Obesity

Obesity is an epidemic that affects millions of people in the United States everyday. It is a lifestyle disease that affects individuals of all races, age and gender. Childhood obesity has been increasing rapidly over the past few years. The problem with obesity is that it makes individuals highly susceptible to diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Seventeen percent of all children in the United States suffer from obesity today. Obesity is generally caused when the calories eaten exceed the calories our body dissipates. This occurs either when high calorie food is consumed or due to lack of physical fitness. In order to maintain a fit and healthy lifestyle a balance of proper food and physical fitness is important. However, in the sedentary lifestyle of modern day America, we have less time to exercise. Therefore, making a healthy choice in what we eat is important to maintain a healthy standard of living. The rise of fast food chains like McDonald’s, KFC and Taco Bell may have contributed partly to the problem of obesity. However, critics who believe that these chains of restaurants are the main cause of obesity in America today are highly mistaken. The problem of obesity is caused, not due to the chains selling unhealthy food but by people choosing to purchase and consume these unhealthy foods. The lack of education regarding what people should eat and how much they should eat is the most prominent cause of obesity in America. “I just don’t know a lot about obesity. Until you realize it you’re blinded. Then you get to an age where you suddenly say “ ‘Oh my God! What have I done to myself?'’’ This was the statement of the mayor of a town where obesity among adults peaks at 51 percent. The town doesn’t have a park, bicycle trail or even a gym. However, it isn’t such that the town is underdeveloped at all. Right at the intersection that leads into town, a hoard of fast food chains can be found, where most of the town’s people eat their daily meals. The problem of obesity in America lies not only in the lack of information people have about what to consume or rather how much to consume, it also lies in the lack of alternatives to junk food. At 99 cents a burger, fast food is affordable and tasty. Every town has multiple outlets of major fast food chains, but very few have farmers markets to buy freshly grown vegetables to cook at home. Cooking at home has become a chore rather than a way of life. When families cook at home, using fresh vegetables rather than canned food they picked up at Wal-Mart, they eliminate a huge risk factor associated with consumption of preservatives. All the preserved foods we eat, the artificial sweeteners in our drinks and the use of high fructose corn syrup instead of sugar are what lead to the high calorie content of our food. Some critics argue that labeling food content at fast food joints would help solve the problem to some extent. Potato chips and soda bottles have had this health information printed on them for a long time. These fine prints represent ideas that are misleading and mean nothing to most people. In order for people to understand the calorie content of the food they are eating, a simpler representation of information would be useful. The labels fail to tell us anything that is beneficial, but with better graphical representations – even a red, yellow, green light – could make people think about the food they are eating. However, this would cause great havoc among the food producers, since a big red light on any of their products would consequently reduce their sales. Obesity is not an issue of the government or the food producers. It is a choice that each individual makes, but the extent to which these decisions are influenced by externalities must be studied.The Government constantly tries to make obesity a matter of “public health." Banning fast foods in schools and levying “fat taxes” on high calorie food may be temporary measures to fight the problem of obesity, but until we all take responsibility for what we eat the problem cannot be resolved. Obesity is considered to be a matter of public health because of its high costs and prevalence in our society. However, I believe that obesity is not a matter of public health, but a matter of personal responsibility. Obese people aren’t charged higher premium on their government health insurances, forcing the general rate of premium to rise. There must be an incentive provided for people to reduce their weight. Creating initiative programs like free mandatory gyms and providing better infrastructure like parks, bicycle trails etc. could involve the government. Awareness programs educating people regarding the health effects of products could serve as another government initiative, but simply making health care costlier will not solve the problem of obesity.

Obesity is inbred in the American way of life. America has developed rapidly into a place where people don’t have time between raising children and working jobs. At the end of the day when it comes down to meals, the fastest and cheapest options are more convenient. Fast food is quick to eat and with the little time Americans have from there lives, we prefer to choose to eat this food. If we had more time to sit down and eat out meals and really decide what we eat, our society could be much healthier. Our society is surrounded with high calorie food, and it's hard and often impossible to find healthier alternatives. Fast food companies, the government and individuals themselves need to be more educated and aware of the health risks associated with consuming fast foods. Once people begin to know about these risks they will more actively be involved in their own health.