As a nation America is viewed as powerful, innovative and successful. America seem to be at the top of everything like sports, military, politics etc. They thrive of the thought of success which is why they are always on the move working countless hours in order to escalate there their standing in the society. With that being said, America also holds the title of being the fattest country in the world. The American lifestyle may seem as the way to go but on the contrary is may not be the right path. Obesity is described as " abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health."(World Health Org) . Obesity in America is growing problem that we as a country can't seem to get a handle on. With the obesity rates rising, there seem to be a lot more obese adults and children walking around. This is an interesting topic because it question that needs and answer on why it's so difficult for Americans to live a healthy lifestyle despite them knowing all of the health risk. The two parts of the situation that will be addressed is all of the thing we do and don't do that could cause obesity in America. Various factors like our portion sizes , the types of food we eat and  how we keep our bodies active plays a huge role in our obesity rate over the past few years.

 

Americans lifestyle plays a huge a role in the obesity in America obesity rate and is the main reason why our rate is higher than many other countries. The big differences in America's way of life compared to other countries seem to be the reason why obesity is so prevalent in America.  In the Article, "This is why Americans are overweight", explains that the food we eat and the portion we get plays a role of the people's health in America. Yoni Heisler , an apple product enthusiast , addresses the fact the U.S as a country has the highest rate of obesity compared to other country around the world .He uses statistic like, "All in all, 35% of Americans are now considered obese" and "The issue is even more concerning with respect to children, where the number of overweight kids checks in at 38%(Heisler)". He focuses on  America's lunch portion compared to other countries. The lunch menues of the other countries like paris's describes their have lunches  like "Artisanal baguette,pork rib in dijon sauce, turkey ham, mashed potatoes, emmental cheese, apple".(Heisler) Paris's school  lunch menu sound a lot more healthy than "Avi Burger-rito, baked french fries, kale salad."  The  article cotains photo comparisons of the lunches of various countrires compared to Americas school lunch. In the other countries lunches is  a lot healthier because the serve a lot more fresh food and a variety of bright colors versus ours which  has a lot  more processed  food. It Heisler focuses more on childhood obesity but on a more broad perspective the reason obesity is such a problem on americans is becausee of the types of food we eat and the portions .

When it comes to obesity we tend to focuse all of our efforts toward the children like heiler focused on childrends school lunches; however people like Thomas Farley believes that the fight against obesity should start with the adults. In his  article "Fighting Obesity Is Not Just for Kids " the authors claims that fight with obesity needs to be addressed with the parents rather than the children. The author use the smoking epidemic and how smoking was only characterized with a certain group of people ie: adolescents but on the contrary smoking is dangerous for every one who  does it. He writes "When health advocates owned up to that, it led them to cigarette taxes, smoke-free-air rules and media campaigns showing cigarettes not as guilty pleasures but as indiscriminate killers. In the late 1990s and 2000s, that package cut smoking rates in adults, and even more in teens."  Teens were not the only people smoking cigarattes but adults were too. He also use this example to show that the health risk of cigarettes everyone not just one group of people. With the authors main evidence presented he then follows up with "Focusing our obesity fight on children falls into a similar trap. It assumes that adults are capable of making sound food choices, and that if children turn 18 without excess body fat they'll stay that way."  The author gives a solution to what he sees at the problem with obesity in America by giving this advice, "Stopping the obesity epidemic will require fighting the marketing of junk foods everywhere, not just in schools. We need taxes on sugary drinks, counter-advertising and limitations on where in our everyday world those foods tempt us. (Do we really want candy and soda at every cash register, for example?)Only then will we reach the adults who are on the verge of developing diabetes. And because children spend so much of their time with adults and outside of schools, these reforms will help end the obesity epidemic in children, too." Farley believes that just how adults are responsible for teaching  their children on what is right and what wrong, parents should be responsible for guiding their children on what exactly is the right thing to eat.

 Americans are built off of  the idea of innovation and getting things done at optimal speed .In the article "Obesity in America: It's Getting Worse"  Jenifer Marks talks americans lifestyle and its correlation with there health. Jenifer Marks ,a Professor of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Section Chief, claims that the main reason why obesity is prevelent in America is due to the fact that our lives have became a lot more simple with obtaining lager amounts of food in a short amount of time. We always get a kick out of having things done for us and if it can get done fast that's even better. The only place that could provide us with these luxury that is convient to american lifestyle but harmful to our health  would be  be the fast food resturants. America is the country with the most fast food resturants in the world and that because the of the convience of it. Marks writes , "We no longer have to stalk and capture our dinner; we can use the drive-through". We turn to fast food resturaunt because it a lot cheaper for some people and it takes less time to get a meal together. All you have to pull up to a drive through and get what you familiy want and drive off and eat. Tamara Thompson's, who work with the Food Empowerment Company, writes "It is clear fast food corporations don't care about anybody -- not the workers, not the animals, not the environment, and of course not people's health. It's all about making a profit." The fast food industry  are only interested in is making money so therefore they would serve larger quantity of unhealthy food just to compete with other companies. It is already know that fast food resturaunts isn't a healthy option when it comes to a good meal but to realize that the potentional deals that you're getting like the "Five Dollar Big Box" from Taco Bell is only to compete shows that fast food isnt the best option for Americans.

