Argumentative Essay On 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.

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

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