Preventing Obesity Paper - Essay Example

This portion of the article also lists some statistics that are quite alarming such as a 26.7% obesity rate in adults in the entire United states, and relates obesity to such illnesses as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers. This section also details that some people who are affected by obesity attempt to exercise, but the amount or type of food they eat still ensures that they either do not loose weight or relapse in a short amount of time. Obesity is also defined in the early sections as a person with a BMI of 30 or more.

The article the trends toward finding the sources of obesity, and in its early parts, identifies the lack of healthy food, and over availability of fast food as one of the reasons for obesity. The article moves away from identifying the obese person as the one responsible for the situation, but instead , lists some factors that have collaborated to form an obese-creating situation, such as more time with electronics, communities designed for driving, more desk jobs, declining physical education, vending machines in schools, increased calorie and portion size, more advertisements for unhealthy food, and increased prices for health food.

This also points to low income families having the highest obesity rate, being that they cannot access healthy food. In continuing with the article, it then discusses that simply the cost of healthy food is not enough and that there must be some other reasons for obesity. It goes on to discuss some proposals about food. One such proposal is imposing tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. This came from the research that these types of drinks can add as much as 18 pounds to a person a year if not kept in check.

Then, inspired by tobacco taxes, this proposal was thought up. This is contradicted by some researches that state that it cannot have a noticeable or measurable effect on obesity, and this is the argument that rages for this proposal. Some research indicates that it can have long term effects, while other researches do not see any effects either on price or obesity or both. The other proposal is to limit or restrict food marketing to children. The article states that on average, children and teens watch a bout 3.

5 hours of TV a day, and adds that target that demographic regarding food are mostly sugar-filled unhealthy foods. Other than TV, other food advertisement places are the internet and even games. This lead to some companies, such as Cadbury pledging to not advertise on shows for children aged 12 years and below. According to the article, congress, with the help of other organizations, now work on a model nutrition marketing standards for children aged 2-17, which in turn did not please the food and beverage companies.

This is where the stalemate is; Congress attempting to restrict advertising, while the companies voicing out that it would literally kill their business. The article also provides some background to dieting, food trends, treatments such as surgery, and food acts. Many people are attempting to fix the situation of obesity but many factors such as the nation’s direction on food are making it difficult. Other issues or factors that the article discusses are regarding genes and their relation to obesity.

They have found one gene that may cause up to 22 percent of obesity called FTO. The question of weather or not the