Obesity: Public Health Crisis in New Orleans - Essay Example

Thus maintaining healthy weight among the citizens is one of the most significant tasks for the contemporary health professionals. The lives of a majority of New Orleans are characterized by physical lethargy. It is revealed that most New Orleans citizens are far less physically agile than they report. The average child spent 25 minutes a week in planned physical activities and watched television 24 to 27 hours a week. Children become less agile as they grow up. Girls become less active than boys as they move through adolescence.

To put it other way, the more a person is physically active, the longer the person can expect to live. Exercise was acknowledged as one form of physical activity. A sturdy argument can be made tying the rise in corpulence with the decline in physical activity for most New Orleans. The calories consumed by New Orleans remained fairly constant over the last 40 years. Calories from fat have declined in the last 10 years (from about 38 percent to 32 percent). At the same time, obesity levels in this country noticeably increased.

Even though genetic influences on obesity are well recognized, swift changes in genetics are not likely in such a short time. By a process of exclusion, physical immobility seems to be one of the main factors contributing to the present rise in obesity. According to Graves obesity experts have described obesity as having a value of body mass index in excess of 30 like a 5-foot-8-inch individual weighing 197 pounds. New Orleans is the city that loves to eat. It's no wonder, that this passion is reflected on the appearance and health of dwellers.

The estimated quantity of overweight people in the New Orleans is 60% percent. The officials say it is obesity that is the cause for most diseases the New Orleans dwellers suffer from. They also add that the obesity-related diseases account for more than half of Louisiana's health care budget. (Sell) In 2005 Men's Fitness ranked New Orleans the seventh fattest city in the country. In 2004 it was on the twenty second place. The quantity of obese people in New Orleans is growing rapidly with each passing year, and thus the quantity of those, who suffer from the obesity-related diseases, also increases.

New Orleans dwellers become less active, and eat more. One of the reasons of this process is that the fast foods are gaining popularity in New Orleans, the same as in the other American cities. The contemporary pace of life often doesn't allow time for cooking at home, thus the families either eat out, or order food home. It is rarely that families order home healthy foods like salad. Most of New Orleans prefers pizza, where it is lots off fat and carbohydrates. In addition lots of parents prefer to stock the fridge with high-calorie snacks the children can eat while watching TV or playing computer games.

Chocolate bars, soft drinks, and chips are the main ration for many American children. Over and above, there are few kids in New Orleans that are involved in some kind of physical activity. It's no wonder the statistic says that 14% of high school