Obesity_Issues

Obesity Issues By Angela Oliver June 4, 2012 Eng122 English Composition II Professor Dave Stave The Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) has been taking step to make everyone aware of the dangers of Obesity. CDC is also providing information to teach us how to prevent obesity and what to do to stay healthy. Twenty percent of the population is obese. CDC shows 127 million of the population is overweight, sixty million are obese, and nine million are severely obese. Around one-third of the population is affected by obesity and the numbers are steady rising. Obesity has many definition depending on what article you read, but it is a chronic condition meaning a large amount of body fat. We have body fat necessary for energy, heat insulation, absorption and many other functions. A person normal body fat is twenty-five through thirty percent in women and eighteen through twenty-three percent in men. When looking at the numbers women that ate at thirty percent and men at twenty-five percent of their body fat are considered obese. Clearly we have to take a stand against obesity. There are different methods to finding out if you are obese. You can divide your weigh, in kilograms by the square of your height, in meters. Here are some more ways by checking your waist circumference, blood tests or skin-fold measures. There are major health problems that come with being obese. The risk are arteriosclerosis, sleep apnea, skin disorders, gallstones, type two diabetes, cancer (prostate, breast, uterus, colon and gall bladder), arthritis and depression. The risk is higher with an obese or overweight person if they have one or more health problem. Another problem is obesity among children is a significant public health problem in the United States. “The numbers have tripled since 1980 according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service. Records show in 1992 – 2002 National Healthy and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) survey, 16 percent of children 6 – 19 years are over weight.” (Obesity still a major problem, Feb. 2005) I will show that these numbers are causing health issues with the children by allowing it to continue. I will also show that if we do not do something the future will be lost because there will be no one to run it because the children will be in poor health. Obesity affects a certain group of young populations. NHANES has shown that African American and Mexican Americans ages 12 – 19 are between 21 percent and 23 percent overweight, non-Hispanic white 14 percent. Looking at all the data there was another 15 percent that was at risk of becoming overweight. Being overweight as a child will increase the risk of high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression, and type 2 -diabetes. Type 2 -diabetes has increased noticeably in overweight children, mainly in American Indian, African American, and Hispanic/Latino populations. The hospital cost to treat an overweight child was estimated at 127 million during 1997 – 1999, up from 35 million in 1979 – 1981. The cause of obesity is blamed on a number of different reasons. Overweight children do very little physical activities. They are busy in front a television playing video games, on computers, or on their call phones. By children not doing physical activities they cannot burn any body fat. They have very poor eating habits. They are not eating foods to give them high energy. They are eating lots of chips, candy and fast food. To this date researchers have not be able to isolate one single factor that cause obesity. One thing can be different in each child and you will be total different results in a survey. There are steps we can take to improve our children’s health. It starts with the parents. Make health choices for you children. Buy health groceries like fruits, vegetables and more health snack like whole grain bars. Children need five or more servicing of fruits and vegetables a day. Try to also include whole grain in their diet. Try to encourage the children to drink more milk instead of soda’s or other sweetened beverages. The schools have also joined the fight against obesity. The schools have changes what the cafeterias serves on a daily basis. They have more healthy foods now. Schools have taken the soda machines out. The vending machines have more healthy snacks in them. The children eat over half their meals at school so schools’ changing their meals helps the parents with teaching the children to eat healthy. Research shows a number of reason children are obesity, but we cannot just say one factor is the cause. The only thing we can do is teach our children how to maintain and eat healthy. Taking these steps will help them grow up strong and free of any health problems. Obesity affects many lives in today’s society. Know people are losing their lives from a completely treatable disease is very sad. Everyone should realize living a healthy life is important to the well being of our existence. As a nation we have to work on staying in shape and healthy, strive to help others do the same. One day this disease could be a bad memory like small poxes. References: “Obesity Still a Major Problem, New Data Show.” From: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04facts/obesity.htm Feb. 2005. “Diabetes fact sheet: general information and national estimates on diabetes in the United States, 2003.” Rev ed. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004. Torgan, C. (2002). “Childhood obesity on the rise” The NIH Word on Health. http://www.nih.gov/news/WordonHealth/jun2002/childhoodobesity.htm Feb. 2005. Lin BH, Guthrie J, Frazao E. 1999b. Quality of children’s diets at and away from home: 1994-96. Food Review 2-10. “Obesity, “Symptoms guide, allrefer.com Health, Copyright 2003 A.D.A.M hhtp://health.allrefer.com/health/obesity-different-types-of=weight-gain.html “Finally a Cure for Obesity, “What is obesity'” American Obesity Association,2002, www.obesity.org