Obesity is defined as an excess amount of body fat and more than one-third of American adults are obese (Overweight and Obesity Statistics).  At some point in America's history being obese became a societal norm, yet even 40 years ago seeing someone who was morbidly obese was a rare sighting, however today more and more Americans are obese. With an abundance of cheap fast food restaurants and less daily activity due to technology, it is no surprise that obesity rates have sky rocketed. The research I have compiled during this project has lead me to question why it is now okay to be obese, why is it okay for our generation to ruin our bodies and not attempt to stop it?  With all the access to information about how bad it is for human bodies to be so over weight to the point that risk for heart disease and diabetes increase drastically, I do not understand why obesity is not considered a larger issue.  The detrimental health affects surrounding obesity such as diabetes and heart disease, should have an influence on the rapidly increasing rates of obesity, however they do not.  Obesity should not be accepted in society as a normality which I will argue because of the detrimental health affects being morbidly overweight has on a person and the medical cost burdened on our country because of obesity, which is important because our generation will be the first to live shorter lives than our parents with the currently rapid growing rate of obesity in America. 

Data shows that obesity rates are increasing significantly nationwide within the last decade. A graph published by UXL Encyclopedia of Science shows how prevalent obesity is. In 2000, only one state remained below 10 percent obese, however in 2010 no states were below 15 percent-19 percent obese.  Also, in 2010, 36 states, which is 72 percent of the United States, had obesity rates that were over 25 percent of the state being obese ("Obesity Stats").  Having such a drastic increase in the obesity rates in only 10 years further shows that there is an obesity epidemic and something needs to change. The highest rates of obesity are in the southern region of the United States of America, being Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and the highest being Mississippi. Mississippi "became the first state to crack the 30 percent barrier for adults considered obese, with West Virginia and Alabama just behind, according to the Trust for America's Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention" (qtd. in "Poverty") which is not surprising based on their fried food habits. Also, the south is typically poorer than other regions, "Poverty and obesity often go hand in hand, doctors say, because poor families stretch their budgets by buying cheaper, processed foods that have higher fat content and lower nutritional value" (qtd. in "Poverty). As families attempt to save their money, they are paying for it in their waistlines. The low cost of fast food attributes a large portion of the reason the American obesity rates have increased so dramatically. 

Poor eating habits are one of the largest factors for obesity. In todays's society stopping by the local McDonald's or Wendy's continuously proves to be a significantly cheaper and faster meal option as opposed to cooking at home. Anju Abraham, a graduate student in the Master of Public Health at Fresno State University published an article discussing the reasons behind obesity, and eating fast food is a major factor: "Research published by the World Health Organization found that a rise in fast food sales correlated to a rise in body mass index, and Americans are notorious for their fast-food consumption  --  such food makes up about 11 percent of the average American diet" (Abraham).  11 percent of a person's diet going to fast food is a large portion, however,  it is not only how much of the fast food American's consume, but what they are eating when they do choose to eat it.  Typically, eating a salad would be healthier than a big mac or chicken nuggets, but often times the dressings on the salads are chocked full of hidden fats and oils, journalist Arden Dier states, "A kale salad McDonald's is serving in Canada contains more calories than a Double Big Mac. The "Keep Calm, Caesar On" salad is 730 calories (the number posted on McDonald's website doesn't include the dressing) while the Double Big Mac is 680" (Dier).  Attempting to eat what would appear to be a healthier option, is unfortunately not even healthy. Corporations such as McDonald's are partly responsible for hiding these hidden fats, but it is the individuals job to be aware of what they are ingesting.  Diet alone cannot curve obesity, physical activity needs to be incorporated for a healthily lifestyle, but the amount of exercise people do daily is on the decline. 

On top of poor eating habits, there has been a significant decrease in physical activity in recent decades.  Dr. Jennifer Marks, Medical Director of the Miami VA Medical Center, mentions that as our portion sizes get larger, Americans also get lazier when it comes to physical activity in the journal Clinical Diabetes:

Despite an abundance of evidence of the benefits of maintaining a healthy weight and a physically active lifestyle, we continue to eat larger portion sizes than we need and remain less physically active than we should be. Sedentary adults in the United States eat an average of 500 -- 800 calories more per day than needed to maintain weight. (Marks 2)

A lack of exercise is also a major factor in American's becoming obese. Consuming an extra 500-800 calories per day will lead to being overweight much more quickly if the person remains inactive. In order to lose weight people need to exercise, so even walking up the stairs in malls or parking garages instead of elevators or escalators, would help to reduce the rate at which Americans are growing. Researcher Frank Eves conducted a study where his team put colorful signs up the steps on a staircase in a shopping mall to see the effect on the number of people taking the stairs versus the number of people taking the escalator, his team found that "normally 4 percent of people at the mall take the stairs but after adding the sings, that went up to nearly 10 percent" (qtd. in "Stairs"). Only four percent of people taking the stairs is an incredibly low number of people opting to take the lazier course and simply ride up the escalator. By making the stairs look more inviting, more people decided to walk up them. Eves "also found more people walked down the stairs at the mall, even though they couldn't see the signs" (qtd. in "Stairs"), which could be a cause of them having previously walked up and remembering the signs. Even a small change in a person's daily routine that adds some physical activity can only help. 

