Obesidad En America

Ana Camus
Professor Baron
English 205
February 21,2012

Obesity
In the past 30 years the rate of obesity in the United States has more than tripled. No state has a prevalence of obesity that is less than 20% since 2010. This disease affects about one third of Americans. Consequently, it is clear that there has been a dramaticchange in America’s health in a relatively short time. It is often said that this can be accounted to the growing number of fast-food restaurants throughout the country, their cheap prices and their unhealthy foods. As well as the lack of time people have to cook their own meals, in addition to the government relying on these companies to contribute to the funding of public schools in exchange foradvertisement or the actual selling of their foods in schools. In discussions about obesity, one controversial issue has been who is to blame. On one hand, some argue that the companies that target children to sell their unhealthy products are at fault for the growing rates of obesity in America. On the other hand, others contend that each person is responsible for what they decide to eat. Otherseven maintain it is the government’s responsibility to regulate obesity in America. My own view is that the issue does not lie on who is to blame but how this problem is being addressed and how effectively the approaches are working.

Today there are several programs that were created to fight obesity in the United States. The American government has already launched numerous campaigns againstobesity, including Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign which aims to educate parents and children about making healthy eating choices, and encourages more physical activity. Further more, there have been several laws proposed and passed in hopes of combating obesity, especially in public schools. Yet a recent study shows no change in obesity rates in 2009-2010 to a 2003-2008 study (Muller “U.Sobesity rates not getting better”). It would be expected that all the time and money invested up to date would have had an impact in the rates of obesity, but it is obvious people have failed to recognize the health consequences of obesity. According to a survey collected by the federal government for over 30 years, most overweight people do not relate the excess weight with poor health. Study authorRoss Macmillan believes this is because Americans are used to see overweight people, therefor categorizing it as something normal. In addition, weight-related illnesses develop slowly, which makes them seem less harmful.

On the other hand, fast-food restaurants and beverage companies believe the government has gone to far with advertising campaigns such as the ones in New York and Chicago.For instance, an ad in the subway in New York shows a young boy with an amputated leg behind a graph depicting the growing size of soda portions. Chris Gindlesperger, director of communications of ABA (American Beverage Association) claims, “It’s absurd to say that drinking a soda will cause these really extreme health conditions”. Companies argue the government cannot insinuate that their productsare the direct cause of such an extreme disease. Similarly, the Georgia Children’s Health Alliance has been criticized for the advertisements they have been using, which take the same approach as the ones in New York. Many found them harmful and offensive rather than effective. The Obesity Action Coalition said the ads “promote the negative stigma, weight bias and bullying often associated withobesity and childhood obesity” (Rappeport et al. “Food groups angry at obesity campaign”). This kind of approach was also taken in Seattle and Hawaii. In essence, this might be a too aggressive way of dealing with the issue, while other campaigns are not aggressive enough, and clearly not effective.

Conversely, there are a number of reasons for the increasing rates of diabetes in America....