It is
just another dreaded doctor’s visit. The time is slowly passing as you wait for
the test results stating you have too much of this, too little of that, or not
enough. The doctor returns and you are relieved that your time in the hospital
has almost come to an end, but little do you known it was just prolonged. He
exclaims that you have crossed the line of obesity, you can soon be
hospitalized or make some serious life style changes. How did you get here?
This is a scenario that about 40% of Americans in this decade have faced. That percentage
continues to rise as obese children become adults and develop fatal diseases
that are hereditary. It’s absurd how few people are educated on this
detrimental matter. Obesity is not diagnosed off of cosmetic features but is
determined by the Body Mass Index (BMI) of a person with a BMI of 30 or higher
(Obesity 1). If more people were educated on how to maintain a healthy
lifestyle, then this disease would not be classified as an epidemic today. 
History
With time, technology has progressed drastically in
the last 100 years. Beginning with the industrial revolution machine replaced
hands-on work performed by humans, automobiles were produced for faster
transportation, and many abandoned their farms for a new life in the city. As a result in this move, the government had to find a way to mass produce foods,
distribute them, and develop ways to preserve foods for a long period of time
leading to the development of processed foods, genetically modified produced,
and instant meals. 100 years forward and we’ve grown accustomed to this life of
convenience in America. Obesity has always been an awareness in society but in
the 21st century this disorder is prevalent. “In 1990, obese adults made up less than 15
percent of the population in most U.S. states” (An Epidemic of Obesity 1). “By
2010, 36 states had obesity rates of 25 percent or higher, and 12 of those had
obesity rates of 30 percent or higher” (1). In only 20 years, the numbers have
dramatically increased and are still rising. “Today, nationwide, roughly two
out of three U.S. adults are overweight or obese (69 percent) and one out of
three is obese (36 percent)” (An Epidemic of Obesity 1).
Cause
Your lifestyle and surroundings play a part in the well-being of your health. Have you heard the saying, “you are what you eat?” Health Services Research “found that the number of fast-food and full-service restaurants, food consumed at home, and prices of cigarettes and alcohol were related to obesity” (Yen 1). Fast food is packed with hundreds of calories of grease, fat, preservatives, artificial sugars, and binders. All of these are nonessential nutrients that the human body is not made to digest. So what happens to the McDonalds you ate for lunch? It was broken down and stored in your body as fat. Side effects of fast food lead to fatigue, heaviness, and an overall loss of energy that can build
Alcohol and cigarettes,
another addictive mass produced product, changes your hormones therefore
changes the way your brain works and the way your body processes food and
sugars. They also affect your kidneys which filter your blood and dispose the
waste into your urine and your liver. The liver is an important organ in
digestion and determines your metabolism. Retention of alcohol causes people to
develop “beer bellies” which is the buildup of fat around the abdomen making it
difficult to participate in physical activities. Failure of these organs is a
definite death because the toxins are not being disposed from the body.
Social
Effects
The cause of obesity can come from a number of physical and
psychological issues; it simply occurs when more calories are consumed than the
body can burn. Let’s look at this epidemic on both micro and macro sociological
levels.
Obesity has no
social boundaries or racial profiling even though “Non-Hispanic black, Hispanic, and Mexican American adults have higher
rates of obesity than non-Hispanic white adults” (An Epidemic of Obesity 1).
This can be tied back to the economic and social issues we face in America
today. If you have not noticed, low-income areas don’t have local a Kroger,
fitness center, Wholefoods, or Starbucks; instead they are surrounded by fast
food chains on the corner of every street or small food marts with rarely any
fresh foods. This is convenient for residents in this area because they work
tirelessly day by day and rarely have the energy to make a home cooked meal so
ten tacos for $5 from Jack in the Box sounds like a deal. But as stated
earlier, fast foods are packed with useless nutrients. This is the main reason excessive weight and
obesity are living in these areas where dietary options are limited, but
wealthy areas are the complete opposite.
They have the choice of which lifestyle to live, maybe too many choices
and the technology that is available to them, keeps them occupied from physical
activity whether it’s a video game or work. So, their luxury of having three
wholesome meals everyday can grow out of hand. 
In this nation, the tabloids, Hollywood, and social
media haven created a body image stigma that is also tied to obesity. “This
stigma contributes to behaviors such as binge eating, social isolation,
avoidance of health care services, decreased physical activity, and increased
weight gain, which worsen obesity and create additional barriers to healthy
behavior change” (Pont 1). It can be seen widely in pre-teens and young adults.
