Running head: Obesity in America 1

Obesity among the adolescents in America

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Obesity in America 2

Obesity among the adolescents in America

Introduction

Obesity is a chronic state of being overweight. Obesity is a life-threatening condition, and

the research carried currently shows that the epidemic is the leading cause of the increasing

health threats leading to other disease and even death. It increases the person’s chances of

contracting other diseases such as heart problems, stroke, cancer, and diabetes (Kelli, 2009). It is

believed that over two-third of the world's population suffer from obesity putting their health in

danger. Recently, researchers and medical experts have given a warning about the emergence

and growth of childhood obesity in America (Peskin, 2003).

America is the most obese country in the current world. The main reason for the growth

of obesity in the United States is the availability of fast food chains which unhealthy foods.

Unhealthy foods are less expensive while the healthy foods that are recommended for body

building are much expensive. The main factors leading to being overweight are the current

technology trend to make our lives easier and lazier, and high stress amounts we encounter each

day. In the last 20 years, there has been an increase in fast food restaurants in the United States.

They serve more than 40 million Americans per day and generates about $60 million annual

sales.

Statistics

The problem of childhood obesity in America has increased in the recent years. Approximately

16% of the child population in the US are obese, and this condition is projected to increase by

the year 2030 if proper measures are not taken to curb the situation. Obesity is considered to be

among the conditions that are easily detected and recognized but treating them is the hardest.
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Obesity is brought about by unhealthy weight stimulated by the poor diets and lack of physical

exercises. US researchers claim that unhealthy weight gains are responsible for over 400,000

deaths every year. Most children who are overweight are likely to be overweight adults in future

unless they adopt healthier patterns of exercise and eating. The annual cost the society uses to

treat and cure obesity is near $200 billion.

Causes of obesity

Obesity is caused by complex factors including biological, behavioural, genetic and cultural

factors. It occurs when an individual eats more calories than what the body burns. In childhood

and adolescents, obesity is related to poor eating habits, binging, and inheritance from parents,

illnesses or neurological problems, stress, depression and emotional problems.

Intervention and Prevention of obesity

The determinants of obesity are varied and complex hence we can recognize that no one

intervention can prevent the spread of childhood obesity. Steps and action to prevent it has to be

taken in various settings and also combine a variety of approaches with the stakeholders. At an

individual level, school managements and community members are taken to effect the

behavioural changes. Other sectors such as food manufacturing, education, urban planning,

transport and agriculture are also involved. This intervention might be having minimal effects

but can contribute much to fighting the epidemic. Interventions for adolescents or childhood

obesity prevention need to be planned and included in programmes whose aim are to improve

diets and the physical activities.

The strategy of preventing obesity is preventing young children with a normal and

desirable BMI from becoming obese or overweight. These strategies should start as from the day
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a child is born. Prevention of obesity should be attempted at community, individual and even

medical levels. At the individual level, one should limit sugar sweet foods or beverages, reducing

the time of watching and playing video games on screens, limiting the consumption of fast foods

and maintaining physical fitness. Healthy behaviours should be practised such as taking more

fruits and vegetables, maintain and encouraging mothers to breastfeed their babies, exposing

your body to vigorous physical exercises and consuming a balanced diet rich in fibre and

calcium.

Community interventions are creating awareness on the effects of obesity, advocating to

introduce physical activity lessons and exams at schools by creating an environment that gives

room for physical activity. These strategies may include creating a park, organizing peaceful

walk involving young children, and creating bicycle paths. Physician's intervention should

include families with obesity or diabetes since the children born to parents who are the obese risk

having or developing obesity in future. They should also encourage parents to act as role models

to their children when it comes to healthy diets, screen times and physical activities. Physicians

should inquire regular physical activities and diets on routine visits to enhance awareness about

the need for good modifications.

