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."