Every day for the past several years, you stand up out of bed and put on your clothes for the day. Looking in the mirror, you see the clothes become tighter and tighter. You become more consciously aware of what you are wearing and how you look. Sometimes, you feel disgusted with your body. How can you compare with the other “good-looking” people? When a person’s body mass index is above the average, he or she is considered obese. As a society, we should care about obesity because it causes many health problems that are some of the most common reasons for death. Obesity is an epidemic that is only getting worse in the world. Are you that next person who adds to the obesity statistics? Let’s examine how, as a society, we can change that.
History
Obesity has always been present in the world. There were even mentions of obesity or gluttony in the Bible, common with the wealthy. Obesity throughout the twentieth century was different. More industrialization and bigger cities made a lifestyle change for most people. Instead of being active on a farm, some might move to a city and get an office job. If people do not make exercise a priority at home, they will have more of a sedentary lifestyle (Renee). Also, in the 1960’s fast-food chains became more popular which increased the amount of fat and sugar that was consumed by Americans (Renee). Currently, in the 2010’s, nearly one in three adults falls under the obese category (Renee). Obesity has now become common in the lower class, instead of the wealthy. When people cannot afford organic or healthy foods, they have to settle for the cheaper, processed foods. The obesity statistics only increase with more artificial flavors, preservatives, and fatty foods to make food cheaper.
Social Effects
A major effect of obesity is the associated health problems. Obesity is a major cause of many diseases. An overweight person is ten times more likely to get type 2 diabetes (ASBMS). Seventy-five percent of people who have high blood pressure are obese (ASMBS). Consequently, high blood pressure can lead to a stroke. Also, hypertension negatively affects the heart because it has to pump harder than usual. Also, if a person has a sedentary lifestyle, the heart will become weaker. The heart is a muscle and needs exercise. That is why obese people eventually become cardiac patients who have a risk of having a heart attack. There is an increase in the United State’s spending due to obesity. From 1998 to 2008, the medical costs of obesity have risen from 78.5 billion dollars a year to 147 billion dollars (Hammond). Children obesity, alone, costs 14.3 billion dollars (Hammond). Therefore, obesity creates many health problems which leads to extra spending by the country.
Obesity has effects on families. Since obesity can create many health problems, it decreases the lifespan of a person. When a family member dies younger than they should have due to being overweight, it means that children grow up without parents and there is a loss of income. This can affect a family’s life in a negative way. The cost of future medical bills causes stress on the family. Being majorly obese takes away the ability for some people to work. This makes overcoming obesity a struggle because they cannot afford to buy healthy food or gym memberships. Some people may be able to work but have multiple jobs. This situation excludes time that could be spent exercising and making healthy, homemade meals. It is easier to eat fast food or frozen dinners when time and money are limited. Long term obesity can also cause joint and back pain. If a person has discomfort, it will not allow him to do as many activities with his family. Eating habits and sedentary lifestyles can pass on through generations. Children watch their parents and mimic their actions. If parents do not eat healthy foods, their children will not see a reason to either. Children learn that overeating is normal behavior. Therefore, family members have a big impact on the next generations eating habits.
Obesity can affect mental health. When a person is unhappy with the way he or she looks, it can lead to depression or in extreme cases, suicide. He or she can be worried about what other people think of them. Forty percent of children who get treatment for weight loss say they have been bullied or teased by family members (Neporant). According to a study at Yale, low self-esteem is caused by being bullied for weight (Neporant). Social media does not help people with self-esteem issues. Seeing a “good-looking”, healthy person on a social media platform, living a good life, is a gateway for comparison. Therefore, people’s weight can make them feel inadequate in the world, making their problem worse.
Examples
There are many examples of obesity in the world. Everyone has a different story. Some people grow up with an unhealthy diet, gain weight, are bullied, and it affects them mentally. Some women have healthy habits their whole life until they cannot lose weight after a pregnancy. Some people might be obese their whole life and start to see health problems. People have different reasons why they struggle to lose weight. Some people are not concerned about being overweight. They live in the moment and choose to do what makes them happy. They do this without considering the consequences that will follow in the future. On the other hand, some obese people really struggle to accept themselves as overweight.
