What's feeding America's obesity epidemic?

 Experts have blamed everything from junk food, sedentary jobs, failure to exercise just self-control. For years, magazines, websites, and other media have been slammed for using pictures of skinny models. Some say those images promote eating disorders by giving young women a wildly unrealistic view of the female form. Now the Yale doctors say photos and videos that depict obese people stuffing their faces with fatty food or sprawling self-indulgently on a sofa are pushing fat people toward even bigger bodies.

Advertisment

Food and beverage advertising is frequently aired during children’s television programming and much of the foods being advertised are of poor quality. Research shows that 27.3% of children with a TV in their bedroom are overweight, as compared with 17.7% of children who do not have a TV in their bedroom. According to Reboot.fcc.org "Children today spend as much as four and a half hours each day watching television and are influenced by the programming and advertising they see. In 2010, one out of every three American children is obese or overweight. As childhood obesity rises, there is an opportunity for the FCC to examine the impact of the media and children's television programming on this growing health concern." As the amount of media children consume continues to increase, so does children's exposure to advertising and food marketing. Studies show that unlike adults, children can have a hard time distinguishing between programming content and advertising.While the direct relationship between food marketing and childhood obesity has yet to be established, the federal government can take several steps to help improve the media environment for our children and promote healthier lifestyles.

Genetics & Obesity

Despite the debate surrounding obesity's label, genetic studies look deeper than the calories in, calories out mantra. The evidence is very clear there is a genetic component to the risk of becoming obese.
In recent decades, obesity has reached epidemic proportions in populations whose environments offer an abundance of calorie-rich foods and few opportunities for physical activity. Although changes in the genetic makeup of populations occur too slowly to be responsible for this rapid rise in obesity, genes do play a role in the development of obesity. Most likely, genes regulate how our bodies capture, store, and release energy from food. The origin of these genes, however, might not be recent. Any explanation of the obesity epidemic has to include both the role of genetics as well as that of the environment.

Waistlines and Wallets

   With more than one-third of U.S. adults struggling to keep off the pounds, obesity has left its mark on most Americans waistlines and wallets. Instead of them blaming themselves for their own bad habits, most people are waiting until their slightly overweight habits tunrin into a mobidly obese problem. In place of a disability check they should be handed a free gym membership .

    According to Discovery.com "Currently, Medicare may cover weight loss surgery for some patients with obesity diagnosed alongside conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, and the centers plan to introduce a program focusing on ways to target obesity with behavior. The surgery remains one of the few interventions that insurance companies may cover, even for other people not on Medicare, though policies can vary by state."

Doctors against labeling Obesity as a disability !

    Yes, I can agree that being overweight can be mild to severely disabling but should that mean that any overweight person should be able file for disability.
   A person that is about 180 pounds over a healthy weight is susceptible to arthritis, has increased blood pressure, a weakened heart and could soon need a walker just to get around. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, such a person could legally be labeled as disabled. My annoyance is that the handy cap parking spots and benefits should be more concentrated on the wheel chair bound or amputated war veterans instead of someone who chooses to stuff there faces as a hobby. But in this country where nearly one in three people are overweight; laws do not always cover size discrimination, and many health insurance policies do not cover obesity treatments until a patient develops a more serious health condition   
   Dr. Domenic Federico, an AMA delegate from Michigan feels that, from  "If obesity is designated as a disability, physicians could be sued or reprimanded for discrimination under the Americans with Disability Act if a patient takes offense at the physician discussing obesity," the resolution states. "Therefore be it resolved that our American Medical Association not support the effort to make obesity a disability."

Here is a 30 second commercial I put together against the special treatment towards morbidly obese people. Enjoy!

 

Airplane Seating

Is it fair the person sitting next to an morbidyobese person has to have a extremly uncomfortable flight because he has no room for comfort what so ever? My answer is no, its not. Its already annoying when you are on a 10-11 hour cramped plane ride, then it turns out you have 1/2 as much space because an overweight person can't fit into their own seat. Personally, i don't think we should just sit there the whole flight, its either that obese person should purchase TWO seats or should not fly at all!

Obesity starts with the young and the helpless

   In society now a days, instead of a sitting down at the table eating a home cooked meal, it's now looked upon as normal to end a at work day by sitting in the car waiting for a happy meal in the drive through. According to ASPE (Assistant Secretary for planning and evaluation) "Overweight and obesity in children are significant public health problems in the United States. The number of adolescents who are overweight has tripled since 1980 and the prevalence among younger children has more than doubled. According to the 1999-2002 NHANES survey, 16 percent of children age 6-19 years are overweight." Being overweight during childhood and adolescence increases the risk of developing high cholesterol, hypertension, respiratory ailments, orthopedic problems, depression and type 2 diabetes as a youth.

    Genes probably do play some role in childhood obesity. A parent's obesity doubles the risk that his/her child under the age of 10 will be obese as an adult, regardless of whether that child is overweight at the time. Although birth weight doesn't correlate with adult weight, obese three-year-olds already have a greater risk of adult obesity. Children are less active than they were 30 years ago. They are more likely to be driven to school rather than walk. Physical education classes have suffered under school budget cuts and been eliminated completely in some schools. According to health.kaboose.com " Children as old as five are being wheeled around the mall in deluxe strollers (equipped with cup holders!) when they should be walking. Television, video games, and computers now occupy much more of children's waking hours than they should, which means less time to run around. Children are allowed to eat in front of the TV, which makes it easy to mindlessly munch hundreds of extra calories (adults are guilty here, too)."

Law suits

   For some crazy reason obese people feel they should get special treatment for their excessive eating. Most of them even go as far as blame other people for there over eating by taking it as far as suing fast food for being overweight. Get real! That's like a skinny person suing a gym for getting too skinny. If your eating fast food ten times a day, your just asking for an extra 20 to 30 pounds so why bite the hand that feeds you. Places like McDonald's don't force feed you french fries, YOU order it. YOU can take it or leave it, they even offer the calorie, and fat intake on the back of every bag, so the consumer knows what they are consuming.

    "Caesar Barber, 56, a maintenance worker who weighs about 270 pounds and stands 5-foot-10, claims McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC jeopardized his health with their greasy, salty fare. He filed a class action lawsuit to the New York State Supreme Court in the Bronx on behalf of an unspecified number of other obese and ill New Yorkers who also feast on fast food." Are fast food restaurants really to blame for the obesity rate? In my opinion its not! Ronald McDonald and Cornell sanders don't come into your house, take off your jogging shoes and spoon feed you burgers and chicken. So why blame them for your weight if thier company dosent force food down your throat?

    Lawsuits are getting so rediculous that they want to sue fast-food companies for making the booths way to small. Now shouldnt that be a lightbuld to go to the gym. "Martin Kessman, 64, has filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified financial damages against the fast-food chain, claiming that his local White Castle is in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act because the seating cannot accommodate a customer of his size. A federal lawsuit filed last week claims that in April 2009, Kessman smacked his knee into a metal post while trying to wedge himself into the stationary seating at a White Castle in Nanuet, N.Y., near his home."

A hefty slice of equality

Should obese people be treated as equals? In today's society the number in morbidly obese people has been on the rise and the number of fast food resturants have popped up on every corner. Negative attitudes towards bigger people have risen when issue if obesity should be counted as a disease. I for one stand behind the fact that obese people should NOT get special treatment and should have equal rights just like anyone else!

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