Body Fat and Soluble Paper

Body Fat and Eating Disorder Paper

Tony D. Archie

SCI 241-Nutrition

December 14, 2014

Instructor: Lisa Morris

Body Fat and Eating Disorder Paper

Obesity has become an epidemic in today’s society. According to (Taylor, Curtis, & Davis, 2010), instead of going outside to play children are now more interested in staying inside and playing video games, talking on the cell phone, and/or watching television. Also because life is so fast paced now, people generally eat on the run and this leads to unhealthy eating habits and obesity. Even with all of this there are still people who are overly concerned with their looks and this leads to eating disorders which can causes various health problems.

In this paper, the writer will describe body composition and the risks associated with excess body fat. Next the writer will asses factors that influence the obesity epidemic, discuss some health problems associated with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Finally, from a physiological standpoint, the writer will explain how eating disorders may lead to health problems and include examples.

Body Composition

Body composition is defined as the body’s amount of fat to fat-free mass (Scott, 2008). When a person has a higher amount of fat-free mass as opposed to a smaller amount of fat, then that person is considered to have a healthy body. Someone who has an excessive amount of body fat is at risk of having high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, cancer, diabetes, and even heart disease (Scott, 2008).

According to Scott (2008), body fat consists of essential body fat and non essential fat. Body fat percentage is the total percentage of fat in the body. Body mass index (BMI), is a method that is used to determine the amount of body fat that a person has. The BMI does not measure body fat directly but it does help to determine health risk.

Risk...