Obesity in the United States

In America today we have many different things to worry about from Aides to

drugs, but what if I told you that there was an epidemic going around in America that has

killed more then 300,00 people a year (tuberose,1). An epidemic so strong that over

the past 20 years there has been a dramatic increase in the United States? (Nutrition,1).

How would you feel if I told you this very epidemic was in your house now? America is

at war right now and we are losing , this war started many years ago and has not yet

been won. Every year we lose many of our beloved ones to this monster , what can we

do? Obesity, the new green eyed monster, and has taken over America and nothing has

been done. Americans are heaviest people in the world we have been the heaviest

since , the 1950s. With our growing wealth and appetites we eat way more than three

meals a day, which in some countries is a whole weeks worth of food. "In 1996, a U.S.

Department of Agriculture study revealed that at least 33 percent of all adults in the

United States were overweight; that number increased to 61 percent of adults and 13

percent of children in 1999 according to the Surgeon General. In late 2001, the Surgeon

General's report said 27 percent of Americans are obese and 61 percent are

overweight." ( Tuberose,3)

Scientists have found there are four main components working against us in this battle of

the bulge, The media, our eating habits, lack of exercise, and our own individual

heritage.

In today's society it seems that everywhere you look you are always being

pressured into trying to make yourself better, there are signs every where you look

telling you that your not pretty enough, smart enough, thin enough, or that anything you

have is not good enough. All this pressure that the media puts on people causes a low

self-esteem (Tuberose,6). When people are stressed out or have a low self-esteem

they produce a hormone called insulin, which increases the lipid intake causing people

to gain weight in their midsection and buttocks, the two most dangerous storage areas.

(Susan G. Berg page 12). Not only does the media tell you that you are worth less they

try to fool you into thinking that you might not be so worthless if you bought some of

their products for example, diets pills. Most diets pills are dehydrators, they make you

think you are losing weight when in reality you are only losing water. In 1999 a study

was done to determine if diet pills really helped weight loss, in this study four leading

brand name weigh loss pills where used, they tested 100 males and 100 females, who

did not change their eating habits or exercising habits, and found that every participate

loss a fair amount of weight but when taken off the pill every participant either gained all

of their weigh back or more. (Aliha Bauman, page 12-13). Since the invention of

television the routine of exercise has decreased and the waist lines of Americans has

increased. Americans spend more time in front of the television watching commercial

after commercial, which displays images of food. Studies have shown that while watching

television most people tend to think they are hunger even after they had just ate dinner.

Not only does television rise your calorie intake it also deprives you from getting the

exercise you need. An average person need to walk at least a mile everyday to say

healthy those who walk less are putting themselves at risk for obesity. "Television

literally is an obesity machine" (tuberose, 67).

Eating the right types and amounts of food are key to a healthy life style,

people who eat too much junk food or not enough food are at a very high risk for

obesity. In America today skinny people are seen to be better then other people because

the media displays them that way on television and in magazines "overweight people

take a psychological beating from the social stigma of being overweigh"(tuberose,6)

. These images cause many people to go on diets so that they can be the "Perfect size"

but what most people don't realize is that diets actually make people bigger, then they

where in the beginning and that not every one is made to be the same size.( Susan G.

Berg, page 2 ). When people cut back on their calories or starve themselves to lose

weight their body starts to defend itself my lowering the amount of food that is being

burned, if you starve yourself for more then a couple days then eat until you are full

your body still thinks your in a famine and will store all of the calories you just finished

eating instead of burning them( Susan G. Berg, page 4). Its not really what you eat but

how much you eat that effects how your manage your weight if you eat bigger meals,

you eat more