This is the time period where your body is evolving and 24/7 their surrounded
by judgement and standards: at school, on television, and on their mobile
devices. Speaking from experience, when you don’t feel like you meet the
criteria of society, it seems like you don’t have any friends like the popular
kids, you don’t look like them, and you don’t participate in the same
activities as them. These emotions result in stress which eventually turn into
an eating disorder because food is seen as a comfort. These victims of stress
from this social stigma usually experience teasing and bullying by the same
people that they wish they were. But, what we don’t see, past the stigma, is
that they’re just being themselves, and we have to learn to find yourselves
without stressing about others.
On one hand, society
dictates our lifestyles, and, on the other, genetics are an addition to the
equation. The effects of obesity can also be passed down from adults to their
children, which is a worldwide issue. The AACAP stated that, “If one parent is obese, there is a 50 percent chance
that his or her child will also be obese” (Aacap 1). “However, when both
parents are obese, their children have an 80 percent chance of being obese”
(1). .Just by these statistics, parents should be cautious of their well-being
for their children because dieses and fatal health conditions are inherited
from adults that are obese or overweight.
Some risks include: heart disease, blood clots, kidney and liver
failure, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, and
depression. As parents your children look to you as role models; do you want to
be the parent that promotes a confident, energetic, and long life or one that
demonstrates laziness, bad habits, and poor health?
Examples
We hear about this epidemic and see
it in public, but some haven’t experienced it first hand or don’t realize they
are in the mist of obesity.
The media found a way to spread awareness of obesity
by producing a reality TV show called My 600 Pound Life. This show exploits the
lives of people who have met the limits of obesity and are holding on to life
by a thread unless they are willing to do something about their health. In this
series, people have turned their lives around for the better, refused
treatment, and have even died. Christiana is an individual who was facing death
and found the strength to follow a different path. She describes,
When I was 700 lbs., I felt worthless, and like I
didn’t deserve anything better than the life I had. And now my fear of gaining
weight has crippled me. But I have to move past that fear if I want to live my
life (Mazziota 1).
Even after her weight loss of almost 500 lbs.,
the obese her left some lasting effects such as feet pain, gull bladder removal, extra skin, and overall low
self-esteem (Mazziota 1). Christina’s story is one that has the power to change
the lives of many.
The effects of obesity go far past just the victim, it
has an effect on family members and loved ones as well. My great aunt, a joyous
women she was, battled with weight gain that turned into obesity. I never got
to know her as an active person. I only knew her as the woman that sat in the
corner or the church or any family gathering and would only move for food. When
she was mobile, it wasn’t independently but with a cane in hand. I could see in
her children’s eyes that her lifestyle wasn’t healthy and they dreaded, at her
age, that they had to leave their lives to care for her or make sure she had a
place to sit whenever she got tired which was quite often. Unfortunately, her
death her death came unexpectedly but not by surprise. It began with the weight
being too much on her feet so she was bed written causing blood clots around
her body. Then her digestive system was so backed up and filled with toxins
that her intestines inflamed and exploded releasing the toxins killing her
internally. I hate that I didn’t have a chance to know her better but her death
showed the family that we needed to lead healthy, happy, long lives.
Solutions
Putting on weight is easy but it is even harder to
lose the weight gained and develop the discipline to maintain a lower BMI.
Obesity is a point where weight gain is mentally and physically problematic.
Stanford Children’s Health exclaimed that treatment “includes the involvement
of a nutritionist, qualified mental health professionals, and an exercise
specialist” (Default). Those on this journey need to be reminded that their
goal of a heather lifestyle is not going to happen overnight. Results take
time; you just need the right resources to get you there.
On this road to recovery, there are two solutions
offered: Change your lifestyle or have the fat surgically removed. The
lifestyle change solution to this epidemic, being the preferred direction to
take, is equivalent to reverse psychology. If unhealthy food, stress, and
inactiveness, was the cause of obesity then the right amounts of healthy food,
peace of mind, and physical activity can revert your body back. The second
solution is offered but is a risky route to take. The ACOG exclaims, “a multidisciplinary
team, including an experienced bariatric surgeon, dietitian, and psychologist
or psychiatrist, should be used to select appropriate candidates for surgical
intervention and provide postoperative support” (Women's Health Care Physicians). Candidates must be mature and
mentally prepared; just because the body changed doesn’t mean habits where
changed as well. Otherwise they can at any time relapse to being obese.
The state of obesity is
based off one’s choices and it is ones personal responsibility to take control
of their situation. Goals should be realistic. Those loosing that much weight
will not look like a bikini model because of how much the skin has stretched to
store fat. Lifestyle solutions to obesity
vary depending on the patient and the severity do their condition. Stafford
Children’s health also provides a list of ways obesity can be managed:
·
Gradually work to change family eating habits and activity
levels rather than focusing on a child's weight.
