Obesity: An American Epidemic

Obesity: An American Epidemic

"Hello, Sir Welcome to Wendy's what can I get for you today? Yes I would like a Triple Cheese Burger with large fries and a large Dr. Pepper, Oh yeah and could I have that Biggie Sized." This is something that is heard all over the United States, everybody wants to have the biggest thing they can get. From our cars to our houses Americans want the biggest there is. Yup everything is getting bigger including Americans. There is no hiding it America is get bigger and I don't mean land mass. It seems to be a mass of another kind. Fat. Americans are today weighing in heavier that ever before. Some say that it is the fast food industry to blame, but whose choice is it to eat the food from McDonalds, KFC, Wendy's? Its Americas choice to eat the food and eating it isn't that bad if it is regulated and not eaten everyday. America is trying to play the blame game and blame the fact that they are bigger that ever today on someone else but themselves. America has become out of shape and overweight because of bad choices and very little self discipline. Obesity is the word that everyone uses to describe the condition plaguing America. But what is it really mean, what does it mean to be obese, and what qualifies you as obese? Well follow me over the rolling mounds of fat and thought the cellulite swamps and we'll find out.

We here this word a lot in today's world, obesity this, obesity that, the big fat man hit me with a baseball bat, but what is obesity? Obesity is defined as a body mass index or BMI, greater than 30kg/m2 while overweight is defined as 25-30kg/m2 (AOA Fact Sheets). This means that if you weight more than 66 pounds over the recommended weight for you body type and height you are considered obese. Most people first response is "Wow that sounds like it's pretty hard to be 66 pounds over the recommended weight" but actually many Americans are obese. This means that over 60 million are obese and a little over 9 million are severely obese. That comes to a total of 36 percent of the population of the United States that are considered obese or severely obese. That is up from 25 percent in a study taken from 1988 to 1994. This percentage is just an average of adults in the United States but the statistics can be broken down many ways, one way is ethnically. For example 31 percent of white, 38 percent of Hispanic, and 49 percent of African American women are considered obese (AOA Fact Sheets) That means that a little over 1/3 of the White and Hispanic women population, and a frightening Ð'Ð... of the African American women are considered obese! Another way to graph out obesity is childhood obesity. As of 2004 fifteen percent of the U.S. children ages 5 to 19 are overweight, triple the rate 20 years ago. Overweight adolescents are 70 to 80 percent more likely to become overweight adults. Another example is that "the annual cost of hospitals caring for children with obesity-related ailments were 127 million a year from 1997 to 1999, compared with only 35 million a year from 1979 to 1981Ð'--a 263 percent increase in 20 years. (Daniels, The Time/ABC News)" This a very big problem in the United States today but what has contributed to the obesity epidemic in the past few years.

Fast food, two little words that have changed the meaning of America for the better of for worse depending upon whose side you're on. Fast food has been around since the 1940s, but hasn't been a major icon in the lives of Americans until recent years. Fast food has changed the lives of Americans is so many ways. It not only has provided new jobs for all high school drop outs but has made the work day shorter. Essentially it made America more productive by being so fast, fast food is so fast that some companies have shortened the average working mans lunch hour from one full hour to 30 minutes! Fast food has made us more productive and fatter all at the same time. But what makes fast food so fattening? Well for one most fast food is cooked in grease. Grease is a bi-product of animal fat that is in the meat we eat. It is also the lovely liquid that French fires, chicken Mcnuggets, and the colonel's original recipe are fried in. See to make food so fast you have to make things that take very little to no time at all. Healthy foods take time but food that is deep fried takes any where from 3 to 5 minutes to cook and get out of the kitchen. Not to mention that healthy food doesn't taste as good as food that has a lot of sugar in it. Yes its true there is only a few items at any fast food restaurant that don't have sugar in them. One of the main factors in sugar consumption is the amounts of sugar in all the soft drinks we love so dearly. In one 8 oz. can of Dr. Pepper, which happens to be my favorite soft drink, there is 27 grams of sugar. I know what your thinking, who drinks an 8 oz. can, don't they normally come in 12 oz.'s? Yes that is correct most soda cans are 12 oz. but what about bottles? Bottles are 20 oz., and 20 oz.'s is incidentally the small size of drink at any fast food restaurant. In today's world bigger is better, and the average size of soft drink that come on that value meal is 32 oz. That means that in every 32 oz. cup there is 108 grams of sugar. This is an alarmingly high amount. Especially since the USDA recommends that Americans only have 10 teaspoons of added sugar a day, but the average American has 20 a day. In fact America is the biggest consumer of sugar in the world. Americans only comprises of 5 percent of the worlds population but we consume 33 percent of the worlds sugar supply. That's comes to a whopping 10 million tons annually! (Marfolis, Overweight America) Many people believe that these are the reasons that we are so fat, but are they really? Can we blame America's obesity on fast food and sugar, or are we over looking something so simple that is the answer?

Many people believe that fast food is to blame for our growing waist lines but I would have to say that it is not. Although fast food may be very fattening and full of sugar, are we forced to walk our fat asses in that McDonalds to order a Big Mac and a large Dr. Pepper? I think not. It is our choice to eat fast food that is loaded with millions of calories. America is trying to play the blame game and make it everyone else's fault but theirs that they are fat. Some have even tried to sue fast food restaurants for money settlements, especially McDonalds, accusing McDonalds of being the reason for their obesity. In fact there were a few cases back in 2002 several lawsuits were brought forth against McDonalds. The first case was of two young teenage girls filed suit against the fast food giant claiming "that McDonald's inaccurately posted nutritional information and