An example of obesity is Jim F. at 60 years old (Obesity). He was three hundred pounds before his weight loss surgery (Obesity). Because of his weight, he experienced many health problems. He experienced back pain, sleep apnea, high cholesterol (Obesity). He was also diagnosed as prediabetic (Obesity). He was happy with his results after the surgery. He achieved his weight goal. He was able to save money by not taking medication for high cholesterol and gastric reflux (Obesity). He no longer had high blood pressure or signs of diabetes (Obesity).
Another example is of a younger person named Tom Almond. He wrote his story in a blog for the world to see. He explained that he was an active child (Almond). It was not until technology advanced, and he spent most of this time sitting in front of a screen instead of being athletic (Almond). Beginning to become overweight brought about bullying (Almond). People would tell him he was fat (Almond). In time, he became depressed and would not want to be seen in public (Almond). He became self-conscious of what clothes he wore and how people would think of him (Almond). In college, his eating habits got worse because of the many meals spent away from home (Almond). As he advanced to a university, his grades were not at his best (Almond). He felt inadequate and started to have suicidal thoughts (Almond). After his life at a university, he struggled to find a job (Almond). Fortunately, an opportunity opened up, and he met the best people there. He met his best friend, Ray (Almond). Ray, who was very healthy, encouraged him to go to the gym and eat healthy (Almond). Just as he was starting to feel like a normal person again, he got in a car crash (Almond). He spent a month in pain which paused his exercising routine; his mental state from the accident returned his carelessness of what he ate (Almond). After a year, his weight reached its peak (Almond). It was not until he attended an Ariana Grande concert, that his mindset changed. He left the concert early, only to find out that there was a bombing minutes after he left (Almond). This finally made him realize that he needed to live to his best ability because you never know when it will be taken away (Almond). Currently, he is on the path of losing weight again. Tom Almond is only one example of obesity affecting someone’s life.
Solutions
Obesity is so widespread and is thought as acceptable by many people. This epidemic will never be totally solved because some people do not care enough to change their lifestyle. Most of the population live in the moment and do not care about the consequences of actions. Solutions to the obesity epidemic would require action from many groups. First, the individual needs to fully devote themselves into a lifestyle change. Second, the food industry must provide more healthy foods for the public. Third, the government must make improvements in academics and health care. Therefore, it is not only one person who can change the obesity epidemic. As a family, as a community, as a nation, and as a world, we would have to recognize the elimination of the obesity epidemic as a priority.
The solution to obesity comes down to the individual. The world can provide healthy food, nutrition classes, and proper health care, but if the individual does not want to change, it will not happen. A consumer buys food products based on the four factors of taste, quality, convenience, and price (Verduin). Most likely, a consumer will pick a food with those qualities instead of the healthy version (Verduin). To solve obesity, people might have to sacrifice those qualities in order to achieve their weight-loss goal. Making good choices everyday becomes a lifestyle. A person has to have self-discipline to maintain a good diet and exercise program.
Of course, the food producer industry plays a role in the obesity epidemic. The grocery store is a trap for people. Yummy foods are staring at the shoppers, wanting to be purchased. Which appetizing product will you pick? The food industry has the responsibility of presenting their product in an appetizing way. Also, the grocery store has control over where food is placed in the store. For example, the delicious, teaser foods are placed on the ends of the aisles where people pass them.
The government also has a part in helping the obesity epidemic. A successful healthy lifestyle starts as discipline in younger ages. There should be government regulations on the food that is served in school cafeterias. It should be the correct portion size of a well-balanced meal for the age of the child. There should be required health classes taught in elementary and continuing throughout high school. What we put into our body and how it affects our health is just as important as any other subject. Students should be able to read labels on food and know what it means. How many calories should a person eat in a day? How much fat is acceptable? What food combination creates a balanced meal? The education and understanding of how food works will provide any person who wants to change their diet the resources and information to do so.
