Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Obesity and low income
Social determinants of obesity
What are the causes and effects of obesity
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Obesity and low income
The obesity disease has risen to epidemic proportions and is raising concern in the health sector worldwide. The condition is common among both children and adults. It is true that the majority of the people need to be educated in changing their lifestyle to help combat this disease. The main cause of obesity is poor nutrition. Most people have poor lifestyle habits in relation to eating, which contributes to the obese condition. People have various eating habits according to their culture and financial means. Money dictates the foods that people can consume. In most cases, people opt for cheap low-quality foods, instead of the healthy, but pricey food products. There are sufficient solutions that can help to combat and reduce the obesity epidemic
The poverty condition greatly affects their potential in terms of consuming healthy foods that can help them stay obese free (Yahia, Achkar, Abdallah, and Rizk). According to Latham, poor nutrition is closely related to obesity in many ways. There are many good foods that can help a person stay healthy. Argumentatively, there are also low nutrition foods that are very cheap and affordable for most people, but can lead to obesity if consumed. As such, nutrition is an important factor because the low nutrition foods lack some nutrients required by the body. In addition, they also introduce some elements not required by the body, making it identify with the obese condition (Yahia, Achkar, Abdallah, and
These foods contain excess levels of calories. The question, in this case, does not deal with the number of calories, but what they can achieve in the human body. What happens is that the body cannot manage to burn all the calories, making them become converted into fats, and the fats are stored in the body. This happens not to be the only way in which the foods can cause obesity. It is clear that the foods also lack some elements that are fundamental to keeping the body healthy. These elements are the ones responsible for most of the body processes and functions thus contributing to healthy living. Non nutrition foods are known to cause obesity in the most frequent users, but this is debatable to some extent because some heavy consumers of these food products are not affected. The following two paragraphs will examine some of the solutions that can help solve the obesity issue (Sallis and
The problem behavior associated with individuals making bad food choices when presented with unhealthy food will need to be observed so that we may understand how to change this behavior as it is unhealthy and harmful to health overall. Are poor choices in different foods causing obesity? Making poor choices when it comes to food is an
Obesity is a very complex condition as there are many physiological and psychological dimensions to it. The complications accompanying the disease are multiple and are associated with the increased risk of many other medical conditions. It is thought that we live in an obesogenic environment due to an interaction of environmental, developmental and cultural influences. With the main cause of the disorder thought to be due to a combination of a sedentary lifestyle accompanied by an increased consumption of poor quality food with a high calorie and sugar content. The lack of energy expenditure could be explained by many individuals working a large number of hours, most days of the week in jobs that require minimal physical activity and it is often difficult to accomplish the recommended ...
A national epidemic is occurring, the war between food and people. In the United States, about “32% of children (from 2 to 19 years old) are obese” (Bernadac 1). As the years continue to go on the rate of obese children are increasing as well. In the past the problem did not have much consideration due to a low rate of affected children. Now families are suffering the long-term consequences of having an obese child. Some of those health effects are “Heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer and osteoarthritis” (CDC 1). A problem with this type of drastic effects may have a solution; method prevention for the future generations and correct treatment for those who are already obese can lower the rate.
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).
Lifestyle choices play a big role in obesity. The absence of exercise and unhealthy eating habits (such as eating too much) are part of the cause. Refined foods and foods in high sugar or fat should not account for many of one’s calories, or one will gain weight. Maintaining a healthy w...
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).
Since 1970, the obesity rates in America have more than doubled. Currently two-thirds of (roughly 150 million) adults in the United States are either overweight, or obese (Food Research and Action Center). According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, “overweight is defined as a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25 whereas obesity is defined as a BMI greater than 30.” There are numerous factors that contribute to obesity such as: biological, behavioral and cultural influences (Food Research and Action Center). While these factors all have a large role in obesity, there is no factor with as great of an influence as poverty.
