Are Americans Eating Themselves to Death?

Are Americans Eating Themselves to Death?

In 2007 poor diets, including obesity and physical inactivity, resulted in over 400,000 deaths throughout the United States. Knowing and understanding the causes, contributing factors, health problems, and consequences of being overweight can minimize the number of people suffering and dying from this problem every day.

Why are people overweight? There are a number of reasons that so many people in the United States are overweight, but the most common reason is that people simply do not get enough exercise for the amount of calories that they eat every day. Eating too much is an example of a factor that can be controlled, but some people have to work a lot harder than others to keep themselves at a healthy weight. Factors like genetic problems and slow metabolism are things that some people just can’t control. Usually, but not always, if your parents are overweight, there is a good chance that you will be overweight too or at least have a harder time keeping your weight under control. Metabolism is the amount of calories that your body burns from the number of calories you eat. If you have a slow metabolism, your body will not burn as many calories as fast, which will cause a rapid increase in your weight.

People that are overweight do not die because they are too fat they die because of other health problems that are caused by their weight. Some of these related health problems include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, and respiratory problems. The most common is heart disease. Heart disease is caused when there is damage to the heart muscle which makes the heart work too hard. Lack of exercise and high levels of cholesterol are usually what heart disease is a result of.

Not only is obesity and inactivity deadly, it is also expensive. In 2003 it cost the U.S. $75 billion in terms of medical expenses. The public pays about $39 billion a year...