American Cultures Effect on Obesity Essay
At this point, obesity is practically rooted in American culture. According to CDC, between the years 2017-2018, the US obesity prevalence was at an astounding 42.4%, and an estimate that by 2030 half of adults will be obese (insert citation here). What does this mean for the United States? We understand why people become obese: unhealthy eating, little to/no exercise, our environment, sleep deprivation, and the list goes on. Previously, obesity has been endemic in all age ranges, but it wasn’t until say the Millennial era that the obesity epidemic would heavily proliferate. Nowadays. obesity is becoming less of a cause for action and instead is becoming badly comfortable in the US. Ultimately, the prevalence of obesity has negatively affected and influenced the US profoundly because of heightened US economic burdens, a heavy increase in fat-phobic discrimination, and an influx of eating disorders in young children and adults.
One reason is its negative impact on the US economy and society. In 2016, a study conducted by Clinical Review and Education compares healthcare expenses between the US and 10 other high-income countries. The figures showed that the US had the highest GDP spending (17.8%) on health and medical services (insert source citation Aqui, Oregon legislature), by a long shot. Obesity is not a disease but is rather a large contributor to some of the most common diseases including diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. These top leading causes of death in the US clocked an annual cost of nearly $200,000,000,000 to government-aided programs such as Medicare and Medicaid for obesity alone (“Why High-Fives for Obesity”). The reality is that the gov’t healthcare spending is overly-excessive and can largely be reduced and preventable if more people are accountable for what they eat, exercise, etc. Unfortunately, many people aren’t taking obesity seriously as it continues on the ruse. It projected that national health expenditures are projected to grow 1.1 percentage points faster than the gross domestic product per year and that the health share of the economy is projected to rise to 19.7% of the US economic sector in 2028 (insert citation here; cms.gov NHE fact sheet). Henceforth, if US society is apportioning more of its economy into healthcare overdrive then other sectors of the economy, such as education and infrastructure, would decrease since healthcare spending is greater than the growth rate of GDP, the net wealth measure of the US economically. In short, the US economy is slowly being damaged and misused for a fat epidemic that could be nipped in the bud if people were more proactive.
Another reason is the infiltration of fat-phobic discrimination against obesity. This is preeminently due to the portrayal of obesity and ‘fatness’ in American media and culture. Kids grow up to be based on their surrounding sphere of influence, whether it’s TV, magazines, or music. Models and actors in movies are widely held as the epitome of perfectionism in society, as people began to associate normal and skinny weight people as attractive and hard-working and relate fat people with negative connotations such as lazy and unattractive. It can be disputed that with the advent of “fat-positivity” terminology, with appealing terms such as “body-plus”, and the recently sharp uprise of overweight models and movie stars, obesity is becoming much more accommodating and accepted. Regardless, as reported by a study conducted at Arizona State University, college students state that they would prefer to marry an embezzler, drug user, or shoplifter over someone fat (insert Emily Kaufman Citation here). The quote exemplifies the escalation of fat phobic sentiments, not just in individuals but across whole generations of people. Although many people justify their retorts as motivation for people to avoid being out of setup with societal convention, these remarks and weight stigma aggravate obese people’s confidence and self-esteem. In consonance with the National Library of Medicine, a conducted study on both weight bias and weight loss outcomes collected in a behavioral weight loss program found that weight stigmatization was associated with “greater caloric intake, higher program attrition, lower energy expenditure, less exercise, and less weight loss” (insert citation of NLM (4th one)). This finding proclaims how decrying and exposing obesity only serves to aggravate low self-esteem farther down the road. As the rampant permeating of this epidemic stays in front, more and more people are being publicly ridiculed and criticized. It is not just about weight but nested in the larger context of society’s stubbornness to be open and accepting of appearance.
Finally, obesity has predisposed our unhealthy relationships with food and infiltrated our most vulnerable: adolescents and young adults, especially girls. For instance, a video source presented by the Associated Press media agency addresses the growing concern of childhood obesity. “Kids who came to kindergarten overweight had higher risks of becoming obese by the time they were eighth-graders than children who came to school as normal weight, about 4 times as likely” according to Dr, Solveig Cunningham, Dept. of Global Health (quote from child “weight fate video”; cite with (“A child’s Weight Fate 0:10 - 0:20). Despite the rise of childhood obesity, the good news is that more people are more motivated to maintain a healthy weight and lead active lifestyles. But, for all the wrong methods. Obesity is widely considered a hindrance to your success, from the opportunity to relationships and everything in between. As a result, some unlucky individuals take the fine line of dieting to the extreme by practically starving themselves for their looks. Goran Livazović, who conducted a study of 148 high-school participants (111 female, 37 male) found that girls especially had a higher frequency of behaviors related to eating disorders. Directly from the results, 13.5% of females felt disgusted and depressed after a meal over the amount of food consumed, and 3% of females in the experiment even admitted to intentionally throwing up after a meal to lose weight (Livazović, Goran, 5). By showing how widespread these behavioral eating disorder cues are amongst teenagers, this study helps insinuate youngsters' harmful association with food. A balanced and nutritious diet is critical to feeling mentally and physically healthy, yet in US society we are disciplined on calories, fat, salt, and sodium, and how abhorrent it is to put on weight. Thus, teens wrongfully associate food with a restriction and become overly conscientious about food to stay skinny. Essentially, you have unhealthy people because they are obese, but you also have underweight people who are starving and neglecting proper nutrition and food consumption.
To conclude, the overall prevalence of obesity has done tremendous harm to US society. Obesity has strained the US due to the federal government's dispersal of increasingly sizable sums of cash for use that takes away from other vital markets for GDP, our mass culture influence that spurs an increase in fat discrimination as the obesity rates climb, and obesity’s misinterpretation amongst young people causing a rise in eating deficit disorders. The US hasn’t reevaluated its approach or strategy in mitigating obesity. We need to turn a blind eye and look toward a direct solution that directly alleviates the obesity epidemic for good.
