Obesity on the Rise Over the years obesity has posed a major threat to lives of Americans and other individuals around the globe. The rates have continues on the rise, even with the many efforts put forth to diminish it. Obesity is an extremely serious matter. It often leads to an increased risk in the development of many health problems and may result to taking the lives of those who have been consumed by it. There is no target age during which it strikes, leaving it possible for individuals in all age groups to become obese.
Newly created technology prevents a lot of people from wanting to leave their homes because everything is so readily available there. Contributing factors to obesity in America are lack of exercise, the lack of a good diet, and also the lack of time. Exercising on a regular basis is a hard routine to get into, but it is better late than never. It’s especially hard if you’re not used to exercising at all. Once people reach a certain age or even a certain weight,
As shown by the statistics that he presents, Type 2 diabetes has greatly increased lately as a result of obesity , which has led to the spending of an incredible amount of money towards its treatment. Basically the message that David Zinczenko passes through this article is that things have to change in order to decrease the negative health and economically related problems. We collectively need to do something about it. On the other hand, Radly Balko , the author of the article “ What you eat is your business “ presents the issue from a totally different point of view. Just by reading the title of the article we can tell his position which is more about personal responsibility rather than collective.
David starts by teasing these overweight individuals that are bring a lawsuit against McDonalds, but then later admits that he used to be overweight as a child and was able to change his life around. He made a point to show health concerns with being obese and eating fast food regularly, such as type two diabetes which has risen about twenty-five percent since 1994. This raise in diabetes also requires much funding for the United States to spend to try to find a cure. David explains how there is very few alternatives for the youth of America because those health alternatives are more expensive and harder to find. False advertising is also another unpleasant practice that fast food companies use to lure in costumers.
Going through a drive-through is much more effective than sitting down at a restaurant or preparing meals at home. For the average working class family living life on the go, it can save a lot of time and money. Also, the industry itself creates and perpetuates millions of jobs for the economy (often with low wages and poor benefits). The most common reason people continue to eat fast food, despite their knowledge of the negative effects, is the simple fact that it tastes good. The addictive and yet fattening qualities associated with fast food leave people constantly craving one more bite.
Almost one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese, and more than two-thirds of adults are overweight. Obesity rates have increased by 214 percent between 1950 and 2000(Livestrong.com). Also According to livestrong.com, the main cause for the increase it weight among American’s is lack of exercise, as well as the convenience of fast food, and caloric increase. This rise in obesity has increased diseases such as heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. As a country, we are spending over $190 billion a year treating these diseases, diseases that could be prevented by increasing exercise and decreasing calories.
Is the recession making us fat? It’s no secret that Americans, as a whole, are fatter than ever before. Obesity transcends all ages, cultures, and religions. While some question the role that the current economic recession pays in this epidemic (Campbell, 2009), the evidence of this connection is clear. The side effects of hard economic times, increased poverty, stress, and lack of free time as people juggle second and third jobs to make ends meet, push Americans toward the cheapest and quickest meals.
They produced many new jobs with the need for new roads since the American landscape was drastically expanding. Advertisements not only made businesses prosper but gave people actual helpful information, such as the idea of keeping a much better personal hygiene being better for your health. Alternating electrical current increased energy efficiency tenfold compared to direct current since people could actually turn off their electricity. However, the Installment Plan created a country-wide idea that you could now buy what you really can’t afford and that made a lot of debt which eventually made the stock market crash leading to the Great Depression. Although there was a blotch on the great economic image of the twenties, the bigger smudge was on the cultural rifts that
People don’t realize what they are doing for our future generations. Because of how fast food companies are targeting younger children, they are setting up their minds to automatically want fast food. In some minds this is repulsive in others its just another way to make a lump of money. Our world is changing very quickly and fast food restaurants are popping up faster than the flowers in spring. Americans are becoming comfortable with fast food and unhealthy choices.
Over the last couple of years, the United States has, not only, become the most obese country in the world, but also has a large increase in health problems such as heart attacks, diabetes, high blood pressure, and strokes. Business executives of fast food restaurants do not consider the well being of their consumers because that same greed they have, doesn’t allow them to worry about them. In chapter two of the book, “Welcome to Fatland,” there is a focus on how executives came up with different ways to earn more profits and entice customers to buy their products. The best marketing strategy they have developed is “bigness.” Basically, this strategy consists of offering larger quantities to consumers. The cost to the company to produce bigger goods is only slightly different than producing the regular sized, and they could charge consumers a higher amount.