Essay on Obesity in America: Causes, Risks, and Solutions

This essay examines the issue of obesity in America, defining it as an excess of body fat and highlighting its increasing prevalence. It explores various contributing factors, including unhealthy diets (high in fats, sugars, and fast food), lack of physical activity, and insufficient sleep. The essay discusses the health risks associated with obesity, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. It also outlines preventive measures, including balanced diets, increased physical activity, and lifestyle changes. Furthermore, it relates the issue of obesity to the sociological theory of structural functionalism, considering obesity as a public health concern influenced by societal structures. The essay references supporting literature to strengthen its arguments.

Running head: OBESITY IN AMERICA
Obesity in America
Name of the Student
Name of the University
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1OBESITY IN AMERICA
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the issues of obesity in America. The essay deals
the various factors that contribute to obesity in humans. The essay further deals with risks
associated with a person affected with obesity and overweight. It also talks about the preventive
measures for reducing the chances of being obese.
Obesity, in simple terms, means to have fats in the body in an excess amount. Obesity
and being overweight both imply conditions of a person to weight more than it is considered
normal (Halfon, Larson & Slusser, 2013). Obesity refers to an excess accumulation of fats in the
body or the Body Mass Index. However, it is not necessary that an overweight person must have
an excess amount of fat accumulation in his body.
Since the last few decades, there has been an incline in the rates of obesity among the
entire population group in the United States of America. Obesity can impose several risks that
can give rise to health related issues. The health risks associated with obese and overweight can
include excessive blood pressure, coronary heart diseases, hypertension, diabetes and other kinds
of health issues. It has been observed that an obese person is usually vulnerable to health risks.
An obese person is at a high risk of suffering from depression, as well as other social problem
(Cunningham, Kramer & Narayan, 2014).
Several factors contribute to obesity in the adults as well as children. Among the several
factors contributing to obesity, like age, race, family history, unhealthy living environments,
gender, and the like, unhealthy habits or lifestyles have been an important aspect of causing
obesity in the recent times. An unhealthy lifestyle implies activities such as consumption of
unhealthy food, absence of adequate physical activities, insufficient amount of sleep, having high
stress levels ().

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In modern times, intake of fast food has been a trend, not only in the United States, but
also across the world. People, nowadays, tend to intake more calories than necessary. The diets
of people tend to include more Trans and saturated fats, as well as added sugars, which are
harmful for the health (Marchus, 2014).
The effective and safe ways of controlling obesity and losing weight is to have a balanced
diet, and engage in the reduction of the intake of calories, Trans and saturated fats and added
sugars from the diet. An increase in the physical activities in the routine can also help to deal
with the problem of obesity (Halfon, Larson & Slusser, 2013).
Obesity in the children can be reduced by encouraging more physical activities, providing
food only when they are hungry and instructing them to eat slowly. Fruits and vegetables can
also reduce obesity. Serving fresh fruit juice instead of canned beverages or sport drinks can
prove to be beneficial. Obesity can be prevented in the adults as well by inclusion of whole
grains such as brown rice, fresh fruits in the diet, keeping a check on the weight in a regular
manner, engage in calorie burning activities, and others.
The Sociological theory that relates to the contributing factor to obesity would be
structural functionalism. Functionalism has been a theory seeking an explanation of social
organizations and changes in term of the role performed by various social institutions and
structures (Ogden, Carroll & Flegal, 2014). Society has been a system of interrelated and
interdependent parts such as organisms with institutions and groups, which contribute to the
stabilities of the entire social system. According to this Sociological Theory of Functionalism, all
of the parts contribute in the undisturbed functioning as well as heath and equilibrium of the
societies.

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The social factor remains to be important predictor of the body mass index. Obesity has
been considered a public health issue and it has been a factor of risk for much chronic disease.
Perceiving the environmental factor can provide to better understandings of the characteristics of
obesity and help to tackle the problem.

4OBESITY IN AMERICA
References
Cunningham, S. A., Kramer, M. R., & Narayan, K. V. (2014). Incidence of childhood obesity in
the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(5), 403-411.
Halfon, N., Larson, K., & Slusser, W. (2013). Associations between obesity and comorbid
mental health, developmental, and physical health conditions in a nationally
representative sample of US children aged 10 to 17. Academic pediatrics, 13(1), 6-13.
Marchus, A. (2014). Obesity in the United States.
Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., & Flegal, K. M. (2014). Prevalence of obesity in the United
States. Jama, 312(2), 189-190.
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