The Scientific Research In the mid-1900s C. Wright Mills research of social imagination found something interest with his research. He defined social imagination as “Individual’s personal problems can also become a social problem with society.”(Mills 1959, p. 5). In other words, obesity in the U.S. is a social issue, not just a personal problem. What starts as personal problem can become a social issue. For instance, a veggie person invited to a family gathering that is maintaining a healthy diet, and only unhealthy food such as meat and desserts is serve. He/she might consider whether to eat and please guests, or avoid eating in order to maintain a healthy body. Choices are significantly reduced. Similarly, a person that is given couple dollars …show more content…
have several psychological factors. Many factors contribute individual’s choices and control of foods digested. The amount of unhealthy food restaurants offer makes it even more difficult to eat healthy. Furthermore, grocery stores healthy products are far more expensive than high in fat, sodium, and protein items. In today’s society’s sociological imagination is defined as “An individual seeing its own society as a stranger).”(Mills 1959, p. 5). The obesity in the U.S. cannot be understandable without observation or “social imagination.” Likewise, to really understand obesity and its problem we must figure out sociological problems before our own. The choices we make will have an impact with people we socialize with everyday. In other words, a person’s behavior might be influenced by others. …show more content…
Recent data shows obesity seems to be higher in women than in men. Women make 40% of obesity among adults. Also, Hispanic and black teens seem to be higher in obese than white young adults. In my personal perspective obesity is out of control. Children at such young age are overweight or obese. The sociology structure is unstable, and many people are being influenced by social issues. On the other hand, different countries are not influenced by the same social issue here in the U.S. What may something seem as an unusual behavior might be part of someone else’s culture? For example, “United States spends ridiculous amount of money in professionals athletes especially baseball and football but in Spain people gather to play in La Tomatina.”(Mills 1959, p.
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
From 2011-2017, 20.5% of children from 12 to 19 years old were obese. Supporters believe this is so because of unhealthy eating choices and not getting enough physical activity. The percentage of children with obesity in the United States has more than tripled since the 1970s. Today about one in five school children ages six through 19 have obesity. Not having recess in middle school is causing a lot less physical activity and that is causing a higher rate of obesity in America.
Obesity is a serious epidemic that majority of Americans face. The dangerous of obesity should not be taken lightly and addressed admittedly. However, the big question is how or why do some individuals stay skinny or become fat. The movie Weight of The Nations, Part 2: choice helps us explore this unanswered question to give us a better understanding of how this problem has gotten so out of control. This movie targets the obese society in America. This documentary uses scientist to research and address techniques to help people prevent weight gain and loss unhealthy weight. Most Americans want quick fixes to this problem, but have to realize big changes take time, but offer big results. Over all, the idea is to get people motivated by positive results to live a healthier live style.
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.
Obesity is a huge problem that needs to be resolved because it affects all people, unlike most issues. People of every gender, every age, and every race are at risk of being obese. Obesity rates in America have nearly doubled within the last twenty years. Something must be done not only to prevent obesity rates continuous rising, but also to dramatically increase the percentage of obese people in America altogether.
Over 60 million people are obese in the world today. The socioeconomic statuses of the Americans play a major part in the obesity rates across the country. People with higher incomes are less likely to be obese than people with lower incomes. One in every seven preschool-aged children living in lower income areas are obese (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). A 2008 study showed that obesity is highest among American Indian and Alaska Native (21.2 percent) and Hispanic Americans (18.5 percent) children, and it is lowest among white (12.6 percent), Asian or Pacific Islander (12.3 percent), and black (11.8 percent) children (Get America Fit).
It is a sad one. People of all races and backgrounds are obese. In a recent survey done at Henry Ford College, 43 percent of students were overweight. Whether it is because they do not follow a healthy diet or because they inherited it from their parents. Being overweight is correlated with lack of exercise or physical activity and not watching what is on the plate.
The term Sociological Imagination was coined by C. Wright Mills and refers to seeing sociological situations from a broad point of view, going beyond one’s thoughts and feelings, and by seeing it how others would see it. In the textbook Introduction to Sociology by Giddens, et. al Mills argued that we needed to “overcome our limited perspective…[and have] a certain quality of mind that makes it possible to understand the larger meaning of our experiences” (4). Therefore one should look at the overall social problems and not at a specific individual’s situation. With this concept in mind I am going to analyze the Guardian online 2012 article “Why our food is making us fat,” by Jacques Peretti. The article mainly speaks about the rapid rise in obesity and the main contributor to it, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). The article also points out some of the economic and political influences behind HFCS.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) about “17% (or 12.5 million) of children and adolescents aged 2-19 years are obese” (Moreno et al., 2013 P.157). “Surveys administered in 1976-1980 and 2007-2008 show that the prevalence of obesity has changed from 6.5% to 19.6% among children 6-11 years old age and from 5.0% to 18.1% for those aged 12-19 years (Moreno et al., 2013 P.157).
Obesity and overweight remain the two major social problems in the United States. Apart from the fact that obesity and overweight are dangerous by themselves, they also cause a variety of negative health consequences. Our lives our overloaded with tasks and obligations, and we often choose to eat something fast. “Fast”, however, does not necessarily imply “useful”, and more and more people face the risks of becoming obese even at young age. Because obesity has already become a national i...
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...
Many people in America, from toddlers to the elderly, have shown numerous signs of bad health. People have the desire to keep on eating due to more, new things being merchandised as “new and improved items” from the producers. For example, nowadays, people are eating pure junk that they find satisfying on the grocery food shelf. As, stated by Michael Pollan, in his article, “Eat Food: Food Defined” he affirmed that “real food is the type of things that our
That’s 34.9 percent or 78.6 million people. There are so many health risks of being obesity and the estimated annual medical cost of being obese in the U.S. is 147 billion dollars in 2008. People who are obese on average were 1,429 dollars higher than people who were not. “Non-Hispanic blacks have the highest age adjusted reats of obesity at 47.8 percent followed by Hispanic 42.5 percent, non-Hispanic whites at 32.6 percent, and non-Hispanic Asians at 10.8 percent.” “Obesity is higher among middle age adults, 40-59 year olds at 39.5 percent than among younger adults, age 20-39 at 30.3 percent, or adults over 60 or above at 35.4 percent.” Other things like if the non-Hispanic black and Mexican American men have higher incomes are more likely to be obese then those of lower income. Higher income women are less likely to be obese then low income women. When it comes to education among men there are not any relationship between being obese and not. When women have college degrees they are less likely to be obese compared to the women who are less
One's surrounding can also affect one's health. People have stopped buying healthy food due to its inavailability and expense issues.4 They alternated to eating fast, unhealthy and high-fat meals. This phenomenon is also supported by food companies which encourage this movement towards an unhealthy lifestyle by advertising fast food as more delicious, less expensive and more power providing6.