The Finished Product (Obesity Paper)

Josh Murphy
Professor DeBaker
English 131
28 Oct. 2007
As a larger than normal child sits on his couch and eats a bag of potato chips, while watching television, his parents start to wonder, is my child obese? This is a question that many American parents have today especially in cities like Detroit and Philadelphia. Childhood obesity is a large issue in the 21st Century and leads to adult obesity. In medicine things that cause obesity along with the health effects of obesity are important to know. “In the years 2003-2004, 17.1% of children and teens, aged 2-19 years (over 12 and a half million young people) were overweight, and 32.2% of adults (over 66 million) were obese. Almost 5% of adults were extremely obese” (Boyse, par. 2). Prevention of obesity is a must if we want our children to lead healthy and prosperous lives. Exercise alone will not prevent obesity though some other factors need to be considered such as diet and behavioral approaches. Things like eating right and watching less television will improve overall health.
Obesity will follow you from the time you are a child to when you become an adult and this is especially true in the female population. Being obese can lead to some major health effects down the line including heart disease, gout and diabetes (Maffeis Tatò, par. 1). These conditions can be prevented if children stop doing things that lead to obesity like snacking and living off of fast food. Children need to also exercise more in order to prevent or correct obesity and its effects one of which is diabetes (Collins, par. 1).
Although obesity causes many diseases diabetes and specifically type two diabetes is one of the biggest problems facing obese people. Type two diabetes has to do with a person’s blood sugar. Obesity relates to diabetes due to one major factor and that is a lack of insulin. Insulin is a hormone that the body makes by it self and when this is not made by the body people have to take shots of insulin. When someone is obese there is less insulin made, the person then has to take shots to control their blood sugar and thus type two diabetes is born (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 3). Although diabetes is controllable by insulin there is no real cure so once you have this disease you can not get rid of it. Diabetes is not the only major disease that is found in people who are obese, obesity also causes heart disease.
Heart disease revolves around many different things that go wrong with the heart including blood clots, atherosclerosis, and Coronary artery disease. Blood clots are found in many obese people. Atherosclerosis is where your arteries harden and this is found ten times more in the people who are obese versus those who are not obese according to the Stanford University Medical Center. Coronary artery disease is caused by the thing that obesity is all about, fat. Deposits of fat get stuck in the arteries and they clog the arteries. This causes the heart to get an insufficient amount of blood (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 4). Obesity can affect the heart and circulatory system by raising the blood pressure.
Your blood pressure in a basic definition is the pressure that the blood puts on the walls of your blood vessels as it flows and this is affected greatly by obesity. Obese people have lots of excess fat in their bodies and fat needs the nutrients and the oxygen that your blood carries to survive. Because of excess fat, in obese people, the heart has to pump a lot harder to circulate all the blood around the body and this will increase the blood pressure. More blood is going through the body and creating pressure on the arterial walls and then the blood pressure goes up. This increased blood pressure has an adverse effect on the heart, meaning it can actually harm it in the long run this is because the heart is being over worked (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 2). The effects on the body from obesity do not just have to do with the circulatory system but the respiratory system as well. Obesity can cause things like sleep apnea which is directly related to high blood pressure (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 6).
When you are asleep you normally breathe throughout the whole night. When people get sleep apnea they stop breathing for periods of time while sleeping. This will cause two main things one is snoring and sleep apnea will also make you tired during the day. You will become tired because when you stop breathing your sleep is interrupted, therefore you do not get enough sleep. For the people who are obese respiratory problems are caused by all the extra weight (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 6). “The extra weight will squeeze the lungs and cause restricted breathing,” (Health Effects of Obesity, par. 6).
Although there are many health effects from obesity, that are sometimes fatal, these can be prevented by stopping the problem at its source. The causes of obesity include a wide variety of things, including but not limited to, lack of exercise, excessive snacking, and genetics. Genetics is not something that you can control but the rest of the causes are preventable. Even if it is a genetic problem diet and exercise will increase an individuals overall heath and help correct or prevent the effects of obesity.
