We Must Fight Obesity

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Recommended: Proposal to combat obesity

Obesity results from excessive calorie intake that the body doesn’t need. Genetic, Environmental and behavioral factors have been linked to the onset of obesity. Moreover, the high body fat to lean body mass ratio makes obesity a major contributor to chronic illnesses. Obesity is caused by many factors, two of which are a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet.

Obesity is on the rise and is reaching epidemic proportion. About 70 million Americans are obese-more than 1 in 3 of all adults and 1 in 5 children.[3] The 1999-2000 combined prevalence of overweight (Body mass Index [BMI] 25-29.9 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI>=30 kg/m2) was 64.5%, of which 30.5% were obese.(Flegal, Carroll et al. 2002) Since 1980 obesity rates for adults have doubled and children rates have tripled and consequently, it is projected that, by the year 2048, 100% of Americans will be overweight or obese.(Wang, Beydoun et al. 2008) Many chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and various cancers have been linked to obesity. More than 112,000 deaths/year are linked in obesity.(Flegal et al., 2005)

Similarly, obesity is a huge concern in Kansas City as was seen in a 2001 survey conducted by Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that showed that counties in Kansas City Missouri were above the State and national percentages (MO - 23.2%, KS – 21.1%, US – 21.0%) for obese persons with Jackson County at the top. On the Kansas side, obese or overweight adult percentage was highest in Wyandotte County. [3] Each year Men’s fitness Magazine ranks the fattest and fittest cities in America. Kansas City periodically ranks among the top 10 fattest cities and has never come close to being among the 10 fittest cities. In 2003, Healthcare cost associated with obesity was e...

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...me Health Foundation/UMB Bank, Apr. 2003. Web. 21 Feb. 2010.

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4. Wang, Y., M.A Beydoun, et al. (2008).”Will All Americans Become Overweight or Obese? Estimating the Progression and Cost of the US Obesity Epidemic.” Obesity 16(10):2323-2330

5. Finkelstein EA, Fiebelkorn IC, Wang G.”State-level Estimates of Annual Medical Expenditure Attributed to Obesity.” Obesity Research 2004,vol 12,pp 18-24

6. US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy people 2010:understanding and improving health.2nd ed.2 vols.Washington,DC:US Government Printing Office,2000

7. Meera, Sharma. "Pharmacists help fight obesity in Coventry." Pharmacy in

Action: Case Study. Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, 2009.

Web.21Feb.2010..

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