research paper

Today the United States faces a very big problem that is not only affecting adults, but also a large number of children. It has become obvious that a large number of Americans today are overweight or obese. Adults are considered to be overweight if their body mass index is between 25 and 29.9. They are considered to be obese if their body mass index is 30 or higher. Body mass index (BMI) is used to estimate the healthy body weight based on one’s height. For children BMI is used as a screening tool to identify possible weight issues for children. Obesity can bring a very large variety of other health issues to both adults and children. One of those health and most common issues is type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body does not produce enough insulin in the blood or cells just ignore the insulin that has been produced. Insulin is a polypeptide hormone that regulates the metabolism of glucose and other nutrients. Obesity makes insulin lose the ability to control the blood sugar levels in the body, overtime this inability to produce insulin leads to type 2 diabetes. According to ObesityInAmerica.Org, an organization that serves as the one-stop clearinghouse for the general public, more than 80 percent of people have type 2 diabetes due to being overweight or obese. Overweight and obese people also have a higher risk of experiencing a heart attack, congestive heart failure, sudden cardiac death, angina, and abnormal heart rhythm more often than those that maintain a healthy body weight. The reason why obesity can cause all these heart dieses is because if their negative effect on blood lipid levels, when one is obese blood lipid levels increase, causing triglyceride (fat found in your blood and the food you eat) also to increase and the good cholesterol to decrease. High blood pressure raises the risks of kidney failure, strokes and heart attacks. Being overweight cause’s high blood pressure and the same way the weight continues to increase the blood pressure continues to rise. The lost of weight reduces the high blood pressure. Now obesity among children can cause this and many other issues such as liver, lung and musculoskeletal complications as well as psychological ones.
It has been estimated that one third of children born in the year 2000 will develop obesity related diseases. Today one out of three kids is either overweight or obese, that’s almost three times the rate in the early 1960’s. Children with weight issues often have a low self-esteem and sometimes even fall into depression. Maria Caprino, an obese fourteen year old, was interviewed by CNN reporter Randi Kaye. During the interview Maria explain how she is now used to people often staring at her. People have been staring at her ever since she was a little girl. At four years old she was weighing 79 pounds, as much as a seven year old. When she was actually seven she was weighing 168 pounds, that’s more than what I personally weight now at 19 years old. By nine years old she was weighing 250 pounds and now at 14 years old she has topped out at 445 pounds. During the interview Maria explained how the first thing people think when they see her is “why is she so fat?” and she often hears comments such as “oh my god, why is she so fat?” and things like “she should step on a treadmill.” Maria’s parents are also overweight and don’t deny that their eating habits are not healthy at all. Maria explains that she has always been a junk food fan, and that dieting for her never worked. Maria begged her mother to find a doctor who completes weigh loss surgery on children. Their search ended when they came across the Children’s National Medical Center and Dr. Evan Nadler in Washington D.C. Dr. Nadler who felt the need of having to help Maria, because she was 445 pounds and saw her going nowhere besides gaining more weight. During the interview Dr. Nadler explains that Maria’s BMI put her in the highest risk category. She is not only considered obese but actually two categories higher than that. Dr. Nadler says that 25% of all high school aged students are overweight or obese and he believes that those most obese face health risks such as high blood pressure, diabetes and depression that far outweigh the risks of any weight lost surgery. Before Maria went into surgery she has to meet with a nutritionist, pediatric cardiologist and a psychologist for approval. She also had to write a letter to her insurance seeking for coverage in which she explains that she needs this surgery to make it to her 15th birthday. Doctors have told her for years now that is she kept gaining weight she will not live to see her 18th birthday. She then explains how this as terrified her and is what has made her come to the decision of going into surgery. Maria had a gastrectomy completed, 80% of her stomach was removed including the area that makes her appetite hormones. She explains that after surgery she wasn’t as hungry as before and has already lost 45 pounds, she is no longer eating junk food and it is getting regular exercise. At the end of the interview she explains that she is not looking to be an specific weight, but to simply be a healthy teenager, she mentions who she hasn’t been able to run since she was five and would love to be able to do so again and she also wants to be able to wear a bathing suit without feeling embarrassed. Last she states that she just wants to be able to be normal. With this one interview you can see how much being obese can affect a child. Maria hasn’t been able to run since she was five years old, imagine one out of every three kids with the same issue. Obesity has become a very serious issue for kids.
