Do These Jeans Make Me Look Too Fat?

Fat, plump, heavy, stout, chunky, large, corpulent, overweight are all words that are found in the dictionary. They are synonyms for obese. What is obesity? You can check your Body Mass Index or BMI and if you get a score of 30 or higher, yep, you are obese. You can calculate your BMI by dividing your weight in pounds by your height in inches squared, multiplying by 704.5. According to nutrition experts Marian Nestle and Michael F. Jacobson, obesity results from consuming more calories than the body uses, which results in stored fat. Super-sized portions and sedentary lifestyles, say Nestle and Jacobson, have contributed to a public health epidemic. Okay, what does this all really mean? Anyone who has been to a public pool can tell you we are getting tighter in our swimsuits. Go hang out at the food court at the Mall, no way is that a pretty sight! Our school systems, not much better there either. Across America we have managed to “Super-size” our drinks, meals and now our waist lines.
The collateral damage is an endless nightmare brewing out of control. Obesity is the number two cause of preventable death in the United States.
60 Million Americans, 20 years and older are obese. Now with Nine million children and teens ages 6-to 19 are overweight. Being overweight increases the risk of health conditions and diseases including: breast cancer, Coronary heart disease, Type II diabetes, Sleep apnea, Gallbladder disease, Osteoarthritis, Colon cancer, Hypertension and Stroke, as reported from the Centers for Disease Control. So people are eating out of control. Youths are not exercising. Watching T.V. or playing video games really can’t be considered as physical exercise. To put matters into perspective, an article by Ned Hepburn states that, the burden on the American taxpayers is about $147,000,000,000 a year. It costs airlines an additional $200, 000,000 a year in airline fuel. Not very environmentally correct.
Now this country needs a major weight loss program for this problem to be turned around. It has gotten to the point that obese people are now getting handicapped cards just because they need mobile chairs to get around. What we as a nation need to do now is to change this. On a national scale we are the fat kid on the playground getting laughed at right now. Now this being said, this epidemic didn’t just come out nowhere, it has been years in the making for this all to come crashing down on us.
You can point your finger at someone and there will always be three fingers pointing back at you. The first way to solve this obesity crisis that makes the most sense to me would be on the individual, personal level. I think lifestyle change is the current buzz word that is being used. I mean this is where it all starts. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends a nutritious diet that follows the “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however if you choose not to follow the guidelines, well so much for all of that work. The Surgeon General (He is a very busy man) also advocates that adults get 30 minutes of exercise most days (I am not sure what most means). Children should have a full hour, my little brother has not met the Surgeon General, but he would want him to run for a long time, not because he is overweight, but because he is annoying; that is another essay in Psychology. Each person needs to find ways, not excuses to lose weight and get better physical shape. Take the stairs instead of the elevator (Unless you are a woman and the last one in the building late at night), park farther out in the parking lot (See the last parenthesis), kids play baseball outside instead of WII baseball.
The burden of obesity seems too heavy for most individuals to handle on their own according to Nestle and Jacobson. A former First Lady Hillary Clinton said,” It takes a whole village to raise a child”. On that same thought, I think it takes a whole community to help a person lose a massive amount of weight. They need friends and support. Dr. Robert F. Kushner , president of the Obesity Society (I personally love that title), agrees that we need to build environments that encourage healthier behaviors. We need to rebuild our cities, work places and schools to help healthy behaviors such as walking. These changes will need to occur though several avenues including regional and municipal planning and architectural processes. The CDC recommends that communities make fresh fruit and vegetable stands available at workplaces instead of vending machines that carry high-fat, empty-calorie snacks. Nutritionist Isobel R. Contento reports on the success of programs that connect schools with local farms, which supply fresh produce for the school menu or stock the school cafeteria salad bars.
The last solution that I feel needs to part of the tri-fecta is the U.S. Government. America does not like it when Uncle Sam gets involved with its dinner plans, but I think the time has come that our governing power needs to step in. Nestle and Jacobson recommend policy changes that include; requiring fat and sugar content be clearly marked on snacks sold in movie theaters; creating an incentive program to encourage those who receive food stamps to use them for healthy food choices; and providing more funding to communities for physical recreation centers and bicycle paths. First Lady, Michelle Obama, “Let’s Move “, national initiative, recommends that local municipalities take actions such as forming a committee to healthier food and drink choices, especially in underserved areas.
We all are a part of this ever growing obesity epidemic. You or someone you know is obese. While personal responsibility and healthy lifestyle choices are a part of the solution, will power alone is not enough. There are so many other , larger forces at work (And I only have 1,000 words). Environmental factors influence what we do. Doctors have also found that genetic susceptibility plays a big part in why some people become obese and others do not in this obesigenic environment (My new favorite word). My research found that it is going to take individuals working really hard to lose weight. It is also going to take a concerted nationwide effort plus a lot of money , always money, invested across my generation to reverse these alarming trends. Clinical research like what we use for cancer needs to be implemented. Education, like what is happening in this paper, also helps to break the cycle of cheeto-eating, big gulp-sipping (Except in New York), double Mac with cheese munching teens who do not understand what BMI means. So, the “Skinny” on how bad this problem is, is epidemic. The U.S. can fight the battle of the bulge if they are only willing get off their lard ass.