Is there a problem with being obese? Are there issues that obese people have to deal with that people of normal weight do not have to deal with? To answer these questions, there is need to have a thorough understanding of obesity. This research paper defines obesity, explains how it arises, and shows that it is a risky health condition that comes with numerous challenges that are difficult to handle. The challenges include susceptibility to disease, social stigma, and the inability to perform certain roles in society. Obesity is the possession of body weight that is more than the norm. Body mass index or BMI is used to measure the state of one’s weight and obesity starts at a BMI of 30 for an adult • An adult who has a BMI between 25 and …show more content…
After eating fatty foods, the individual opens his or her body to attack by numerous diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, and heart attack. These diseases are difficult to treat or manage. Obesity is also a cause for stigma that is a major cause for stress and depression among obese individuals. The stress and depression resulting from the stigma can cause poor performance in school and overindulgence in some actions such as drinking too much alcohol. Another challenge resulting from obesity is the slamming of doors to the obese individuals in some professions. Some of the professions that do not usually entertain obese individuals include modeling and the military. The modeling industry is notoriously hostile to obese and overweight men and women, and the industry’s preference for skinny models has been blamed for the pervasive obsession of young girls with dieting. This is a disadvantageous scenario that limits the opportunities that obese people have to succeed in life. All these challenges work in unison to create one major life and health crisis for obese people and their families. The challenges extend even to the nation that has to come up with mechanisms to combat the problem and the challenges it poses. Since eating and exercise habits are largely to blame for obesity, taking care of these areas by eating healthy and exercising adequately can help escape obesity thus avoiding all these challenges that come with
Holden, Diana. "Fact Check: The Cost of Obesity." CNN. Cable News Network, 09 Feb. 2010. Web. 06 May 2012.
Interest in the social aspects of obesity is nothing new. Jeffrey Sobal has written extensively about the social and psychological consequences of obesity , including the stigmatisation and discrimination of obese and even overweight individuals (Sobal 2004).
In order to take a sociological viewpoint into account when one examines obesity, first it is important to understand how obesity is recognized in current society. According to today’s news articles and magazines and advertisements and other mass media about health and healthy life, one can easily realize that a great number of people have an eagerness to be healthy. Also, one can assume through these mass media about health that everyone wants to be attractive, and they are even prone to transform their own behaviors to gain attractiveness. This is because most people live a life where social interaction is frequently required and must engage themselves into social interaction every day of their life. Therefore, based on these ideas and proofs throughout this mass media, obesity is regarded as one of the characteristics that is disgraceful and undesirable in society.
Goldstein, Hesh. Why There is an Obesity Epidemic. 16 Nov. 2009. 12 Nov. 2011 .
Obesity has been identified as one of the risk factors affecting directly and indirectly the health outcome of the population. Even though many approaches and programs have been conducted in order to reduce the obesity rate, this health issue is still a big headache and keeps being put on the table. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), overweight and obesity rate have been increasing significantly in the past two decades in the United States with more than 35.7% of adults and almost 17% of children and adolescents from 2-19 years olds being obese ("Overweight and obesity," 2013). As Healthy People 2020 indicated, in the period from 1988-1994 to 2009-2010, the age adjusted obesity rate among U.S adults aged 20 and over increased from 22.8% to 35.7%, which means increased by 57% while the obesity rate among children and teenagers from 2 to 19 years old increased from 10% to approximately 17%, witnessing the increase of 69% ("Nutrition, physical activity," 2013). Obesity has impact both on economic and health of the nation. Obesity is the risk factor of serious chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, certain kinds of cancer, and other leading causes of preventable deaths ("Overweight and obesity," 2013). Moreover, obesity continues to be economic burden in terms of medical costs for either public or private payers up to $147 billion per year which increased from 6.5% to 9.1% (Finkelstein et al, 2009). In 2008, medical spending per capita for the obese or obesity related health issues is $1,429 per year, as 42% higher than “those of normal weight” (Finkelstein et al, 2009, p.8).
