The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention defines obesity as having a BMI over 30 (CDC). In the year 2000, roughly 30 percent of 20 year olds in America were obese. By 2003 that number had risen to 32 percent. That is a small window of increase. From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the percent of obese Americans doubled. This means that in 1970, only 15 percent of Americans were obese, and in the thirty years following, obesity took a sharp rise. In 1960, 13 percent of Americans were obese. The mean percent rise per year in the 1960s was 0.2 percent. The mean percent rise per year in the three decades following the 60s was 0.5, and then in 2000, the percent rise per year again increased, this time to 0.6 percent. This does not seem like …show more content…
In 2013, the Harvard School of Public Health published a study they had conducted that found that on average it would cost $1.50 more per day for one person to eat healthy rather than an unhealthy diet. “Over the course of a year, $1.50/ day more for eating a healthy diet would increase food costs for one person by about $550 per year. This would represent a real burden for some families” (Harvard). For the average American family, this could pose a serious problem. The median household income in America in 2015 was $57,000 (United States Census Bereau). The average family size in 2016 was above 3 people (United States Census Bureau). This means that for a common American family, the increased spending is almost $2000, or 3% of their yearly income. That is a significant amount of money that most Americans would rather save, or simply spend on things that they deem more important than a healthier diet.
Childhood obesity can lead to a life long struggle with obesity. The National Institutes of Health discovered that “The percentage of overweight Children has increased, by almost 50% in the last two decades of the 20th century… It has also been observed that about 40 percent of overweight children will continue to have increased weight during adolescence and 75-80% of obese adolescents will become obese adults” (National Institutes of Health). This proves that the increase in childhood obesity has led to an escalation in obesity in adults.
The caveat here is that
What causes are leading to obesity? In America, there are many overweight and obese Americans. A handful of factors can lead to obesity, but the major factors are some things Americans don’t see or want to give up. Like food, no one wants to give up tasty food, even knowing it is bad for you. With technology life is so much easier and no one wants to give that up and have their life be more stressful and frustrating. Fast food, technology, and advertisements are characteristics of why obesity is growing.
Obesity in America is a continually growing problem and even worse our own children are sharing in this problem. A commentary in the Washington Times reports that sixty million Americans are obese. What really is the meaning of obese? Obese is having a body mass index of thirty percent or more. In recent years, the percentage of obese Americans has risen. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, the percentage of obese Americans rose from 22.9 in 1984-1994 to 32.2 in 2003 and 2004. The study also says if you throw in the number of "over weight" Americans (body mass index of 25 to 29.9) the total jumps to 66.3
In the United States today, obesity has become an enormous problem. In the last 3 decades, the number of people overweight has increased dramatically. A study done by the Centers of Disease Control showed that since 1980, one third of our adult population has become overweight. America is the richest but also the fattest nation in the world and our obese backsides are the butt of jokes in every other country (Klein 28). The 1980s were a time when Americans suddenly started going crazy over dieting, jumping onto the treadmills, and buying prepackaged non-fat foods. However, while all of that was going on, the number of obese Americans began to increase. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, 58 million
In America childhood obesity statistics show that almost 60 percent of children are obese. This statistic continues to grow at an alarming rate. 70 percent of obese adolescence become obese adults. This means when these children grow into adults they will have more health problems than they already do and their quality of life will decrease. The amount of children who are obese between ages 6-11 years old has risen from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 19.6 percent, in 2008. In adolescents ages 12-19 years old the obesity rates risen from 5.0 percent in 1960 to 18.1 percent in 2008. Last year the United States government stated that obesity and type 2 diabetes have become a national epidemic.
In the recent decades, obesity has grown into a major health issue in the United States. Obesity in the United States has become the country with the highest rate of obesity in the world. Obesity seems not to be only found in adults anymore, appears to be found among children and it’s a serious life threatening. Childhood obesity turned into a medical situation that children are destined to suffer from psychological, health problems and health care cost that affect children’s.
