worldwide epidemic that seems to be spreading across the country rapidly and affecting more than 35% of the U.S. population today. Considering that some people of the U.S. are almost too fat to move, they cannot exercise to help themselves to lose weight. Many of these people do not want to figure out another solution to their problems other than food, so, therefore, there is no easy cure for their obesity. Almost a third of the world is overweight; no country is immune to this terrible obsession with eating. Being a fellow lover of food, I propose that since the population of the world is already slowly becoming too fat to move, we might as well speed up the process by making everyone in the world overweight so that being obese is the normal body weight.
Kacey Pickens Ms. Ganser Dual Credit 4 October, 2017 Obesity is Not A Disease There is a big controversy on whether obesity is a disease itself or not. Obesity, by definition, is the condition of being overly fat or overweight. Obesity is a widespread condition that is commonly mistermed as a disease due to lack of understanding of what the word “disease” really means. A disease is a term that is classified under a variety of definitions depending on the source it is taken from.
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...