There are many issues facing Americans today, but I believe that the most pressing issue is obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the percentage of overweight American children and teens has more than doubled in the past decade (Ward-Smith). Two-thirds of the adults are either overweight or obese, and at least 300,000 Americans die each year from obesity related diseases (“America’s Obesity Crisis”). Type II diabetes is already reaching epidemic proportions among our youth, and we will soon have the first generation of Americans who are less healthy than their parents (Davis 2). Obesity has been officially recognized as a disease by the American Medical Association. It’s considered an epidemic in the United States. More than 30 percent of adult Americans are overweight, compared with 25 percent a decade ago (Greenblatt). It’s easy to see why. The U.S. food industry continuously markets high-fat, high-sugar, super-sized foods. Modern communities encourage driving rather than walking. Schools are dropping physical education classes even as fattening snack foods are being brought to schools. Plus, children are spending more time playing computer games than sports. Modern families are always on the go, so they are stuck eating unhealthy fast food. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults, unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise.
But unlike other public health challenges such as tobacco use and seatbelts, there is no single cause or solution to turn to. There are many individual, environmental, and community factors, as well as state and federal policies that contribute to obesity. Many people do not believe there is a problem with be...
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Obesity is a rising problem in the United States. With obesity rates on the rise something must be done to prevent this massive issue. There are ways to help including educating at young ages, improving nutrition facts at restaurants, and providing more space for citizens to get physically active.
Caballero, Benjamin. "The Global Epidemic of Obesity: An Overview." Johns Hopkins Bloomberg school of Public Health. 13 May 2007: 1-5. Epidemiologic Reviews. Web. 21 September 2015. http://epirev.oxfordjournals.org/content/29/1/1.full.pdf+html
Tom Harkin, US congressman from Iowa, says that obesity now contributes to the death of more than 360,000 Americans a year. The incidence of childhood obesity is now at epidemic levels. Alarm bells are going off all over the place, but our government has basically done nothing. The obesity rate has risen to epidemic proportions in the United States. Communities across the country, recognizing obesity as an issue of serious public health concern, are looking for innovative ways to halt the increasing rate of obesity (Davis 260). The rising prevalence of childhood and adult obesity can be explained in part by changes in our environment over the last 30 years; in particular, the unlimited supply of convenient, highly palatable and energy-dense foods, coupled with a lifestyle typified by low physical activity (Farooqui 5-7). Childhood obesity in America is a growing epidemic--because of advertisement of fast food, lack of physical activities, and parental control--that has lasting psychological effects.
The obesity epidemic is one of the most pressing issues at this point in both American society and U.S. public policy initiatives. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention 35.9% of U.S. adults over the age of twenty are obese (CDC, 2013). The CDC further notes that 69.2% of U.S. adults twenty years of age and over are overweight (this percentage includes those who are obese). The obesity problem is not exclusive to the adults in the U.S. The CDC notes that 18.4% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 are currently obese (CDC, 2013). These statistics illustrate the severity of the obesity epidemic in this country, but what can be done to address or even correct this problem? Many people have proposed solutions, but few are as radical as the proposal from Michael Bloomberg (the New York City Mayor) in 2012.
Obesity has increasingly become a significant public health concern in the United States. In the past four decades, the numbers of overweight children, adolescents, and adults has shot to high margins, and the rise cut cross all ages, races, and ethnicities for both males and females. A recent analysis by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 30% of the American adult aged over the ages of twenty, which is a representation of over 60 million adults, was obese. Still the same survey indicated 16% of those between the ages of 16years and 19 years, which is over 9 million children and teenagers, were obese. This has come with its share of repe...
Today, 78.1 million American adults and 12.5 million children are obese. Obesity in America is a unstoppable epidemic. Since the 1960s, the number of obese adults have doubled and the number of obese children have tripled. Because of America’s obesity problems, Surgeon General David Satcher issued a report saying; "The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight," said that obesity "have reached epidemic proportions" in America. Obesity in America has no doubt reached epidemic proportions. Since 2001, America has been the most obese country in the world. This essay discusses what obesity is and how it is affecting today’s America by answers the following questions:
The obesity epidemic is a globally acknowledged serious population-level public health issue. Obesity is the number two cause of mortality behind smoking in ...
One hundred and forty-seven billion dollars. This is the estimated cost of obesity in the United States (CDC, 2013). Today, obesity is on trend to being one of the biggest public health challenges since tobacco (Perry & Creamer, 2013). In 2010 33.7% of US adults and 17% of children aged 2-19 were considered obese (CDC, 2013). While obesity is rising at an exponential rate, there is disconnect between how society views and defines obesity and the actual medical costs and future health risks the disease holds (ACSM, 2010). This is where medical professionals need to bridge the gap of medical and social construction.
We live in a lazy nation and one that suffers from many health related issues associated with obesity. “Obesity is a national health crisis…”(Freedman 1). People are not very understanding of the effects of obesity. “ Health risks of obesity… cardiovascular disease, asthma, high blood pressure, adult-onset diabetes, uterine an...
Obesity is a public health issue due to the complications it leads to later in life. Obese individuals are more susceptible in obtaining health problems such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, therefore have a higher risk of mortality (WHOgoogle). Yet not only is obesity a problem of the individual but of society as well. In 2008 US spent an estimated cost of $147 billion on medical cost of obesity, almost a 70 billion dollar increase since 1998(CDC). Both the detrimental health issues it leads a too and the excessive amount of cost it causes, obesity is epidemic that must be addressed.
Over the past 50 years, Americans have seen drastic changes in its politics, the popular culture, and in its lifestyle. Some of these changes have had an amazing impact on the society both positively and negatively changing how we view the average person in America. One of the most obvious changes, is the rise of the obesity in America. Although there are some evident factors to the increase, typically a person dealing with obesity is dealing with multiple factors, creating situations where handling one's obesity is out of his or her control.
Food advertisements, soft drinks, the growth of fast food restaurants, and the increase in portion sizes at cheaper prices are the changes that negatively influence the United States in term of health problems. Over the past few decades, obesity has been the main nutritional problem and has become one of the most critical health concerns in America. According to recent statistics, approximately one third of American adults are obese in which they have a body mass index (BMI which can be calculated as an individual’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) of 30 or higher. Obesity does not only shorten people’s life expectancy in the future, but also burdens the national medical spending which is nearly $147 billion every year. Around the world, over one billion adults and more than 10% of children are considered to obese. As the World Health Organization predicts, the number of obese children will increase to 700 million and nearly 2.3 billion adults by 2015. In addition, childhood obesity is correlated with a higher probability of becoming obese adults, premature death, and disability (Kaltra, De Sousa, Sonavane, & Shah, 2013).
It’s no secret that obesity is a huge issue worldwide; over three hundred million people are clinically obese on the earth. People of both genders, every race, and all ages are prone to obesity, yet the fault for obesity is not solely each individual's responsibility. In our society, obesity is killing people, and not simply due to the health problems associated with the disorder. Changes must be made to our obesogenic environment to fight the obesity epidemic.
Over the course of the last few decades, the U.S. has seen a drastic rise in the spread of obesity. Through the rise of large-scale fast food corporations, the blame has shifted toward the mass consumerism of these global industries. It is, however, due to poor lifestyle choices that the U.S. population has seen a significant increase in the percentage of people afflicted with obesity. In 1990 the percentage of obese people in the United States was approximated at around 15%. In 2010, however, it is said that “36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher”(Millar). These rates have stayed consistent since 2003. The obesity problem in America is