American daily life has changed quite a bit throughout the last couple of centuries. The average American added between 160 and 310 extra calories a day from eating out and 62% of adult Americans were overweight in 2000(Healthline,2014)(Profiling Food Consumption in America). In 1980, it was
Knowing the causes to obesity are important. Some causes of obesity are thought of off the bat. But some causes aren’t all that well known. Researchers have found many causes to the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Two main causes to obesity are added sugars/processed foods and genetics, specifically with one’s parents and grandparents. The last cause of obesity is the American government. Many citizens of the U.S think that all sugar is bad. This statement is not true. As stated in http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/13/14219606/sugar-intake-dietary-nutrition-science “ Sugar is in so many of the foods we eat. It’s loaded into our granola and our juice, our BBQ sauce and salad dressing. Some ¾ of packaged foods and drinks in the US now carry caloric or low-calorie sweeteners.” In a healthy diet an American should consume roughly 6-9 teaspoons of added sugars. However the average in America is currently 41 teaspoons! Statistics have found that in the 13th century one pound of sugar would have costed roughly 360 eggs. Nowadays one pound of sugar would cost the same as only two eggs… this is a serious problem. The 1980’s was the national start of making and selling “low fat” products such as milk. In all reality this was also when the lowered the fat levels and raised the sugar levels sky high. As a result of extreme amounts of sugar in products it has given scientists evidence to prove that sugar is 8x more addictive than cocaine. Another cause of obesity is
Obesity is a big topic in American society, it has grown over the years and it has become very well known. It has become an American concern and the food industry has been an easy target to blame for this “epidemic”. The truth to this is that it can be easy to blame the fast food industry, but the real truth it is, that obesity has become what it is now because our society has let that happened; the government, the citizens, the food industry's. They have all played an important role to what it is now obese.
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and other developed economies. Over the past 30 years, the prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents in the U.S. has increased at an alarming rate, from 5-7% to 18-20% by 2008 (CDC, 2012). In addition, a full one third of all children in the U.S. are now overweight.
Obesity is a major public health concern in the United States and worldwide. Recent data suggest that more than 70% of the U.S. adults 20 years or older are overweight or obese (CDC 2016, CDC 2015). Obesity is associated with numerous serious health sequelae, including cardio- and neuro- vascular diseases, diabetes, and several types of cancer and incurs substantial medical costs (CDC 2015). Given the seriousness of the public health concern, there is great interest in the identification and mitigation of potential causes of obesity. As such, obesogenic environmental contaminants with widespread exposure and biological persistence is of great concern.
According to the Center of Diseases and Control Center facts, during the previous 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase of weight in the United States and the rate continues to remain high. With the estimate of more than 33% of the United States adults (34.9%) and pretty near 17% or (12.7 million) of kids and youths matured 2-19 years of age are obese” (CDC, 2014). According to a study released in June of 2013, Mexico have passed the United States as the ‘fattest’ nation on 50% of the globe (CBS news, July 2013). With a 32.8 percent adult obesity rate, Mexico simply creeps past the 31.8% obesity rate in the United States, as indicated by a study released in June of 2013 by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. With food, oil, gas, lack of stability, unemployment, and finance, body weight and statistics are continually changing not only yearly but daily for many individuals.
Compared to other countries, the United States was reported to have the second highest rate of obesity in the world after Mexico. Over the past decade, cases of obesity have triplicated in the U.S., affecting more than one-third (34.9% or 78.6 million) of the adults (Ogden et al. 2014). Given the current trends, it was projected that 42% of the U.S. population will be obese by 2030 (Finkelstein et al. 2012). Aside from its nefarious impact on the overall quality of life on the affected individual on a micro level, this health issue presents an economic burden for a US healthcare system already without equilibrium. In their extensive annual medical spending report, Finkelstein et al. (2012) estimated the annual medical cost of obesity in the US to amount to $147 billion in 2008; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight. Additionally, more than $150 billion per year is spent on related health care costs and lost productivity (Finkelstein, Trogdon, Cohen et al 2009). The situation as a whole seems dire; however, its repercussions are disparate and its distribution across U.S. territories is uneven. For instance, African Americans are nearly 1.5 times as likely to be obese compared with White. According to Ogden at al.’s (2014) report which is cited by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, about 47.8 percent of African Americans are obese (men: 37.1; women: 56.6 %) compared to 32.6 percent of Whites (men: 32.4; women:
An epidemic is happening in the United States of America; obesity is on the rise. The United States is currently is second in the world’s most obese countries with more than two-thirds of adults being overweight ("Overweight and Obesity Statistics"). Countermeasures to promote a healthier living style are on the rise, also. For instance, Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” program promotes eating healthy food and increasing exercise. The NFL promotes sixty minutes of play for children each day to promote healthier living and establishing an active lifestyle.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years,” (“Childhood Obesity Facts”). The monumental question that researchers seem to be asking is why the increase now? Childhood obesity has become a paramount problem in the United States in recent years due to various social, biological and technological factors that ultimately requires immediate assistance in order to promote a healthier lifestyle for children as they transition into adulthood.
Many American households eat unhealthy diets consisting of many saturated fats, high in sugar, high in salt, and high in unburned calories. This type of diet especially becomes a problem when it is a person's sole source of nutrition, and they don't eat properly to balance their diets. If Americans continue eating this way, and continue to increase obesity nationwide, this can turn to an increase in health problems which may lead to death. This is the case with most of