·
Be a role model. Parents who eat healthy foods and participate
in physical activity set an example so that a child is more likely to do the
same.
·
Encourage physical activity. Children should have 60 minutes of
moderate physical activity most days of the week. More than 60 minutes of activity
may promote weight loss and subsequent maintenance.
·
Reduce "screen" time in front of the television and
computer to less than two hours daily.
·
Encourage children to drink water rather than beverages with
added sugar, such as soft drinks, sports drinks, and fruit juice drinks.
·
Get 6-8 hours of sleep a night to keep hormones balanced. (Default)
Their list is directed
toward children but the same thing applies to adults as well in order to live
an abundant life. In addition, New England Fat loss explains what should not be
done when trying to lose weight: don’t starve yourself, don’t get discouraged,
and don’t drink alcohol (Weight Loss
Dos and Don'ts). Overall all changes require positive motivation and being
surrounded by role models.
The government needs to take action to regulate what
the community is consuming, what is processed in our food, how it is marketed,
and the portions that are given. This would help adults especially parents to
make better choices for themselves and their children so they won’t have to
worry about the effects of obesity.
Camus and Absurdity
Obesity inhabits one to be fully engaged in everyday
life; often leaving them with time on their hands to question the meaning of
life in the state they are in. Thus, on this topic Camus would argue the
meaning of life. In his inquiry “Man Provides Life’s Meaning,” he explains his
belief of “living is keeping the absurd alive” and ways to restore majesty to
life (Albert).
When explaining “living is keep the absurd alive,” he
states, “at a minimum, we avoid wishful thinking and taking a convenient
attitude” (Albert). Victims of obesity are but in this absurd position. They
stop hoping they will be accepted by society, trying to be something they are
not, or dream to be who they once were. Their wishful thinking is thrown out
the window because it comes with pain and disappointment. So the convenient
attitude is to do nothing this way to not be hurt but forgetting to acknowledge
those who have to watch obesity parish their loved ones.
What does restore majesty to life? Camus answers that
with, “the nobility of revolting
against the Absurd is acting in the face of meaningless” (Albert). “When I, alone, impose meaning on what I do, I
live authentically” (Albert). In order to restore majesty, absurd thinking must
be put to action to make hopes and dreams a reality. By demanding that personal
opinions matter, the standards and stigma of society are meaningless making
one’s life valued once more to continue living.
Conclusion
It is vital for our nation’s future to take the
obesity epidemic more seriously. In the direction
America is heading, we will be spending more and more tax payer dollars on the
most preventative branch in healthcare. Let’s stop bullying. Let’s stop social
stigma. Let’s stop allowing corporations to make our health a commodity. Let’s
set out and educate ourselves on living healthier lifestyles.
Works Cited
Aacap. Obesity In Children And Teens, Apr.
2016, www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Obesity-In-Children-And-Teens-079.aspx.
Albert Camus, "The Myth
of Sisyphus" in Walter Kaufman, ed., Existentialism From Dostoevsky to
Sartre, New York: Meridian, 1988.
“An Epidemic of Obesity: U.S. Obesity Trends.” The
Nutrition Source, 12 Apr. 2016, www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/an-epidemic-of-obesity/.
“Default - Stanford
Children's Health.” Stanford Children's Health - Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital Stanford,
www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=obesity-in-adolescents-90-P01627.
Mazziotta, Julie. “Woman Who Lost Over 500 Lbs. Stops
Eating for Days at the Slightest Gain: 'I Tend to Freak Out'.” PEOPLE.com,
6 Apr. 2016,
people.com/bodies/woman-who-lost-over-500-lbs-stops-eating-for-days-if-she-sees-her-weight-go-up/.
“Obesity.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation
for Medical Education and Research, 10 June 2015,
Pont, Stephen J., et al. “Stigma Experienced by
Children and Adolescents With Obesity.”Pediatrics, American Academy of
Pediatrics, 20 Nov. 2017,
pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2017/11/16/peds.2017-3034.
“Weight Loss Dos and Don'ts
- Weight Loss Tips.” Newengland-Fatloss, 9 Aug. 2017, www.newenglandfatloss.com/dos-donts-weight-loss/.
“Women's Health Care
Physicians.” Obesity in Adolescents - ACOG, Sept. 2017, www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Adolescent-Health-Care/Obesity-in-Adolescents.
Yen, Steven T,
et al. “Lifestyles, Demographics, Dietary Behavior, and Obesity: A Switching
Regression Analysis.” Health Services Research, Blackwell Science
Inc, Aug. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2739032/.
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