the causes and effects of obesity in the united states

The causes and effects of obesity in the United States
Introduction
Obesity, a medical condition where people are overweight in an unhealthy way, has become increasingly serious in recent decades. It has numerous destructive influences on people’s health. Thus, it is necessary to analyse the causes and effects of obesity. In the United States, one of the most obesity-epidemic nations, approximately 17 per cent of adolescents and 33.8 per cent of adults are obese (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). There are various factors causing obesity, including direct causes and indirect causes. The first and second section of this essay will focus on the direct causes of obesity which include excess energy intake and insufficient energy consumption. In addition, there are several indirect causes, such as inheritance, the pressure of daily life and depression. In the third section, the effects of obesity in terms of physicality and mentality will be discussed in two groups, children and adults. Furthermore, the effects of obesity to the economics of the United States will be discussed in the fourth section.
Direct causes
There are two direct causes which lead to obesity; excess energy intake and insufficient energy consumption. On the one hand, excess energy intake caused by consuming unhealthy diet including high-fat and high-sugar food will turn into fat and stores in consumers’ bodies; on the other hand, insufficient energy consumption caused by physical inactivity can result in less calories burning and more calories remaining. People in the United States tend to eat high-fat and high-sugar foods and prefer convenient and tasty foods to healthy foods (Ebbeling et al., 2002), which can result in obesity and overweight. Etherton, Daniels and Eckel (2001) state the amount of dietary fat in people’s daily lives is an important factor in the causes of obesity. Therefore high-fat food containing a great deal of excess energy makes people more likely to be obese than normal food. Similarly, high-sugar foods such as soft drinks put people who drink them regularly at a higher risk of gaining weight. Adolescents who drink soft drinks absorb 10% higher total energy than those who do not (Ebbelin et al, 2002). In other words, the adolescents who drink soft drink stand a good chance of being overweight. In addition, Drewnowski’s(2004) study shows that high energy foods weaken the feeling of hunger, and then let people over eat. Therefore, the undigested food turns into fat, and constantly accumulated fats ultimately cause weight gaining.
Fast food, a type of food which can be prepared rapidly and easily, has become a significant part of people’s daily diet in the United States. However, because most of them such as hamburgers, fried chicken and chips are cooked by frying in oil, fast food often contains high fat and high energy. This gave rise to fast food becoming one cause of the rapidly growing obesity rate in the United States, especially since 1970s when the number of fast food restaurants has been increasing dramatically (Curri et al., 2009). Children in schools are affected by fast food. It is shown that children who eat fast food have more calories intake than those do not (Bowwan and Vinyard, 2004). A survey showed a fast food restaurant near a school can result in an increase of obesity rate by 5.2 per cent in that school (Curri et al., 2009). Not only children, but also adults are influenced by fast food. More than one fourths of the adults in the United States eat fast food. People who eat fast food have a higher caloric intake and excess fat and sugars (Bowwan and Vinyard, 2004). Consequently, Excess calories will be stored in fat in people’s bodies.
In addition to high-fat and high-sugar food, physical inactivity is another factor of causing obesity. Because the old traditional industry in the United States has been overtaken by a new information era, there has been a transition of work habits and lifestyles across the whole country, particularly shown in a tendency of sedentariness. There are numerous factors in leading people to sitting longer than before. One reason for sitting more than usual is that people’s work has been gradually changing from manual labour to mental labour since the Industrial Revolution (Caballero, 2007); as a result, people have less time to do labour work that can help control weight than before. Moreover, there are still some other causes of sedentariness such as excessive TV watching (Hu et al., 2003), transition of mode of transportation and acceleration of urbanization (WHO, 2011). Consequently, lack of exercises becomes a universal phenomenon among a large per cent of population, which causes the continuously rising of the obesity rate in the United States.
Indirect causes

Additionally, there are also many important indirect causes of behavior and society which may cause obesity. With the development of media, children spend much time in receiving different types of information through modern media such as television advertisements. Currently, increasing numbers of food companies use advertisements to promote their products. Therefore, in this case, children have been exposed to multitude of unhealthy food advertisements so that they are easily to be influenced by commercials and to eat tasty but high fat and high energy food (Kaiser, 2004)1.
Besides, mentality of individuals, which is often influenced by social environment, can result in obesity and overweight. Currently, people often compete with their peers on several aspects such as salary and positions. People who have lower social status face more pressures. According to the National Obesity Observation (2010), peer pressure will bring about mental pressure, and finally lead to excessive fat in their bodies2. Also, depression is regarded as another significant factor which can result in weight gaining. Konttinen et al. (2010)’s research demonstrates that people with depression are more likely to eat more and gain weight3. Negative emotions have numerous effects on people’s weight because they can lead people to lack willpower and overeat without control. These stresses can also lead to dietary behavior change. Finally the change will be reflected in their weights.
Moreover, inheritance is a significant biological factor related to obesity. A number of people have higher rate to develop obesity as they eat a little high-fat food as a result of the genetic predisposition of obesity. A research shows that people who inherit double genes of fat from their parents have greater risks to be obese (Rose, 2008)5. To some extent, obesity is more likely to happen on people who carry the genes of obesity for the reason that the fat cells have larger expansion in their body. Also it will be more difficult for them to get rid of obesity when they grow up. It can be seen that media, mentality and inheritance are three important indirect causes linked to obesity.