There is no doubt that obesity has taken its seat as one of the top disease that strikes the world today. In America, obesity has now spread through the country leaving 2 out of 3 adults either overweight or obese, and worldwide 1.5 billion are overweight or obese (Overweight). The cause of this disease stems from multiple reasons such as the increase in modern food production, putting out ample amounts of food causing the prices for meat, groceries, and especially junk food to plummet. Subsequently, Americans especially were more inclined to purchase more food and showed an increase in the average American house hold food intake by 1,000 more calories a day (Dreifus).
Throughout Fat and Happy: In Defense of Fat Acceptance, author Mary Ray Worley claims it is possible for obese people to overcome society's alienation of their bodies. From the get-go, Worley states that we need to realign our accustomed connotations of the word fat. Everyone’s body is different. Society has embedded in our brains that fat is bad and ugly and that it should be removed immediately. Feeding this ideal of a quick diet, just results in worse health. Along with clothing that is not made for your body type and judgmental doctors, society is full of fat shaming. Shunning, hatred and non acceptance are some of the main health risks for people that are obese. Worley tries to inspire her readers to look above these frivolous societal
According to the USDA, at the start of century 21st American people have increased their daily caloric intake by consuming five hundred calories more than in 1970. As cited by Whitney & Rolfes (2011), there are many recognized causes of obesity such as genetics, environment, culture, socioeconomic, and metabolism among others; but the cause most evident is that food intake is higher than the calories burned in physical activity. Excess of energy from food is stored in the body as fat causing an increase of weight. During the course of the last 40 years, obesity has grown enormously in the United States and the rates remain on the rise (pgs. 272-273).
The official definition of obesity, is having a BMI of greater than 29.9. (Obesity and overweight). For example for a 5’10” male, a weight of 160lbs would yield a BMI of 23.0. Perfectly within the BMI range of healthy weight, 18.5- 24.9. But if that 5’10” male weighed say 230lbs, they would have a BMI of 33.0, and would be considered Obese.
Obesity is not a new notion or phenomenon in history. Centuries ago some cultures and societies saw obesity as the most noteworthy platform for wealth, social status, and sexual appeal. The influential Greek physician Hippocrates was among the first to record the negative effects of excessive weight and poor diet on the human body. While advancements in medicine and public health have helped improve life expectancy, obesity is becoming a silent yet visible threat to these milestones especially with the influence of technological innovation on the day-to-day of humans.
Although many individuals are uncertain about the increasing statistics associated with obesity, more than seventy percent of men and virtually sixty-two percent of women within the United States adult population are overweight or obese (Wilmore, Costill, & Kenney). Obesity refers to the condition of having an excessive amount of body fat. If an individual’s amount of body fat becomes too excessive, he/she is at a much greater risk of developing life-altering diseases such as heart failure, hypertension, type II diabetes, cancer, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, etc. (Wilmore, et al., 2008).
Society should consider the physical and emotional problems of obesity in our nation. “Obesity is defined as an excess proportion of total body fat (Mayo Clinic).” American society has become increasingly obese, “characterized by environments that promote increased food intake, unhealthy foods, and physical inactivity (cdcinfo@cdc.gov).” Our nation increasingly has become consumers of a fast food diet. It is so simple to just pick up food on the go and not deal with the hassle of cooking and cleaning up afterwards. What are nation needs to acknowledge is the health risks they will obtain if they do not acquire a healthy life style.
When one hears the word obesity thoughts that may come to mind are overweight, big, or even unhealthy. "Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30" (Obesity).
“More than one third of America’s population is obese, which is about 35.4% including: men, women, and children” (www.cdc.gov). Unfortunately, this statistic is 100% true. America is hungry, constantly. This definitely shows that the land of liberty is growing in the midsection; no, not the Midwest, on the bellies of the people who live throughout the nation. America has a typical hierarchy of factors who rule the over the obese population. Junk food, lack of mobility, and undereducated knowledge of a healthy lifestyle, often contradict the fate of an obese person.
Obesity is a common condition that affects thousands around the world. Its causes may vary from simply eating too much to not getting the exercise needed to attempting to quit smoking. Treatment of this condition may be as simple as getting the right diet or exercise, or a planned schedule from one’s physician. Obesity may be heredity or may be a result of any of the above mentioned causes. It is a serious matter to be dealt with yet may be treated easily.