The federal government also should also intervene and help in fighting the obesity epidemic in

the country. The current full blown public health crisis in America is obesity, and it is causing

harm to the health and lives of the millions of American citizens placing the financial problem on

the country's economy. The government should intervene by first educating the members of the

public about the causes, risks and prevention of obesity. The government also has an obligation

of protecting the children from antagonistic consequences of obesity as it prevents them from
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being exposed and used to alcohol and smoking at early ages. This has to be an essential to the

future of the population’s health.

The government should also discourage the establishment and growth of manufacturing

industries that produce fast foods. Americans have their own culture of eating fast foods such as

pizza, drinking Coca-Cola, cheeseburgers and French fries which inhibit the metabolic reactions.

The researcher, Henrix, has proved that by consuming these types of food slows down the

metabolic processes for up to twelve times. This shows some foods and drinks will be absorbed

or digested twelve times by an individual with the disorder. Most health disorders in the United

States are related to their eating culture and thus have negative impacts on one’s body. Thus

when preventing overweight and obesity, it advisable to start by changing what we eat and put

away all the fast foods and soft drinks. The government should ban these fast foods by revoking

the licenses and allowing only industries that produce healthier foods.

Schools heads should also intervene by introducing physical education and make it a

compulsory subjects. The schools should also provide information about the physical fitness of

their children and should get the information about the importance of daily physical activities for

the health of their children. The government should also encourage the society to engage in

sports activities since they will be promoting peace and making their bodies physically fit. The

teacher should set up weekly sports competitions and reward those who train hard to motivate

others and help them participate in the sports completion and thus making the bodies fit and

reducing the probability of being obese in future. Weintraub states that before banning fast foods,

we need to encourage our responsibility because none is forced to take fast foods it's just our

desire to choose. It is the duty of each parent to regulate what their children eat and also teach the

kids at early ages about the effects and prevention of obesity.

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Another measure that should be put as an intervention is by adopting population based

obesity prevention approach. This approach can be divided into three main components. The first

component is that the government should support the prevention policies and interventions. The

structural aspects of the government such as leadership, workforce capacity and other monitoring

systems such as NCD should be in place to provide support and enhance the effectiveness of the

right policies and community interventions.

The second component is the population wide policies and the initiatives that include

restrictions on marketing of healthy foods and the non-alcoholic beverages to young people, food

taxes, nutrition labelling and the policies of physical activity and social campaigns. These are

generally designed to alter the foods and the physical activity environments in order to make

choices which are healthier. The third is the community intervention where multiple programs

and interventions are applied, and its policies are implemented locally in the local environment.

These components of population based approach to obesity intervention strategy are summarized

in the figure below.

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Contextualization is also an important phenomenon when designing and implementing

intervention especially when the nature of the problem, cultural and social factors that influence

the health behaviours are taken into account. Depending on the region or geographical area,

some policies are more important and appropriate than others. However, it’s imperative that the

decisions regarding policy actions and the policy areas are made locally. The potential areas of

action should also be analyzed and environmental factors considered. The cultural, social,

political, economic and political factors should also be taken into an account. The recent

experience showed that the social marketing is far more effective when the importance of

maintaining health environment of food and weight is framed positively.

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Long term interventions such as planning and budgeting as well as identifying the cost effective

interventions improves the implementation and programme sustainability. To ensure long term

creativity, we need creative funding which includes developing strategies that uncouple funding

by the private sector from intervention selection.

Conclusion

It is a duty of every adult to provide preventive measure and interventions of obesity since it

affects not only the victim but the whole society including the government. Schools should teach

the young generation about the effects of obesity and how it can be dealt with. Parents should

also discourage their children from buying and consuming fast foods as they are available and

sold at lower prices. The government should also play their role in regulating the industries that

manufacture the fast foods that cause obesity.

However, America’s big problem is obesity. The lifestyles of Americans is the major cause of

obesity and being overweight. Most Americans argue that they participate in sports and

community services, but they still have overweight problems and obesity just because of their

dietary habits. American need to change their eating habits, and the government should regulate

the industries and factories producing the fast foods and soft drinks.
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