...Why have Americans become so obese? Obesity is a struggle among every country in the world. Obesity is when a person is 20 percent above what is supposed to be their normal weight. Obesity is so difficult to get rid of in countries that it is classified as a disease. The country that is greatest known for their obesity rates is the United States of America. Even though America is not the most obese country in the world, America is known for their fast food restaurants severely overweight people. Despite America being one of the most obese countries, no one ever asks the real question. Why have Americans become so obese? The most obviously popular reason why Americans are obese is because of food. The first type of food to relate to obesity is fast food. McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and many other fast food restaurants load their food with sugar, cholesterol and other unhealthy substances that make people crave it. McDonald’s burgers are severely unhealthier than a homemade burger. A McDonald’s burger has 440 calories, 23 grams of fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, 1150 milligrams of sodium and 34 carbohydrates. (McDonald's). A homemade burger has about 270 calories, 9 grams of fat, 142 milligrams of cholesterol, 123 milligrams of sodium and about 9 carbohydrates (Health). McDonald's makes their foods unnecessarily unhealthy. Another problem with Americans food problems is that their portions are completely outrageous. The default portion sizes are Small, Medium and large...
Words: 1304 - Pages: 6
...Today in America as everyone can notice, obesity has become a major problem that affects all races, sex, demographics and all age groups. You can hardly turn on the television or listen to the radio without hearing a call to action to decrease the obesity rate in America. Obesity is influenced by many factors and habits; one of the factors often overlooked is technology. To begin with, due to advancement of technology our home and work environment have become so inactive to the point that we don’t move enough to burn calories for the body to burn excess fat. Additionally, technology enables us to gain excess body weight by allowing us to produce vast amount of food at a faster rate, by giving us easy access to a massive amount of entertainment right from the comfort of our sofas. And lastly, technology has contributed to the obesity problem in America by removing most of the manual and physical labors that we used to perform ourselves. We may not all agree on the main cause of obesity; countless hours of television, video games, fast food consumption and reduce physical activities can all be associated to the progression of technology. Technology has helped this world in so many ways that it is impossible to cover it all but when it comes to people being overweight technology create a major problem. Because of technological progression, there has been a revolution in the mass preparation of food that is roughly comparable to the mass production revolution in manufactured goods...
Words: 1388 - Pages: 6
...Why have Americans become so obese? Obesity is a struggle among every country in the world. Obesity is when a person is 20 percent above what is supposed to be their normal weight. Obesity is so difficult to get rid of in countries that it is classified as a disease. The country that is greatest known for their obesity rates is the United States of America. Even though America is not the most obese country in the world, America is known for their fast food restaurants severely overweight people. Despite America being one of the most obese countries, no one ever asks the real question. Why have Americans become so obese? The most obviously popular reason why Americans are obese is because of food. The first type of food to relate to obesity is fast food. McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell and many other fast food restaurants load their food with sugar, cholesterol and other unhealthy substances that make people crave it. McDonald’s burgers are severely unhealthier than a homemade burger. A McDonald’s burger has 440 calories, 23 grams of fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, 1150 milligrams of sodium and 34 carbohydrates. (McDonald's). A homemade burger has about 270 calories, 9 grams of fat, 142 milligrams of cholesterol, 123 milligrams of sodium and about 9 carbohydrates (Health). McDonald's makes their foods unnecessarily unhealthy. Another problem with Americans food problems is that their portions are completely outrageous. The default portion sizes are Small, Medium and large...
Words: 1303 - Pages: 6
...legislation, nothing will change until parents take a more active role in promoting the health of their children, therefore, not all the blame for American obesity is on fast food consumption. Obesity is one of the fastest growing health concerns in the U.S. In America, only one out of the fifty states has a B.M.I under twenty-five, the number that is considered to be the benchmark for determining overweightness (BMI Index by State). The number of obese children and adults has tripled and doubled, respectively since 1980 (Obesity at a Glance). “Research from a national health survey shows that an astonishing sixty-five percent of American adults are either overweight or obese” (Loonin 14). Obesity has had a profound impact on the youth population of the world, as the percentage of overweight adolescents and children has risen over twelve percent since 1970*. If this trend is to continue, it is even projected that by the year 2030, one half of the American population will be overweight (Half of Americans to be Obese by 2030). As it is now, in the United States, one half of the adult population is overweight or obese (Ingram 8). Tommy G. Thompson, former president George W. Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, explains why obesity is such a glaring problem for Americans: “Overweight and obesity are among the most pressing new health challenges we face today. Our modern environment has allowed these conditions...
Words: 1887 - Pages: 8
...America is a fat country and that is a fact. One third of adults and roughly 12.7 million children are obese in the United States of America ("Overweight & Obesity.", Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2015). Furthermore, the numbers of obese people are rapidly rising at an alarming rate. America’s excessive food consumption and lack of exercise is catapulting the obesity epidemic in America to reach new heights. The word “obese” describes an individual who has too much body fat in which 25 percent of the body weight is from fat (Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions 2012). On the other hand, obesity is a condition in which the body has accumulated too much fat. This condition occurs when there is excessive...
