Environmental Factors Role in Obesity Epidemic

04/03/2013
Are Environmental Factors the Main Reasons for Obesity Epidemic?
In her essay” What’s to Blame for the Surge in Super-Size Americans?” Tori DeAngelis discusses the various factors that lead to obesity. DeAngelis reminds us that obesity is getting worse and worse by the day. According to the current government estimate, about 65 percent of Americans are obese or overweight. DeAngelis states three factors that contribute to obesity. These are environmental factors, stress and gene factors. The author gives mainly two causes, environmental and gene factors. The other factor is the gene factor. In this essay, it is said that gene factors may also have an effect in causing people to be overweight and obese. I strongly believe that environmental factors are the major factors which play a great role in obesity.
As DeAngelis stated in her essay, easy access to fast food is one of the major environmental factors that contributes to obesity (Page 291). Today, there are close to 160,000 fast food restaurants in United States. These restaurants are fast, fun, inexpensive, and can be found almost everywhere. When people look a quick, easy meal to grab on the go, fast food is the common solution. It’s far too easy to choose fast food over cooking a healthy meal at home and when it comes to eating out, temptation often wins. Fast food is the driving force behind the epidemic of obesity. It contains large amounts of fat accumulates in your body. You will gain weight and that could lead to obesity. The more weight you gain, the more you will be at risk for serious chronic illnesses such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease and debilitating conditions.

The second environmental factor which DeAngelis states on her essay is lack of physical activity (Page 292). Lack of physical activity is a major environmental factor that contributes to obesity epidemic. The lack of physical activity is one reason why people get obese. The remote control, video games, automobiles, televisions and to some extent computers are all parts of the environment which discourages people from being physically active. Some people live in neighborhood where they can’t go outside because walking and running is too dangerous. Plus, given that we are becoming fatter, it becomes less interesting to exercise. As you know, weight gain occurs when calories consumed exceed calories burned. Physical activity plays a key role in energy balance because it uses up calories consumed.
The third environmental which DeAngelis state on her essay is stress (Page 292). Stress is another major environmental factor that contributes to epidemic of obesity. When people are really stressed, they tend to crave comfort foods that are high in fat or sugar. They may eat often even when they are not hungry. People learn to eat as a way to cope with stress. They may be too exhausted to exercise regularly when they are under a lot stress. Once a friend told me obese people are often embarrassed about their weight and appearance. This leads to more depression, so they turn to food to feel better, which makes the problem even worse. So everybody should try not to stress themselves in order to keep their body fit and to live a healthy life.
In conclusion, as DeAngelis states the rate of people getting obese is increasing. And she tells us the factors that are causing this problem. I think this is happening mainly because of the environmental factors. We all have to realize how damaging obesity can be to the body and for our overall health. Obesity is something that is increasingly on the rise today and will continue to rise unless we do something about it. Informing people how bad it really is and encouraging people to live a health enhancing lifestyle is one way to reduce the growth of obesity. A healthy diet and exercising are the keys not to become obese. Last but not least both the people and health professionals have a critical role compelling the fast food industry to change the way it does business. Work Cited
1. Goshgarian, Gary. "What's to Blame for the Surge of Super-Size Americans?" What Matters in America: Reading and Writing about Contemporary Culture. Third ed. New York: Pearson, 2012. 290-96. Print.
2. “Fast Food Statistics.” Statistic Brain RSS. Statistic Brain, 19 Mar. 2012. 03 Mar. 2013. Web.