Essay

Who Is To Blame For Obesity?

Rachel

Final Draft

Who Is To Blame For Obesity?

When people think about health problems what comes up to mind these days is cancer, diabetes or any other disease that hold us back from living a good life. What people really don’t think about is the biggest of all. The problem that many don’t take serious and pass by it; is called obesity. You might think you know what it means but do you really know what it is? and what can it do? Obesity is a complex disease that can contribute to many other health problems including diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases .In America obesity is been increasing year after year. According to CDC data, the obesity number is been steady in U.S from 1960 to 1980.Being fat was a mark of wealth and health because it showed that the person had the resources to get lots of food. The rate of obesity starts increasing in the 80s and 90s. From 13% obesity in 1962,estimated had increased, reaching 19.4% in 1997, 24.5% in 2004, 26.6% in 2007, 33.8% in 2008 and 35.7% in 2010. So it is pretty noticeable that over years, America’s waistline has been growing. In 2000,obesity caused 400,000 U.S. deaths more than 16% of all deaths becoming a number two killer. Betsy McKay in her recent article “Costs of Treating Obesity Soars” states that the medical costs to treat obesity have climbed to 9.1% of all U.S medical costs bringing it as high as $147 billion in 2008. Obesity has become an epidemic that we must deal with it quickly. Now the questions are; what causes obesity? Where does it come from? Are individuals responsible for it or food chains are the bad guys? Obesity is not to be blamed on food industry and government’s intervention is not answerable either; in fact it is a personal responsibility that plays an important role.

In the first place, food industry and fast food’s large portion of high calorie, fatty and salty food is known the main reason behind...