The Argument on Obesity Being a Disease

Brad Ward
English 152
Dr. Reiter 10/13/2011 The Argument on Obesity being a Disease Roughly, in the United States, there are 60 million people with the problem of obesity. Uniquely, this disease affects women in the United States more than men. Obesity is a problem because both men and women of all ages are exposed to a large amount of food in their everyday lives. He or she should lose weight because Obesity it can bring on a lot of health issues. This issue is a “big’’ problem in the U.S and that issue is why some people say that they believe obesity is a disease and why another set of people that think a person chooses to live the lifestyle of obesity. One reason some people have problems with obesity is they live very convenient lives. “Does the family have clearly stated rules and are punishments logical consequences for rules that are broken (Kelly D. Brownell & John P. Foreyt)?” Many people don’t have to exercise and do not eat healthily at all. Most people take the easy way by taking elevators instead of climbing the stairs, or if they are hungry they go to a fast food restaurant instead of preparing a low fat meal at home. For example, in my family if nobody wants to cook, we usually go out and pick up something to eat, usually high calorie fast food. People today can also become so busy they don’t even attempt to exercise or eat health foods. The reason I know this is because I am busy almost every day. With school work, my job, and family duties I find little time for exercise or food preparation. Eating healthily and staying fit is a lifestyle that everyone needs to switch over to so they can have more energy and also live longer. Most of the time it is not people’s choices that make them obese; it is either hereditary or a slow body metabolism. ‘’Obesity has become a highly contentious issue in part because the United States not only has one of the highest obesity rates in the world but has also led the industrial transformation of society to produce the ‘toxic environment’ now accepted by most governments as the problem” (WPT James S125). Obesity is so toxic that doctors are finding obesity is liked with depression. ”We found that a self reported doctor diagnosis of depression was modestly associated with obesity, as well as significant genetic components to depression and obesity in female twins(Afari, Niloofar).” Sometimes a certain gene in people’s bodies can cause them to be obese. For example, most of my family is big boned people. Some people have hypothyroidism or an underactive thyroid. This condition can make a person sluggish and out of energy so they will not be able to exercise or eat healthily. With obesity, many restrictions follow, for example wearing certain sized clothing, or assigned particular seat on a bus, plane, or amusement park ride. If a person is obese they usually have a hard time to find clothes. For instance, most of time my dad goes to Shreveport to the Big & Tall men store. This is where he buys his shirts and pants at cheap price.
This group of people feels that being obese is a lifestyle and that too much cost goes into providing the coverage for obesity. But yet, people in the middle school system give Body /Mass index exams. “Doctors use the BMI mainly to categorize patients, into ‘overweight’ or ‘obese’, using either data from reference populations or drawing upon the U-shaped association between BMI and both, morbidity and mortality (Müller, M. J.).” So, why does the government not help do something for obesity? I believe that government is holding out on us and we can’t do anything about it unless we elect people that can fight on our behalf. This is the one problem that gets to me because the government has the guts to sent all are jobs overseas but they are so skeptical about helping us as American to pay to “knockout” this obesity propbelm.
Obesity can affect a lot of people’s health by causing diabetes, sleep disorders, heart complications, and breathing problems. For instance, a man named Joe who appeared on the TV show The Biggest Looser started the program weighing at 450 pounds and having to take medication for his health problems. He stayed on the show for three weeks and he lost a whopping 215 pounds. Since he lost all of that weight he did have to take the medication anymore.
If people worked on having the will power to exercise and eat healthily, they could have more energy and not feel exhausted. I know it is not always people’s fault for being obese but that does not mean they have to stay fat for the rest of their lives. All we need to is keep positive and Believe we can fight the better life. If a person was to take their time and try it out they might get good results.

Work cited (James, W.P.T.). “WHO recognition of the global obesity epidemic.” International Journal of Obesity 7 (2008): S125 (Kelly D. Brownell and John P. Foreyt). “Handbook of Eating Disorder” Basic Books, Inc. 513 (1986): 432 (Afari, Niloofar).” Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269); Sep2010, Vol. 27 Issue 9, p799-806, 8p, 1 Diagram, 4 Charts
(Müller, M. J.). “Obesity Reviews; Aug2010, Vol. 11 Issue 8, p612-618, 7p, 2 Graphs