Words: 622 - Pages: 3
...Fat Tax in the United States Abstract The United States has one of the least healthy populations in the entire world. That seems out of skew because we are also considered one of the most powerful. In the near future we will have a universal healthcare program that will basically enforce everybody to have health insurance of some sort. You would think you would want this for a nation on route to good health. This is not the case now, but there is one way in starting the path. Fat Tax in the United States The United States of America is the most obese nation in the world. In the United States obesity is estimated to cause an excess 111,909 to 365,000 deaths per year, while 1 million (7.7%) of deaths in the European Union are attributed to excess weight. Not only is obesity taking lives, it is the cause of numerous health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Our country, as a whole, needs to start being more careful about what our bodies intake. Various ways have been introduced in doing this. The majority of them would not be enforced and are typically in the form of a dieting or a workout regimen. Yeah, like everybody wants to do that. One of the most overlooked ways in reducing health risks in America is implementing a tax on fat of all things. It seems a little far-fetched at first but many would be surprised how genuine of an argument this is. The idea of a fat tax is so obscure to many. This is probably because it has never been in effect...
Words: 2175 - Pages: 9
...Fit is the New Fat: How an Unhealthy Society is Changing Social Norms There is a health epidemic in America. Among adults age 20 and older in America, 154.7 million are overweight or obese (AHA 2013). Obesity leads to a host of health related problems and unfortunately is has become a social norm in our country. Fat jokes are no longer socially accepted, and there has been a move to have these people embrace their bodies. People embracing themselves in and of itself is a wonderful thing, however overweight and obese people should be encouraged to live healthier life styles not to embrace their unhealthy one. These are just two ways society is subconsciously encouraging an unhealthy America. Obesity in America More than two-thirds of U.S. adults...
Words: 1101 - Pages: 5
...Have you ever seen a commercial with an attractive person in it and thought to yourself, “I wish I could look like that?” Well, so have other Americans and that is what are wrong with today’s society. People feel that they need to look like a superstar to be happy. One thing that influence this thought process are popular magazines showing how people can lose weight and saying that if you’re not in perfect shape then you’re not attractive. “One body-image study found that 45 percent of men were dissatisfied with their physiques; women were only slightly less satisfied at 55 percent.”(Potter). Most people think that this only happens to females but it affects males greatly also. In today’s society women feel that they need to be 5’5” and 110 pounds to be attractive. It is reasons like this that females suffer from diseases such as anorexia and bulimia all because advertisements imply that they are not attractive. Women look at magazines like Victoria’s Secret, Playboy, and Maxim and see how guys react to those pictures and think that they need to look like this to get the same attention. So, it is pretty obvious that the majority of males are not helping this cause out at all, because they participate in the purchase of these items and act negatively towards women who do not fit this image. Although men may cause women to feel like this, women do the same exact thing to men. Every time a girl see’s a 6’0” muscular man with a six pack they get all googly over him. That...
Words: 1902 - Pages: 8
...20 Habits That Make You Fat http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/20-habits-that-make-you-fat Yahoo! Search Mail Web Search HOME HEALTH TOPICS A-Z HEALTHY LIVING CHECK YOUR SYMPTOMS Customize Your Mammogram DRUGS & TREATMENTS FIND A DOCTOR Power Up Your Brain Featured on Yahoo! Health: Understanding Bipolar Disorder Satisfy Your Ice Cream Cravings The Importance of Affection Health Search 1 of 6 7/26/2011 5:55 PM 20 Habits That Make You Fat http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/20-habits-that-make-you-fat 20 Habits That Make You Fat By David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding Jul 15, 2011 846 Health Experts Main Send Share Print Decades ago, around the time of Steven Tyler's last haircut, a completely wrongheaded idea started being passed around America's dinner tables: Eating fat makes you fat. Wrong. Eating fat won’t make you fat, any more than eating money will make you rich. Calories make you fat, and most “low-fat” or “fat-free” foods actually have just as many calories as their full-fat versions, because of added sugar and chemicals. And there’s no debate on this one: Since we made “cut down on fat” our favorite food Eat This, Not That by David Zinczenko with Matt Goulding craze roughly 30 years ago, the U.S. obesity rate has doubled. Among children, it has tripled. That’s a failed food policy if ever there was one. But it’s just one of many “get fat” habits that can be turned into a “slim-down”...
