Obesity : Obesity And Obesity

Obesity, also often referred to as being excessively overweight. An abnormal accumulation of body fat over an individual’s ideal body weight. Obesity has been associated with U.S. for many decades, but the cause of it is still unknown. There are many factors such as genetics, various combinations of hormonal, metabolic, and behavioral factors that play a role in obesity. In most of the cases, it is still hard to determine the exact causation of obesity. This epidemic has been increasing throughout the industrialized world. In less than 40 years, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has increased by over 50%, so that two of every three American adults are now overweight or obese (Obesity in America, 5). Most obvious consequences of obesity are diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, but cancer, arthritis, and depression are other serious factors to health. All in all, obesity and over weight account for nearly one of every 10 American deaths, and they also drain our society of $223 billion a year (Obesity in America, 5). Obesity is something that is present and dangerous, but people seem to overlook it.

There are many factors that can lead to obesity. If a pregnant woman has high intake of insulin, or gains excessive weight while pregnant it can cause a child to be born larger than their gestational age, which in the long run cause of obesity. Also, over feeding babies can cause them to develop early onset of obesity. This preset obesity effects child development and growth for the rest of his/her life. Children of obese parents are about 13 times more likely than other children to be obese, which links obesity to inheritance. An unusual high number of fat-cells appear to be inherited (Yates, 1909). Also, eating habits, physic...

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...ody fat percentage than men do. On the other side of that, women tend to watch more what they eat and how much they consume, where men just eat what they want and when they want. With waist sizes expanding for the last 40 years, American finally started realizing that this is not a healthy life style and changes have to be made. In the last few years this phenomena of organic foods, healthy eating, and exercise has sparked. More people are consuming healthier choices of food, exercising more and trying to keep a healthy weight. The age ranges from young children being taught at school and by parents about a healthy lifestyle, to working adults taking stairs and having salads for lunch, to senior citizens taking longer walks and playing tennis. It looks like America has finally woken up from this nightmare and has begun taking positive steps towards healthier living.