One would think hearing the terrifying health related risks to being overweight and obese has on a persons body would decrease the high rates of obesity, yet for some reason the obesity numbers continue to grow.  A few health related problems associated with obesity are diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, coronary artery disease, cardiovascular death, cancer, depression, respiratory disease, and even problems with reproduction ("Health"). All of the aforementioned diseases are much more likely to occur when the person is obese because of the stress from the added weight on their major organs such as the heart and lungs. The article "Health Risks", published by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, states that a woman who is obese has an 81 percent higher risk of developing coronary artery disease than women who are at a normal weight ("Health"). 81 percent of a higher risk is only 19 percent away from being guaranteed the development of a life threatening disease. With statistics such as the higher risk for coronary artery disease, it would  be logical to think people would be more inclined to attempt to maintain a normal, more healthy weight in order to not increase their chances, but these statistics do not seem to deter people from ganging weight.With these negative health affects related to obesity also comes the medical cost for the conditions previously mentioned. Health Affairs, an academic journal that is published monthly, that states: "The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight." (Finkelstein, Trogdon, Cohen, and Dietz 822).  Not only is obesity unhealthy for human bodies, it is also unhealthy for the American taxpayers' wallets.  Obesity is something that can potentially be fixed through a healthier lifestyle change, yet $147 billion of the U.S. taxpayer's money goes directly to paying the medical cost of those who are severely overweight. As obesity continuously gets worse "estimates of future direct (medical) and indirect (nonmedical) costs related to obesity suggest rising expenditures that will impose a significant economic burden to individuals and society as a whole" (Spieker and Pyzocha 83).  If more people choose to change their unhealthy habits, the tax burden could be significantly reduced. It is slightly ironic to me that people who are obese are typically overweight because of their poor food habits, i.e. going for the cheaper option at a fast food restaurant, end up paying a considerably larger amount of money for health care in the long run. Overall, it would be cheaper to just eat right in the beginning and end up saving on health care costs in the long run. 

As Americans continue to get heavier and heavier, fewer tend to notice the changes in their body size. Researchers and Dr. Jian Zhang compiled the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which surveyed teenagers ages 12-16, and discovered the alarming fact that fewer kids believed that they were overweight, when they in fact were overweight for their age group (qtd. in Ferdman).  Dr. Zhang discusses the idea of a vicious cycle because as fewer kids are aware that they are overweight, the overweight rates will continue to grow, "Adolescents, for instance, are 29 percent less likely to correctly perceive themselves as being overweight than they were almost twenty years ago, according to the study's findings" (qtd. in Ferdman).  Dr. Zhang attributes this cycle to the social comparison theory which states that instead of looking at our bodies from a scientifically overweight view, we compare our weights to those around us, who are also continuing to get heavier.  So, as the people we compare ourselves to get heavier, it is inevitable that we will as well. 

So when did it become socially acceptable to be obese? Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Florida State University found that the average weight of a woman rose about 20 pounds between 1976 and 2000, and as their actual weight increased, so did their ideal weight (qtd. in Melville). The researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and Florida State University proposed that the increasing ideal weight in women suggests that there is less of a pressure from society to lose weight. With less pressure from society to lose weight or be at a slimmer weight, what would motivate people to strive for a healthier body if they are not listening to the horrific side affects obesity can have? Causes for the change in ideal weight among women could be from many factors such as social, economic, and biological reasons, however the ideal weight does not mean that women are not overweight when at the aforementioned ideal weight. 

Yet with all the information available on the detrimental effects of obesity, there is still opposition to the idea that it is in fact a significant problem in America. Opposers to obesity being seen as a large issue say "some people who are overweight or obese manage to escape the usual hazards, at least temporarily. This weight subgroup has even earned its own moniker- metabolically healthy obesity" (Skerrett). Putting the two words "obesity" and "healthy" in the same sentence with a positive connotation is absurd. Between the thousands of articles and medical studies conducted and published proving that obesity is terrible for the human body's skeleton and major systems, obesity is anything but healthy.  Antagonists look for a way to show that obesity could potentially not be as harmful as it truly is by labeling it "metabolically healthy obesity", but even in their statements it is noted that this is a temporary state. After this temporary state comes the life threading health complications, it is common sense that the heavier a person becomes, the faster and worse their health goes on a downward spiral. 

After researching obesity and  finding all of the negative effects that being obese can have a person's health and even more so on the economy, I do not think obesity should be socially acceptable. Society should not accept that a majority of our population is ruining their health and allowing the rest of the country to pay for it. It should not be a normality in our society to be okay with having the risk of heart disease or diabetes nearly double because of a person's weight. I am not saying that people should completely change their lives to be 100% healthy and exercise more than the recommended amount everyday, however people should change their lives to be healthier.  Granted, economics and biological factors can play a role in a person's weight, but there are steps to take to prevent obesity, even if it is switching from taking the escalator to walking up the stairs a few times a day, any activity is better than no activity.  However, obese people should not be fat shamed, rather society needs to begin to educate people across all ages of the negative ramifications surrounding obesity.  If people were to know more about the negative connotations surrounding obesity, there is a chance that the obesity rate could potentially stop increasing at such rapid pace or level off.  Many schools are attempting to ingrate "a Coordinated School Health Program (CSHP), which strives to influence the student's health: health education, physical education, health services, nutrition services, counseling, healthy school environment, health promotion for staff, and family and community involvement" ("Role" 6).  Educating students and their families can bring awareness to the pressing issue of obesity in America. By implementing  the education of a  healthier life style, hopefully more American families will begin to see the positives of cutting down their weight, such as lower cost of health care not only for the entire country, but also for the individual if they are obese, and would create an overall happier life without the risk of serious health related issues.  

