Obesity In America

Obesity In America

Obesity means having too much excess body fat.  Obesity is also the 2nd leading cause of preventable deaths, smoking being the first.  You can also look at obesity as a weight greater than what is considered healthy. It is a chronic medical disease that can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, some cancer, gallstones, and heart disease. Obesity is very difficult to treat and has a high relapse rate of 95%.  Obesity can not be a short-term fix. It has to be a life time commitment and change. Diets are only a temporary thing that lasts for a short amount of time.  An adult who has a body max index of 25-29.9 is considered overweight, while an adult who has a BMI over 30 is considered obese. The normal BMI is 18.5- 24.9. The BMI is not completely accurate because it does not account for muscle. For example an athlete could be considered obese if  their BMI is over 30, because muscle weighs more than fat. The body max index is a mathematical formula that accounts for a person height and weight. 

One in three Americans is obese.

This hyperlink below will give you obese and overweight statistics from the CDC. 
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

This is another cool hyper link which will show you current and future obesity rates on a map.
http://healthyamericans.org/report/108/

Over 300,00 deaths per year are related to obesity.  Most of the patients who died had a body max weight above 30. Obesity also causes insulin resistance.  Insulin resistance is when the insulin can not transport glucose into cells.  When responding to insulin resistance, the pancreas initially produces more insulin. Blood glucose levels being to rise when the pancreas can no longer produce anymore insulin, the blood glucose levels begin to rise.  This results in type 2 diabetes.  Another huge issue of obesity is linked to is cancer of the colon. Obesity can also increase a women's risk for breast cancer.  Fat tissue is very important in producing estrogen, and a long exposure to high levels of estrogen can increase someone’s risk of breast cancer. Speaking of cancer there is a study shown that weight at time of diagnosis in linked to prostate cancer mortality. Researchers used 751 Kaiser Permanente patients with prostate cancer in order to find out if there is an association between a patients BMI and prostate cancer mortality. The researchers found out that the men who died from prostate cancer were 50% more likely to be overweight or obese, compared to the men who did not die from the cancer.
 There was also a study shown, where a researcher randomly assigned 509 adults. For this study, researchers randomly assigned 509 new adult patients to primary care physicians at a university medical center and monitored their use of services and related charges over 12 months. They found that obese patients were more likely to be women than men, were older, had poorer health status, and had a higher incidence of depression.

 Socioeconomic status also has a lot to do with obesity. Income and education weighs into obesity. The CDC ( Center For Disease Control) states that higher income women are less likely to be obese than low-income women.  I agree with the CDC that higher income women are less likely to become obese, because they are able to afford healthier food that fast food.   A lot of people who have low- incomes have to resort to fast foods because it is a cheap and quick way to eat.  The CDC also states that women with college degrees are less likely to be obese when compared to less educated women. I also think that it is very interesting that the CDC said that there is no significant relationship between obesity and education among men. Education is also a huge way obesity can be reduced.  If people were more educated on what they are eating and what the long term effects can be from the food their eating, maybe they would think twice, because they eat something loaded with sugar.  That is why I am not surprised by the fact that women with college degrees are less likely to be obese than uneducated women. 

This hyperlink below has great tips for obese or overweight women to live a healthier lifestyle 

http://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/overweight-weight-loss.html

The Weight Of A Nation: Stigma-The Human Cost Of Obesity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ow1uiWcn4c

The video above adresses all the prejudice and bias faced by obese and overweight people from their, family, friends, co workers, health providers and strangers.  This video should wake people up about judging or making stereotypes for those who are obese. You can not judge someone until you take a walk in that person's shoes.  I learned from this video the pain and isolation those who are obese and overweight feel.  The pain and neglect they feel does not lead them to a positive path toward better health, but does contribute to weight gain.  A lot of times parents, and friends, think that being hard or teasing those who are obese or overweight about their weight would make them want to make a change, but evidence shows the opposite.  You have to be strict, but gentle at the same time.  

Child obesity is also a huge problem.  One out of five children is overweight in the United States, and it is only increasing. The most common reasons children become obese are genetic factors, unhealthy eating patterns, and not enough exercise. I strongly believe that vending machines filled with junk food loaded with saturated fats need to be taken out of all schools. I do not think that they are doing nothing but harm to the children.  If vending machines are allowed to be in school than they she be filled with healthy/ all natural snacks. I think if healthy snacks are in place of all the junk food than the children will have no choice, but to eat the healthy snacks if they are hungry.  I also think that gym class should be taken more seriously.  I know a lot of students tend to look at exercising in a negative way which needs to be changed. I think a way to get students to exercise in and outside of gym class is to give the students an exercising log, which is a way for student to jot down their physical activity. My cross country coach made us write down our running on the weekends in our running log so we wouldn't skip or lie about running.  I think the running log really worked because it motivated me to run on the weekends. 

 Alarming new studies have showing that half of all Americans could be obese in the next 20 years. Food scientists say that food can be a drug.  Scientists and food industry whistle blowers say big food companies engineer process foods and beverages with ingredients that peak the taste buds while tricking the brain to think your still hungry which causes you to eat more.  The main reason food corporation are not making foods with healthier ingredients is because we are putting money over public health. This video below, will talk about in a little more detail than I did about how US corporations fuel obesity with addictive ingredients. With all that being said I strongly believe reducing obesity needs to be a national priority, or we are going to not only individually, but also nationally pay the price. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj8gDA8En5I

Sources: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029143004.htm

http://www.medicinenet.com/obesity_weight_loss/article.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131029143004.htm