Along with health and nutrition classes, physical education should be a class taught every day. Using physical fitness tests, the coaches can create workouts that benefit the areas in which students lack fitness. Instead of P.E. being a class where children can play ball, coaches should be teaching the students the correct way to exercise. Students need to be taught how to warm up, stretch, work out, and cool down. Safety during physical fitness is also a priority. Coaches need to teach the correct body positions for each exercise in order to protect the young students’ bodies from injury. Starting this lifestyle at a young age will create a healthy habit.
People respond to incentives. The government and health insurance companies have the position of rewarding people who are not obese. If a person is between a healthy BMI, the insurance company could lower their rates. This would be an incentive for obese people to start making a change. Also, any company can provide a physical fitness room in their facility for their employees. This could give their employees a convenient place to exercise. In a stressful environment like an office, exercising could be a great stress reliever for many employees. Healthy employees are more productive, have less sick days, and less doctor visits. Therefore, creating incentives for people to exercise is a way to reduce obesity while also improving the work environment.
The best solution to obesity would be for all of these proposals to happen at once. If everyone tried to help individuals reach their goal, it would hopefully start changing people’s views of obesity from not caring to being determined to reach that goal.
Camus
Albert Camus is known for his views on the absurdity of life. Camus sees life as meaningless (Hendricks). Camus uses this meaningless view of the world as an excuse to live freely. Camus does not talk about obesity specifically, but gathering research on his thoughts about life would lead to the conclusion that Camus would accept obesity. He tells his audience to enjoy the meaningless of life and do whatever they desire to do (Hendricks). That would logically include eating whatever you want. On the other hand, Camus played sports (Hendricks). Some might say he then cared about physical fitness. However, it might simply be him doing what he personally enjoyed. Camus would accept obesity even if people die. He already has the thought that life is meaningless so he would probably not be a supporter of reducing the obesity epidemic because it would make no difference to him whether someone lived their life in a healthy or unhealthy way.
Conclusion
Obesity always has been and will continue to be in existence. The obesity epidemic will not end. It would take a lot of effort from millions of people to fix obesity. There will always be someone who is not able to lose weight or who does not care enough to lose weight. As individuals, we can decide for ourselves whether it is a priority in our life. Other organizations, such as schools, government, and family can help the individuals can well. There are resources to learn about nutrition and exercise. However, obesity affects many different areas in our life that make it hard to change our lifestyle. Finding time, money, motivation, and someone who is going to support you in the process to lose weight is difficult, but together we will not be the next obesity statistic.
Works Cited
Almond, Tom. “My Big Fat Obese Story – Out of Obesity – Medium.” Medium, Out of Obesity, 19 Sept. 2017, medium.com/out-of-obesity/my-big-fat-obese-story-fb08d05b6827.
Cespedes, Andrea. “The History of Obesity in the World.” LIVESTRONG.COM, Leaf Group, 18 July 2017, www.livestrong.com/article/380479-the-history-of-obesity-in-the-world/.
Hammond, Ross A, and Ruth Levine. “The Economic Impact of Obesity in the United States.”Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity : Targets and Therapy, Dove Medical Press, 30 Aug. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3047996/.
Hendricks, Scotty. “The Meaning of Life: Albert Camus on Faith, Suicide, and Absurdity.” Big Think, 1 Mar. 2018, bigthink.com/scotty-hendricks/the-meaning-of-life-albert-camus-on-faith-suicide-and-absurdity.
Neporent, Liz. “8 Surprising Effects of Obesity.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 14 Sept. 2013, abcnews.go.com/Health/surprising-effects-obesity/story?id=20204869#7.
Renee, Janet. “Obesity History in America.” Live Strong, 18 July 2017. https://www.livestrong.com/article/359624-obesity-history-in-america/
“The Impact of Obesity on Your Body and Health.” American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, asmbs.org/patients/impact-of-obesity.
Verduin, Patricia, et al. “Solutions to Obesity: Perspectives from the Food Industry.” OUP Academic, Oxford University Press, 1 July 2005, academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/82/1/259S/4863410.
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