The Biopsychosocial Factors to Obesity

When a person from any other country thinks of the stereotypical perquisites of the United States of America, one of three things will come to mind: Freedom, Opportunity, and really big portions of food. While the first two are definitely good perks to have, the third one has started to cause some serious issues at home. America’s access to cheap and fatty foods continues to become an issue as time goes on, and the only big steps to solve this have come very recently. While people may blame these restaurant chains and food companies for this epidemic, there is more to the issue. From research done by the first of January, 2014, 50 million Americans were eating fast food every day. The food cycle of America’s kids is 40% junk food. These examples all fall under different sections of the biopsychosocial model, a model used to describe human functions from different angles. Biological, Social, and Psychological factors are all included in the reasons for America’s obesity. Biological reasons for anyone being obese may not directly be their fault. The biggest genetic factor to a person’s obesity would be their metabolism. Metabolism consists of two processes: Anabolism, which is the buildup of substances, and catabolism, which is the breakdown of substances. If a person’s catabolism is slow, the person does not break down food and other substances as fast as they normally should. This leads to unused calories, which leads to weight gain. This goes person to person; however, if your family had a history of bad metabolisms, the chance of you having a slow one is very high. Unfortunately, if this biological flaw is paired with another factor, this could lead to serious health issues. In 2005, the average Chicago school child did not have to walk more than 800 meters to find a fast food restaurant. The average income for a family there was about $40,000. More than half the population there was getting fast food once a week, with 20% eating 3 to 4 days a week. These