Obesity Rapidly Growing

Obesity is a growing problem in the United States. Arlene Evangelista from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, says, Obesity is a disease of epidemic proportions. 1 out of 3 Americans have obesity.

Obesity as we know is a big problem in the United States. Obesity is overweightness due to a variety of things. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease or, NIDDKD for short, states that obesity is defined as a person whose weight is higher than what is considered as a normal weight.

A lot of things can cause obesity. It can range from many different things, such as fast food, alcohol, technology, laziness, sedentary work or lifestyle, low cost of unhealthy living, motorized transportation, stress, and energy saving devices. Studies say that there is not just one cause of obesity.

While obesity has been around for centuries, it has grown rapidly over recent years. Andrew Prentice from International Journal of Epidemiology states that the World Health Organization (WHO) is finding themselves having to deal with this epidemic. They also say that obesity and diabetes will affect developing countries and having an increasing amount of new cases of diabetes of tons of people. WHO held a consultation in 1997 warning that the obesity epidemic will escalate obesity and non-communicable disease of many countries. One of the factors for obesity is fast food.

Fast food is one of the many reasons to cause obesity. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that obesity was the second-leading cause of preventable death in 2002. Today, Americans are considered to be the fattest people in the world after Islanders. Studies show that fast food is a big part in childhood obesity. In the documentary Super-Size Me, Morgan Spurlock ate McDonald's for all 3 meals of the day for 30 days. He gained 20 pounds and had high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Another big part in obesity is alcohol.

Alcohol is a big factor in obesity. Straight Talk About Teen Drinking (STATD) says that alcohol is a drug. There are many different alcohol varieties. There is rum, gin, liquor, beer, wine, and many more. STATD says that alcohol is a depressant. It slows down the central nervous system. STATD says, alcohol hinders our judgement, physical sensations, emotional functioning, motor skills, speech, learning ability, and memory. Alcohol is made up of the chemical compound C2H5OH. Some forms of alcohol have more calories in them then others do, with beer being one of the biggest culprits. Drinking this beverage continuously causes your stomach to grow into what is known as a beer belly. Technology is a big part of obesity as well.

Technology plays a big role in the growing epidemic of plumpness. This is a big part because it causes laziness of Americans. This is big because technology requires us to take time out of our days to utilize it. Things we use that disturb our days are computers, cellular devices, video games, and television. We send so much time binge watching our favorite shows, looking at social media, and online gaming. From personal experience, teens spend a lot of time on video games whether it is phone games or console. This is generating a big part of obesity. Arlene Evangelista says that 64% of adults and 15% of children and adolescents are overweight.

Another big cause of obesity is sedentary work or lifestyle. We tend to be more fat because of our changed living. That means how we now have washing machines and dryers, so we don't have to hand wash everything. Also, the same goes for cleaning dishes. We have dishwashers now. A long time ago there were tons of farmers. They would grow their crops, take what they need to survive, and sell the rest of their crops for profits. Now farmers like that are scarce.

A pretty big factor to obesity is unhealthy eating due to good quality foods being more expensive than junk food. Americans tend not to get the healthy foods because they don't have enough or have very little money. This could be because they could have minimum wage jobs, single parents trying to raise kids, or just have food stamps. You can go to McDonald's and get a meal for $5 or less but this total could be doubled going to a healthier restaurant.

Motorized transportation is also a big play in obesity. You go to grocery stores and see obese people riding on little carts to get around. This is bad because this limits the amount of exercise that we could get during the day. People rely on vehicles to transport themselves more than walking or riding bicycles.

In our community today, there are lots of energy saving devices. When we mow the lawn, we use riding lawn mowers instead of push mowers. Robots are used to do labor-intensive work. During snowstorms, we use snowblowers to move snow instead of shoveling. Elevators and escalators are also used to go up or down floors instead of climbing steps. Though obesity can be caused by stress.

Stress could take a big part in obesity. Alexandros Heraclides from Articles Epidemic says work stress has been linked to prospective weight gain. This could be caused by stress eating. A lot of people do this to releave themselves. Of course, there are other ways but that is a main way. The work stress could lead to unhealthy meals due to being constantly on the move. Obesity could also cause depression.

Can depression cause obesity? The answer is yes. Everyday Health say that teenagers with symptoms of depression are more likely to become obese within the next year. This could be bad for kids with depression because they are already sad and when they get obese, they will hate themselves more. That's why depression cause obesity. Obesity can even cause depression too.

Is there one specific cause for obesity? The answer is no. There are numerous causes, and some can even hurt a person. Those causes are fast food, alcohol, technology, sedentary work and/or lifestyle, low cost living, motorized transportation, energy saving devices, stress, depression, and many more. That is why many citizens in the United States are rapidly becoming obese.

Cite this page