Children who come from a family with a background in obesity will tend to be obese too. There is an 80% chance that a teen with an obese parent will have weight problems also. This could be caused by both their genes and how their family eats on a regular basis. According to Kyla Boyse a Registered Nurse in The University of Michigan Health System children whose mother is diabetic also tend to be overweight (Boyse, par. 10). Even when children are adopted they tend to have the same patterns as their parents when it comes to obesity. There are many things genetically that can lead to obesity also. Things such as your metabolism and the fat-storage in your body can lead to a person becoming obese (Collins, par. 7). There are ways to account for a low metabolism and a high fat storage in your body though a big thing being exercise.
A lack of exercise is a big reason why people all over America are obese today. If you take in a lot of calories and then do not use them, your calories will turn to fat. A large build up of fat is what obesity is so naturally over time the normal person will become fat and then obese with this build up of calories. Things like television, video games and the computer all contribute to the lack of exercise. Children that watch television have a much higher rate of obesity than those who do not. Only one out of every five children participates in after school activities like basketball and football (Collins, par. 2). Only 30% of the children in the United States have to go to a gym class every day, this makes it very hard for some children to get in shape (Boyse, par. 9). There are other things that make you out of shape though, one of which is snacking.
Lots of snacking is very bad when it comes to obesity, there are so many different snacks to choose from as you walk through a grocery store that it is hard to forget about the snacks and focus on the nutritional foods. “Americans spend one billon dollars a day on snacks” (Collins, par. 3). Snacking is a bad for an obese person and it is often one of the main things an obese person will tend to do. Watching television ads persuades children to want a certain kind of snack and then the child’s parents go to the store and buy these snacks. Vending machines in schools make the problem only worse with the high calorie and high fat snacks and drinks (Collins, par. 3). Everywhere you look there is a different kind of snack this is also true for fast food chains, whether it be McDonalds or Taco Bell. Fast food is another major contributor to obesity.
Children are a major contributor to the money that fast food chains make. Their ads and meals are focused on children for this reason because children can be persuaded to go to a particular restaurant. Eating too much fast food is a major cause of childhood obesity (Collins, par. 4). According to Anne Collins and Nutritionist and weight loss consultant, “In 1992, children aged 6-14 years ate in quick-serve restaurants on average 157 million times a month” (Collins, par. 4). This has a dramatic effect on the weight of Americans, especially children. Children who eat more fast food will have a higher BMI (Drewnowski). BMI is your body mass index which is your weight divided by your height squared (Body Mass Index, par. 2). This can tell your doctor if you are anything from to skinny to obese. Fast food and snacking are not the only causes to blame though, an unfavorable socioeconomic status can also be blamed.
Socioeconomic status can be a large factor when it comes to obese people. People who are poor and less educated are more likely to be obese at the same time people who are educated and are well off tend to be the opposite. This is not always true though, the rich and the educated can be obese as well. Minorities also have a higher rate of obesity than that of whites. Areas of the country that have a high poverty level are also more likely to be obese (Drewnowski).
Because some people are poorer than others there is a difference in the quality of the food that the lower income people buy than the higher income people. The people with higher incomes buy the higher quality foods which are healthier than the low quality foods. Older people with a good education are more likely to buy fruits and vegetables so naturally they are healthier, as opposed to those who do not (Drewnowski).
There are many things that cause obesity and most can be prevented with a good diet and with the right amount of exercise, America’s youth can reach new heights in physical fitness and prevent the spread of obesity. A good diet and exercise will in turn fight heart disease, diabetes and other medical conditions that obese people are prone to. The negative health effects of obesity start at an early age and continue throughout the lifespan, making the key to a healthier America prevention of obesity.


Works Cited

“Body Mass Index.” Wikipedia. 23 Oct. 2007. 23 Oct. 2007 .

Boyse, Kyla. “What Research Tells Us About How Parents Can Fight the Obesity Epidemic.” Obesity and Overweight. Feb. 2007. 20 Oct. 2007 .

Collins, Anne. “Causes of Childhood Obesity.” Childhood Obesity Causes. 2007. 20 Oct, 2007 .

Drewnowski, Adam. “The Real Contribution of Added Sugars and Fats to Obesity.” Journal of Epidemiology 29 160-71 2007 supp. FirstSearch. WilsonSelectPlus. Jackson Community College Lib. 25 Oct. 2007 .

“Health Effects of Obesity.” Stanford Hospitals and Clinics. 2007. 19 Oct. 2007 .

Maffeis, Claudio, and Luciano Tatò. “Long-Term Effects of Childhood Obesity on Morbidity and Mortality.” Hormone Research. 2007. 20 Oct. 2007 .

Miller, Beth. “Obese Children Show Early Signs of Heart Disease.” Washington University in St. Louis. 16 Oct. 2007. 19 Oct. 2007 .