Food intake isn't the only reason why obesity in America is so abundant but it is also because of Americans have become less active due to the lack of requirement of physical activities in people's daily life . Americans tend to be caught in their daily lives and jobs that tend to usually loose time for their health and well-being. With school, work , Family or whatever consumes Americans days the is very little wiggle for someone to workout.  Dr.Ladabuam claims that the reason why obesity is so abudant now is because of the lack of physical activity due jobs that require less and less movement. Dr.Ladabuam says on the broadcast, "The problem of inactivity is exacerbated by a changing job market that's taken Americans from the physically demanding manufacturing floor to sitting behind a desk." Timothy S. Church also claims that  the rise of obesity rates is due Physical Inactivity as he compares the jobs and their requirement  in the 1960's compared to times now. He writes  "In the early 1960s almost half of private industry occupations in the U.S. required at least moderate-intensity physical activity and now less than 20% demand this level of activity." (Ladabuam) During this time Americans tend work jobs that requires less movement and more  of answering calls and sitting in cubicles. With technology improving on the daily basis and there is always some new technique to make our task easier on the daily basis it cause Americans to live in a place where that don't have to do much but press start or a button and watch their job be done for them. 

"Clearly, governments' current course of draconian regulatory treatment seeks to cure an illusory disease. The nanny state's infatuation with an obesity epidemic that does not exist is a searing indictment of this particular public health crusade. (Patrick Basham and Luik John)" Some people may believe that there is not an obesity epidemic in America and that the fight on obesity is a problem. In the Article "The Myth of an Obesity Tsunami" authors discuss what their previous research has shown them that Obesity isn't really as serious we are making it and that it isn't a disease. They believe there is no obesity epidemic because "There was no significant change in mean BMI overweight/obesity prevalence between 2006 and 2007, and there are indications that the trend in obesity prevalence may have begun to flatten out over the last two to three years." Just because it seem that the obesity prevalence seem to flatten doesn't mean that obesity isn't a problem in American and that we shouldn't still address the problem. The article seems to focus on the survey on a age group of 2 years of age to 15 years of age which seem to make they're claim too narrow. If the rate has decreased over the few years for boys and girls, it still doesn't mean we can't try to make an effort for change in the end of obesity for the older people. The claim they make "Clearly, governments' current course of draconian regulatory treatment seeks to cure an illusory disease." The writer do produce a valid claim that obesity disease however it is something that should be addressed on all levels of  society and all age group. Patrick Basham also wrote the article called "The Health Risks of Obesity Have Been Exaggerated" with Jane Feinman. They basically talk about how obesity and its health risk are overly exaggerated. "If we take into account the relatively few lives lost prematurely due to obesity, and compare them to the very significant health costs associated with both dieting and eating disorders, there is surely a compelling case that the damage to health from attempting to lose weight is far greater than the health consequences of overweight and obesity. Indeed, perhaps rather than a campaign against obesity, it is a war on thinness that is required." (Basham).A few live lives being lost shouldn't be seen as something that is not important or not a real situation. Any lives lost during any situation a something serious not matter if it is only a few or billions. Obesity is a very important problem as it present various health problems like Heart disease, hypertension, sleep apnea, high blood pressure etc. All of these risk factors can lead to death which makes obesity a problem that need to be addressed as a nation.

Obesity in America is growing problem that we as a country can't seem to get a handle on. With the obesity rates rising, you can't help but notice more obese adults and children around. We as a nation is trying to figure out why it's so difficult for Americans to live a healthy lifestyle despite them knowing all of the health risk. Various article that I've read through have had many similar suggestions on how our lifestyle have had an effect on America's obesity rate. Many people believe that the foods we eat is the root cause of obesity. We tend to indulge in high calorie low nutrition foods such as McDonalds or Chick-fil-la due the convenience and the speediness of service. We also tend to eat large portions which compared to other countries is classified as oversized portions. We live in a country where fast food companies are always trying out deal other by giving more food for a cheaper price. In reality these Fast food companies are rally trying to make more money for themselves and not really care about the consumer's health. Our food intake isnt  the only reason to high obesity rates but also the fact that we live in a time where we are required to less physical activities on the daily basis. We drive around places , get people to cut our grass , rarely have time to engage in a physical activity or workout. Those jobs that once required human assembly such as manufatureing company now only requires people to push a button and watch the machine do the rest of the work. Obesity isnt just a children  problem but also should be viewed as an broader problem that occurs through all ages because if the parents or adults guies or knows what the right things to eat  are and how to stay active then the children are soon to follow. It may also seem that obesity isnt even an epidemic or obesity is "Over exaggerated " but if there are casualties from  it and casualites from the risk cause from obesity then it deserves attention need to find a solution. We would not want our nation to get to the point where all we see is obese people. After  reading and listening to all of this content I formed the conclusion that with controling what goes into our foods. We need to try to indulge and food with more colors not fried and fresh.We need to control the amount we have. We need to stay away from the fast foods over indulging in foods that causes health risk like high blood pressure and heart attacks. We also need to find a way to get more active like ride bikes to work, take stairs instead of elevators or walking instead of calling an uber. We could also try to find an more interesting way  to promote physical activity. You can workout in groups and set goals or incentive in order to challenger rather than just saying youre gonna diet or workout . With these few steps we can get a true handle on on obesity in America. 