Obesity can be caused by various things. One of them is genes. Obesity often runs in the family and can be genetic, the same way it could take place because of the family member’s lifestyle. Another way one can end up obese is because of their emotions. People often over eat when they are depressed or feel hopeless, angry, bored, and many other reasons that really have nothing to do with hunger. This doesn’t mean that people who are obese suffer from emotional issues more than others, it just means that their feeling influence their eating habits. Environmental factors also have a lot to do with the way someone eats. People are influenced by does around them so their eating and inactive habits run a major role in obesity development. The gender of a person also has some factors when becoming obese. Men burn more calories than women even at rest therefore women will gain more weight than men although they have the same intake of calories. The reason why men burn more calories is because they have more muscle than women and muscles help burn calories faster.
Although America is considered to be one of the most advanced nations in the world, we have not yet seem able to figure out how to eat a balanced diet. Americans today only seem to focus on what we like to call, pleasure food. Food that is often high in calories, sugar, and fat. People don’t seem to be concern about the health issues that their food choice may bring; they just care about the fact that they are hungry and that stopping by a McDonald’s they will get a meal for cheap, fast, and tasty. The standard American diet often consists of beef and potatoes, although these don’t sound too bad constantly eating them can cause serious health issues. Americans don’t really eat fruits and vegetables and when they do, it’s because they have been dipped in butter or are accompanied with a high in fat and calorie sauce. In the movie, Fast food Inc. Maria Andrea Gonzalez and her family were interviewed, she explains how before she used to think that everything they ate was healthy, but now that they are aware that they are not she feels guilty giving it to her kids. She explains that although she feels guilty they really have no time to cook; they leave the house at 6am and don’t return until 9pm sometimes even 10pm. She also explains that when there is only a dollar available and there are two kids that are hungry she is really left with no option but to go thru a drive thru. She states that going to the market with little money is not going to fill her kids up the way a burger from a fast food restaurant will. During the interview she also explains how going to the supermarket she also finds it easier to buy junk food rather than vegetable, since the junk food is always at affordable price. For her is more convenient to buy a large amount of junk food, rather than buying a single healthy item. At the end of the interview Maria explains how her husband is diabetic and how she is often concern about his well being. She explains how he often gets shaky and could even end up losing his sight, causing for him to lose his job, cutting the largest source of income this family depends on. Since her husband is diabetic a major part of the house income goes towards his medication, causing the family to be tight when it comes to making the decision of whether to buy food or the medicine the husband needs. With this interview you can see that a lot of American follow the standard diet, not because they choose to but because it’s what fits their pockets best. This family is one of does many who often have no choice.
Today we can blame not only the food industry for this serious health epidemic but also ourselves for going along with it, and not trying hard enough to keep ourselves healthy. I can say that the food industry is responsible for a major part since they produce the junk food and sale it at a price that affordable for the public, oppose to vegetables that are often ridiculously expensive and often go to waste because people simply can afford them. The reason why I blame the public is because although we often can’t afford healthy food we often have many alternatives. One of them is drinking water rather than having a large soda with each meal. According to the national soft drink association, the average American drinks over 600 12oz servings of soda a year. If people instead of having all this soda would drink water they will most definitely lose weight. Most people only keep track of calories that they eat, and forget all about the fact that what they drink also have calories. In fact the most amount of calories we intake come from what we drink. Another way to avoid gaining extra weight is to constantly keep yourself physically active. The human body is suppose to intake 2500 calories a day, if one is aware that their intake is greater than 2500 calories, they should take the time to work out for a few hours each day. If someone is constantly eating unhealthy because of money related issues, they should try cropping their own vegetable and avoid as much as possible the fast food that contains the most calories.
With that being said you can see how many issues obesity has brought to the U.S and some of the reasons why this has been taking place. Hopefully with time we can all find an effective way to stop this epidemic and live healthy long lives. For now let’s try our best to keep ourselves healthy.