Obesity in America: A Growing Health Crisis

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As Americans, we all take our own approach to food, but most of us have the same initial feeling about it. And that is that we live and eat an unhealthy lifestyle to one that is leading to the increase of obesity and other diseases. In just 28years the rate of obesity in children has raised from 6.9% to 19.6%. We take that childhood obesity into our adulthood with us. Not only is the obesity rates increasing, but so is our chance of developing diabetes along with hypertension, high cholesterol and heart disease. People want to comment and have a say about the situation. But very few people want to take action and change the way our food today is processed and made accessible to us. The major argument people have is that they do not have the money for a healthier lifestyle. But, Millions of people die each year from being overweight. It is said that in 2015 more than 700 million people will be obese. (NCD Alliance) What most people don’t realize is that if you are obese as a child, you have a higher chance of premature death and disability in adulthood. In an article called “The Fast Food and Obesity Link: Consumption Patterns and Severity of Obesity” researchers talk about the recent studies revolving around obesity and how it affect us. Recent studies have shown that these increases in extreme obesity rates are not specific to a certain population, but are rather an integral part of the weight distribution in the USA, and the more extreme the obesity, the higher the rate of growth [4]. Thus, the public health concerns associated with this growth are of extreme importance given that those who are obese in any form are much more likely to suffer from obesity comorbidities including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, asthma, sleep apnea, and stroke. (Ginny Garcia, Ph.D. & Thankam S. Sunil, Ph.D. & Pedro

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