Obesity In The USA

Obesity in the USA
Introduction
Obesity is defined as excessive fat accumulation that may impair health. Obesity rates worldwide have more than doubled in adults and children since the 1970s and it continues to be a leading public health problem in the USA. BMI (body mass index) is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in metres and it’s a very common measurement for depending whether people are overweight or not. if your BMI is between 25 and 29, you would be considered overweight if your BMI is between 30 and 40, you would be considered obese if your BMI is over 40, you would be considered very obese (known as "morbidly obese")
Background to the region
More than two thirds of adults in the USA are obese or overweight. About a quarter of 2-5 year olds and one-third of school-age children are overweight or obese in the U.S.A. About 30 percent of low-income pre-schoolers are overweight or obese. Overweight and obesity rates tend to be higher and have increased more rapidly over time among African-American and Hispanic children than Caucasian children. The prevalence is also higher among children living in the Southern region of the U.S. (e.g., Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky)

The obesity epidemic: Causes
Weight gain and obesity are caused by consuming more calories than the body needs – most commonly by eating a diet high in fat and calories, living a sedentary lifestyle, or both.
A way of explaining obesity is a lack of energy balance, an energy balance means that your energy your body takes in is equal to the energy your body moves out, this means that the energy in which is calories you get from food and drink should be equal to the energy you burn(calories) by doing exercise. So when there is more energy going into your body than out it means that you gain weight.
An inactive lifestyle often leads to obesity; many Americans aren't very physically active. One reason for this is that many people spend hours in front of TVs and computers doing work, schoolwork, and leisure activities. In fact, more than 2 hours a day of regular TV viewing time has been linked to overweight and obesity. Other reasons for not being active include: relying on cars instead of walking, fewer physical demands at work or at home because of modern technology and conveniences, and lack of physical education classes in schools. People who are inactive are more likely to gain weight because they don't burn the calories that they take in from food and drinks. An inactive lifestyle also raises your risk for coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, colon cancer, and other health problems.
Environment also has a large impact on obesity, our environments often encourages obesity by lack of sidewalks, parks and often a lack of affordable gyms. A lot of facilities nowadays are very accessible for cars and this will promote people to use their cars more rather than walking and cycling which results in less exercise. Because of so many cars on the road cycling is quite dangerous which has put people of cycling and also there are a lack of cycling paths in the US. Work schedules. People often say that they don't have time to be physically active because of long work hours and time spent commuting. Oversized food portions. Americans are exposed to huge food portions in restaurants, fast food places, gas stations, movie theatres, supermarkets, and even at home. Some of these meals and snacks can feed two or more people. Eating large portions means too much energy in. Over time, this will cause weight gain if it isn't balanced with physical activity. There is also a lack of access to healthy foods and they generally cost more and are harder to make than fast food. American advertisement for food is also a problem and children are often targeted by fast food chain restaurants causing obesity in children.
Smoking and Drinking are also quite prevalent in the USA. More than 16 million Americans suffer from a disease caused by smoking. Percentage of U.S. adults aged 18 years or older who were current cigarette smokers in 2012:7
18.1% of all adults (42.1 million people): 20.1% of males, 14.5% of females
21.8% of non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives
19.7% of non-Hispanic Whites
18.1% of non-Hispanic Blacks
12.5% of Hispanics
10.7% of non-Hispanic Asians (excluding Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders)
26.1% of multiple race individuals
Smoking causes people to become a lot less physical active and lead to a lack of exercise which can cause obesity. Smoking can also cause diseases such as CHD and this can also cause physical inactivity and that can again lead to obesity.
Impacts of Obesity
Economic
Obesity harms health in many ways and can lead to other knock on illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, osteoarthritis, and some cancers which will reduce life span. For the USA treating obesity costs them a lot of money, the U.S. spent $190 billion on obesity-related health care expenses in 2005 which is double previous estimates.
There are also both direct and indirect costs of obesity, there is a cost for value of lost work which is that obese employees have been shown to take more days of work than non-obese employees and also obese employees tend to not work to their full capacity which creates a loss in productivity.
Insurance also costs more, Employers pay higher life insurance premiums and pay out more for workers compensation for employees who are obese than for employees who are not.
Wages are also affected. Some studies have shown that obesity is associated with lower wages and lower household income.
Social
There are also social problems associated with obesity, in American society often attractiveness is associated with slimness and if you are overweight these messages can be very upsetting for women and because of this overweight people face discrimination in the workplace, at school and in social situations.
Obesity because people become so inactive can often lead to depression and many obese people need therapy or treatment. Both attempted suicide rates and completed suicide rates are higher among those who have a poor self-image.
Obesity has been linked to an increased risk of autism in babies, decreased mental acuity in children and increased daily pain in adults. This increases the need for special education for children and more medication for adults, particularly as they age.
Environmental
There were not very many environmental impacts linked to obesity. But there have been studies taken place that show that obese people tend to use more carbon emissions which is bad for the environment.
High rates of obesity in richer countries cause up to 1bn extra tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, compared with countries with leaner populations.
The greenhouse gas emissions from food production and car travel for the fatter billion people were estimated at between 0.4bn and 1bn extra tonnes a year. That is a significant amount in comparison with the world's total emissions of 27bn tonnes in 2004.
Solutions to Obesity
USA should focus on preventing weight gain in childhood which will in effect decrease the amount of obese adults in the future. This should be done by Teach healthy behaviours and lifestyles early in life, and encourage and provide healthy non-obesigenic school lunches. These should be part of a broad educational initiative that introduces healthy foods into the classroom and reinforces healthy food choices.
The national policies on fast food should be changed; we need to revisit our national food policies, especially our farm policies that encourage the production of energy-dense foods with low nutritional value. Even a talk on taxing fatty foods has been spoken about which would make them less appealing and reduce consumption of them.
Environments should be made that promote healthier behaviour, It may be an expensive methods but if cities in the USA were made with larger green areas and more cycling lanes this would promote healthy exercise such as walking and cycling and reduce he use of cars which would reduce obesity.