The rise in obesity affects nearly every race, every sex, every city, and every state. The statistics are mind boggling at best. Where has the country gone wrong? Millions of people are dying at an earlier and earlier age due to obesity.
Obesity was not a problem 50 years ago, so why is it a problem now?
Eight out of 10 people over the age of 25 are overweight.
There are 40 million obese people in the United States.
In a 2007 survey, Mississippi had the highest obesity rate with a shocking 32% of its residents being obese. Connecticut had the least amount with 21.2% of its residents being obese.
Childhood Obesity
- Childhood obesity has skyrocketed with more and more children becoming overweight at a much younger age.
- In 1982, only 2% of children were overweight. That number increased drastically when there were a reported 25% of children overweight.
- An astounding 33% of African American and Hispanic children are overweight, with one in four overweight children showing very early signs of diabetes II.
Experts believe that the rise in childhood obesity is due to a few variables including excessive snacking, increased eating of fast food, having obese parents, and genes. Genes may only play a small roll in childhood obesity. Studies have shown that changes in DNA and genes occur over thousands of years, therefore, genes can not explain the increase in obesity over the last 30 years.
The most common reason for childhood obesity is consuming more calories then what they are expending through play and exercise.
Healthy People 2010 Movement
The Healthy People 2010 was a movement released by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services. One of their objectives was to reduce the percentage of obese adults to 15% by 2010. No state in the country was able to meet this goal and over 30 states were at least 10% over the goal.
This movement included goals to decrease the amount of obese adults and children, along with increasing fruits and whole grains in their diets. They were intending to get more work places offering healthy counseling and classes, incentives to food outlets to offer healthier foods, and increase nutritious foods and beverages in schools.
Causes of Obesity
An article recently printed in the International Journal of Obesity lists ten reasons why people become obese apart from the “big two” reasons which are overeating and lack of exercise. The other 10 reasons include:
- age and ethnicity
- being an older mom (some evidence states that the older a woman is when she gives birth, the higher risk she has of becoming obese).
- lack of sleep
- pollution (causing hormone changes)
- air conditioning (a person burns more calories when they are too hot or too cold)
- decrease in smoking (smoking reduces weight and has the opposite effect when a person stops smoking)
- ancestor’s environment – Environmental changes that made a grandparent overweight may bring obesity to a grandchild through a “fetal driven positive feedback loop.”
- fertility – Some obese people are more fertile than thin people. If obesity is passed through genetics, the gene will increase with more children being born to obese parents.
- obese spouses - Obese people typically have an obese spouse. When they have children, the genetic trait may be passed on.
They also list other possibilities such as a virus that induces fat, agricultural hormones, and less dairy product consumption.
Obesity on the Rise
Why has the percentage of obesity risen so dramatically over the years? Is it due to fast food sizes? Are our children becoming lazy due to video games and television? Is technology killing us? Are people just too busy to eat healthy and exercise regularly? So many factors can contribute to the rise in obesity, but who is to blame?
Deanna Roddy - I've been writing for many years now. I ran my own underground music magazine where I interviewed many musicians, wrote articles and ...
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