Obesity in America
Many think of obesity as a disease that may need medication to retract, may be genetic in origin and, thus, not the fault of the individual, and, therefore, may be biologically rather than culturally deteremined. However, as this essay intends to show, people with genetic predisposition to obesity can still prevent their obesity from occuring, or can control it, by followign the guidelines of a healthy diet and regular physical activity. It is the American culture, far more than biology, that has created the prevelant tendency to obesity by presenting an environment that promotes obesity and discourages a healthy lifestyle. In essence, while obesity is a disease, it is one of the most easily preventable diseases for those who approach it proactively, though this may require certain departures from the American lifestyle.
Introduction
Obesity increases the risk for many fatal diseases, including cardiovascular disease, and recorded in the United States, as being the second preventable leading cause of death (smoking is the first) (e.g., Must & Strauss, 1999; World Health Organization, 2000). In fact, Surgeon General Richard Carmona has called obesity a greater threat to Americans than terrorism (Oliver, 2006), whilst the immenisty of the problem has caused former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to refer to obesity as a public health "crisis" (Oliver, 2006).
Obesity in America has more than doubled during the 1990s and has since then levelled, but no decline has occurred (Brannon, & Feist, 2007). Numbers reveal that an estimated 1 in 4 Americans are considered obese (Oliver, 2006), whilst an estimated further 400,000 Americans die annually from obesity-related diseases (Obesity in America). Obesity-related diseases cost the national economy nearly $123 billion every year (Obesity in America).
Even children are not immune. According to certain projections, America's teens are at risk of becoming the first generation in history to live a shorter lifespan than their parents (Oliver, 2006), whilst nnumerous studies (e.g., Wang, Monteiro, & Popkin, 2002; World Health Organization (WHO), 2000) reveal that child obesity has become a global epidemic, more prevalent in America than in many other countries, both developed and developing, with child obesity having...
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