Obesity And Its Growing Affects On America

Obesity and its growing affects on America

Obesity is a growing problem that has greatly affected America. Obesity has become a major issue concerning our children and America as a whole. The obesity rates have grown rapidly due to many changes in Americans lifestyles. Many of the causes are due to changes in culture, and technology. Obesity rates have increased dramatically through the decades, especially in children because of changes in technology, the fast food industry, and lifestyles of Americans.

Obesity is defined as a condition characterized by the excessive accumulation and storage of fat in the body (Merriam-Webster). Most doctors use body mass index (BMI) to calculate whether you are overweight or obese. The body mass index takes into account both your height and weight to determine whether or not you are obese or overweight. There are four categories for BMI; underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese. The BMI for underweight is below 18.5, for normal weight its between 18.5 and 24.9, for overweight the BMI is 25-29.9 and to be considered obese your BMI would be over 30. For example a girl age 16 with a height of 5'7 and weight of 135 would be considered in the normal weight category, but a person the same age and height with a weight of 160 would be considered overweight. Now what weight would make this person be considered obese? With the same height that person would have to be 200 pounds or greater to be considered obese. (Department of Health and Human Services)

Technological advances have been a major contributor to growing obesity rates. Technology such as computers and video games and television has created a generation less focused on physical well being. This "gamer" generation has suffered greatly from the growing obesity rates. In 1974 the first consumer computers were sold, In 1971 was the beginning of arcade games (About). If we look at obesity rates after computers and video games you can see the rates rising tremendously around the time when computers became an everyday necessity. From 1971-1974 the percentage of overweight kids was around 5%. In 2002 the percentage was around 16% of kids under the age 18 were overweight (Department of Health and Human Services).

The television has become a necessity to most Americans. Watching the television every night while eating dinner has become a regular thing in American culture. The television is the easiest way for companies to advertise their food and other products. Children see and average of ten thousand commercials a year and ninety percent of those are candy advertisements (Super Size Me). One Harvard study showed that for every one extra hour of television added per day the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed was one less serving (Harvard School of Public Health). This study demonstrates the affect that television can have on adolescents and the food they consume.

There are many reasons why Americans lives have changed like the invention of cars. Before cars many people walked to their jobs and other places. But now that cars have become accessible to many people there are used all the time just to go small distances that could be easily walked to. The average American walks around five thousand steps per day (Super Size Me). For example in my life alone I see people drive maybe one tenth of a mile just to get their car closer to the athletic fields. Instead of moving the car you could walk and save gas and burn a few extra calories.

The fast food industry has only super-sized Americas growing problem. Everyday one in four Americans get fast food. The fast food industry started to grow and become popular in the 1970's(Rice University). Today McDonalds spends 1.4 billion dollars on advertising alone while advertising for fruits and vegetables is totaled at around 2 million dollars a year (Super Size Me). Fast food businesses like McDonalds know that advertising is the key to attracting customers like their main market, children. They have playpens, give away toys, happy meals and Ronald McDonald. Attracting children provides them a guarantee for business in the future. The most alarming part of this industry is that it attracts children and teenagers who are not educated about the ingredients and health affects the fast food has on their bodies.

Fast food is high in fat, sugar and carbohydrates. All of these ingredients can have serious affects on your health. A few of the many health risks are hypertension, sleep apnea, stroke, prostate cancer and colon cancer. These are only a few of the health complications caused by eating these types of food routinely.

Americans lifestyles today are probably the main reason why obesity is growing at such an alarming rate. Technology and fast food excluded, America has become a lazy society. We seem to choose the easy way of doing things rather than the option that make take a little more time. For example, instead of taking the time to make dinner, we buy it whether it is take out or fast food. Today the average American eats out forty percent of the year (Super Size Me). If we made our own food we would know exactly what went into it therefore making it healthier.

They scariest thing about Americans becoming more sedentary is that it is greatly effecting children. Kids develop habits between the ages of 5 and 10 that they will carry for the rest of their lives. If parents exhibit a sedentary lifestyle the child will most likely continue this habit in their own lives (The American Physiological Society). Many children are affected by emotional trauma that can lead to weight gain. Many of these emotional traumas can be contributed to the divorce rates in America. The number of couples divorcing has risen 5 fold (The Heritage Foundation). Many kids and adults deal with trauma by using food as a comfort. I believe that this way of comforting one self can lead to future eating problems. The true indicator will be when these kids become adults. Then we will see the full results of how obesity has affected this generation.

Adolescents are not only developing their parents eating habits but their exercise habits also. Kids need at least thirty minutes of cardio exercise per day. Today everyone has so much going on in his or her lives that less energy and time is focused on getting exercise everyday. You hear people all the time saying that they don't have time to exercise but its all about prioritizing and making time for yourself. Walking for thirty minutes a day could improve your quality of life by giving you more energy. Exercise