America is one of the most obese countries in the world, and the reasons are quite obvious. Take a look around. Fast food chains on every block, more and more technology to make our lives easier, and high amount of stress are just a few factors to weight gain in our country. There are many different views on obesity and how the people think it should be resolved, whether it's government making the change or the people taking care of themselves. Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. Are we doing enough to bring these statistics down? No. In the last 40 years, there has been a growth to more than 160,000 fast food restaurants in America (“Adolescent and School Health”). Restaurants (such as Wendy's, McDonald's etc.) serve more than 50 million people per day, generating about 65 million in sales annually. Only since obesity has become a national epidemic have fast food restaurants changed their ways. But we need to do more than just change the kind of oil the french fries are fried in. Better yet, why don't we remove, or intensely decrease the number of the unhealthy fast food chains, and spread more healthy fast food chains, such as Subway? Is it something government could take act in? Should the United States government take measures to fight the rise of obesity in the country, or are choices concerning diet and nutrition better left to the individuals, free of government interference?
Obesity is a serious condition that has generated a discussion on whether or not to be classified as a disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity is the body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, which is calculated based on the person’s height and weight. For years, our society has been facing the obesity challenge, which can be extremely costly once it leads to several diseases. Thus, because of the constant increase of percentage of people with obesity, the American Medical Association (AMA) proposed in June 18, 2013 to classify obesity as a disease. Their argument was that obesity increases the risks of countless health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, hypertension etc. Moreover, it increases morbidity and mortality. By considering obesity as a disease, their aim was to maximize researches and funding, which will focus on obesity from different medical and health approach levels. Their idea of classifying obesity as a disease was in accordance with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s declaration of 1995. The institute declared, “ Obesity is a complex multifactorial chronic disease developing from multiple interactive influences of numerous factors.” In 2012, the CDC data showed 34.9% of adults obese and 17% of obese children. These numbers are very alarming especially since the struggle to deter certain factors contributing into this condition is still a challenge. Among the struggles, there are the people’s rights versus health regulations to keep them as healthy as possible like the former mayor Bloomberg regulation on soft drinks size cut. During CNN’s show GPS of Sunday 2, 2014, the host Zacharia...
Natural, earth grown foods are an essential part of every living being’s health. However, in the past century, people have begun to eat food made by man rather than from the earth. Recently, finding natural, organic, or raw foods has become more difficult than finding foods that have been processed in some way. Due to the bad eating habits that have become common in today’s society, people are living shorter, less fulfilled lives than people who eat healthy, well balanced diets. The article “Ultra-processed foods in human health: a critical appraisal” written by Michael J. Gibney, a nutrition scholar, explains how processed food consumption has increased dramatically, which in turn has caused an increase in chronic diseases and obesity rates.
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
Obesity occurs in all countries and it is one of the gravest problems in modern society. Obesity problems have become one matter of concern for individuals all around the world. What is more is that Obesity rates continue to rise all around the world. One of the chief causes is unhealthy diets. Obesity is also due to lack of exercise and lack of education and awareness. Therefore obesity has various effects including the risk of suffering from a range of health conditions, increased expenditure on health care and lack of self-esteem.
Modern poverty is so closely related with obesity for many reasons. First of all, poor people are ignorant and uneducated about their health and nutrition. Obviously, because of that they don’t really know what they are doing or even how they are taking the risk of eating some kinds of food. Poor people go for good tasting food without paying attention to the food’s freshness and safety. Moreover, children grow up without a proper understanding of good nutrition, so it is time to reintroduce nutrition to families and even in schools to kids. Second of all, poor people cannot afford buying healthy food. A person who is poor and hungry is going to buy the cheapest calories that he or she could find. In fact in today’s world, the cheapest calories come from junk food. It is cheaper and ...
In 2011, anthropologist Ellen Messer acknowledged that in spite of having enough food to feed the entire population on the Globe, more than 100 million people experienced shortages of food and nutritional deficiencies (as cited in Wiley & Allen, 2013, p.92). Thus, it is very important to consider analyzing various factors that influence nutritional status and its relationship with health.