Words: 2641 - Pages: 11
...also suggest that eating these fast foods like mcdonalds or subway ect can give you more of a chance of having a stroke and high blood pressure. I would like to know, what are the risks that you will face from eating all these fast food restaurants, and also I would like to know how those health risks can affect Americas daily life. And if people do truly know that fast food restaurants are bad for you why do people still continue to consume their product. Calories are the energy that comes from the foods that you eat. They are in every food we eat. From meat, to vegetables. Calories are the energy that helps keep are body running the way it is supposed to run. Too little of that energy basically robs yourself of life. But too much of that energy gets stored into fat around your body. The recommended calorie intake daily varies from person to person. Main factors are your weight and your daily activity level. The more you exercise the more you eat. The average recommended daily calorie intake is 2000 calories. Let’s start off with just the breakfast. We will use McDonalds as an example. There famous big breakfast with hotcakes. It has 1190 calories, 56 grams of fat, 111 grams of carbs, and 2150 milligrams of sodium (McDonalds food chart). Yes breakfast is supposed to be the biggest meal of the day but that is a little too big. That is over half your daily calories in one sitting. Note according to the...
Words: 1845 - Pages: 8
...Organic Virgin Coconut Oil - A Healthy Oil The Coconut Oil Story Virgin Coconut Oil: An introduction For about 3960 years of the of the past 4000 years of the documented historical use of the fruits of the coconut palm as a food and a pharmaceutical, the news has all been good. It was seen as a sustainable resource from which the harvested materials influenced every aspect of the lives of tropical communities, but most importantly its fruit, the coconut flesh, water, milk and oil. The use of coconut oil around the world in tropical regions is prolific: South and Central America, Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Micro-, Mele- and Poly-nesia and most of Asia. The uses are so respected that they were documented by Ayurvedic medicine in Sanskrit from 1500BC in all areas relating to the mind, body and spirit. Early European explorers including Captain Cook wrote affectionately about the beauty of communities across the Pacific using coconut oil as an integral part of their daily lives. During WWII the water of the young green coconut was successfully used as a substitute for a saline drip saving the lives of many allied soldiers. After the war, in England coconut oil was sold as "margarine" and in the USA as "coconut butter". However, this all changed in 1954. In the social environment of the USA in which coronary heart disease (CHD) was becoming the primary cause of mortality in the adult population, the young researcher David Kritchevsky published two academic papers. The initial...
Words: 3568 - Pages: 15
...threat of the 21st century. Will most certainly land you in the obesity, having too much body fat (adipose tissue) category.1 Recently I’ve become very interested in obesity, curious why people are overweight. Is it because they just like eating large quantities of food, psychological reasons, the media, or is it genetics. The general questions: Why do people become obese? and why is the younger generation affected more? I needed to know these answers. Of course, the type of food and the amount of food we consume affects us in a great way: negatively and positively. One of the reasons leading toward...
Words: 592 - Pages: 3
...However, does anyone in America think about what restaurants are feeding you? Sometimes people believe that the healthier option is the bad option. When someone is at the restaurant Hardee’s, do they think about what they're getting and how much calories or grams of fat there are in their food? People should start looking at what they're getting at fast food restaurants. Therefore, people should not eat at Hardee’s because their foods are full of unnecessary things such as calories and fats....
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...of calories. It will also affect how we advertise it because it is a short, catchy, and non-difficult name that no one will have problems pronouncing or reading. Baked Hut will export food related products that will differ from a typical fast food restaurant in various ways. In current typical North American fast food markets, restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC provide customers with food containing high amounts of calories, saturated and trans fats, sodium salt and processed sweeteners that increase your risk for chronic diseases. Baked Hut will alter this issue by providing the same idea of fast food, but instead encountering the health risks associated with regular fast food and providing customers with healthier food. The idea is for customers to gain the same pleasure of eating “fast food”, but without being conscious of how it is affecting their health. Generally, we’re looking at North American, or westernized style dining, and expand our market in New York City, located in the America. Our objective is to gain the same amount of attention and exposure, but providing healthier choices in our menu in comparison to foods in McDonald’s or Burger King. Therefore, by adding a healthy style of food, and by providing the excelling fast service you would usually see in a functioning...
Words: 6060 - Pages: 25
...“What If It’s All Been a Big, Fat Lie,” by Gary Taubes In the first paragraph of the essay, Taubes inserts the statement “Any theory that tries to account for obesity in America, has to account for that,” referring to the sharp rise in obesity in the 1980’s and setting up his thesis that carbohydrates, not fats cause obesity. What does this mean? Taubes makes it seem plausible that fat causes obesity and offers reasonable doubt that carbohydrates may be the culprit, instead. William Dietz who runs the division of nutrition and physical activity at the Center of disease control said “As far as exercise and physical activity go, there are no reliable data before the mid-80's.” In 1990’s study by Center of Disease Control shows "exercise activity remains unchanged from 70’s to 80’s.” Why was the data not reliable? People in the 70’s and 80’s were not exposed to fast food and junk food which lead them to eat healthy. We watch television and most of the time we see fast food commercial. Since we see these fast food commercials, we crave for it and we drive ourselves to the drive thru and buys are self meals. However, we tend to eat so much unhealthy food, most us tend not work out which leads us to have health problems. What foods have good or bad cholesterol in them? Foods high in good fats include vegetable oils (such as olive, canola, sunflower, soy, and corn), nuts, seeds, and fish. Foods high in bad fats include red meat, butter, cheese, and ice cream, as well as processed...
Words: 666 - Pages: 3