The effects to individuals
Obesity has a considerable negative impact on children and adolescents’ growth both physically and mentally. It makes children gain superfluous weight, and get difficulties in moving and exercises. Obesity aggravates the heart burden and leads to hyperlipidaemia in an early age, and then increases the morbidity rates of heart diseases and diabetes (Filbrun et al., 2005). On the other hand, the precocious puberty – i.e., a medical condition where a child gets into adolescence earlier than usual - caused by obesity is also a serious consequence. For instance, Gordon (2010) conducted a survey on 1239 cases of girls from 6 to 8 years old from different races. The result shows that there are approximate 15% cases began to have premature thelarche from 7 years old, twice as 13 years ago. Premature thelarche means girls’ breast start to develop in the early age; in other words, it’s a symptom of puberty. This can be attributed to excess oestrogen stored in fat in overweight girls’ bodies (Gordon, 2010). Therefore, the control of obesity among children is a significant step to decrease the risk which is threatening American children and adolescents’ physical health.
In addition to the physical aspect, children’s mental health is also affected by obesity. The unsatisfying figure resulted from obesity leads children and adolescents to have discrimination and unequal treatment in schools and society. Erermis et al (2004) state discrimination of obesity hurts obese children’s self-esteem deeply. This makes them feel depressed, and tend to refuse social communication. Moreover, the decline in the sociability leads these children to be progressively reluctant to be part of the society. Escaping from reality eventually leads overweight adolescents to getting depression and autism (Bochukova et al., 2009). As a result, mental hurts due to obesity and overweight have important effects on their values; even raised the suicide rate in the United States. It has been stated by Mukama (2009) that depression caused by obesity was positively correlated with the suicide rate. However, in the United States, obese children and adolescents are harmed even more. The physical and mental influences in childhood also impact these children when they grow up to adults. Therefore, building children and adolescent health system is an important step to control obesity and overweight.
Not only are children affected by obesity, but also adults are troubled by it. Obesity is an important cause of high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). For instance, a survey on both men and women in Framingham in the United States shows, the group who have most serious obesity has double risk of CVDs among males and 2.4 times risk among females under 50 than the thinnest group (Hubert, 1983). This indicates obese people are more likely to get CVDs. When people grow older, dementia, which can be defined as a disease which make peoples’ mental health deteriorate, caused by obesity become more noticeable. According to Whitmer (2005), the risk of dementia in obese people in midlife is higher than normal people by 74%. It is shown that older people with obesity are at a higher risk to develop dementia than others. In the United States, around 97 million adults are obese or overweight. It is obvious that their lives are influenced by the health problems resulted from obesity.
However, the effects of obesity to adults are not only on their health, but also on their financial situations. The discrimination of obesity is the main cause for obese people to get a financial burden. The figures and appearances of the adults who suffer from obesity and overweight are often uncompetitive with others. This results in obese adults in considerable difficulties to find satisfying jobs. It is demonstrated that education and employment are two difficult problems for obese and overweight people (Puhl and Brownell, 2011). Many obese people aren’t employed. It is obvious that obese people are in a discrimination of obesity. Furthermore, less job opportunities and more discrimination cause obese people having fewer opportunities to find high-salary jobs. Overweight people earn 6.2 per cent less wages than no overweight people (Fastenberg, 2011). Thus, obese people have lower salaries to support their family. Finally, insufficient salaries affected some obese people by increasing their family financial burden.
The effects to the United States
Currently, obesity is becoming an increasingly serious problem by its influence on the economy in the United States. The effects of economy to the United States can be divided into two ways; direct effects and indirect effects. The direct cause is that obesity increases government expenses in the health care, such as personal care, doctors’ service, medicines and the transport to hospitals. In 1995, the direct costs of medicine caused by obesity were about 51.64 billion dollars (Wolf and Colditz, 1998). And the number increased to $75 billion in 2003 (EA, IC and G, 2004). The trend of increasing indicates the seriousness of obesity. Even, compared with the data in 1994 and 2003, it is stated by Farag and Gaballa (2010) that totally costs of obesity in economy has reached to $147 billion each year by 2008 across the United States. The alarmingly increasing costs spent on obesity bring about less money for medical treatments for other diseases. More money is required and this will lead to financial problems of the whole nation.
In addition to direct effects of obesity in the United States, there are also several indirect effects. The rising of obesity rate causes the increase of morbidity of those diseases associated with obesity, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease (CHD). This caused even more expense. In 1986, 22.2 billion dollars were spent on CVD and 1.5 billion dollars were spent on high blood pressure (Colditz, 1992). On the other hand, productivity can be decreased due to the morbidity and mortality of obesity. Obese workers have to stay in hospital for several days. In 1994, obesity has caused 39.2 million losses of working days and 3.9 billion dollars (Wolf and Colditz, 1998). Compared with 1994, due to the increasing rate of obesity, there was a larger loss in 2008. A research indicates that full-time workers suffer from obesity led to a loss of 73.1 billion dollars, which is equal to the cost of hiring 1.8 million new workers with 42,000 annual wages (Pappas, 2010). Therefore, obesity has many negative impacts on economy.
Conclusion
There are several causes leading to the general increase in the obesity rate in the United States. Excess energy intake and insufficient energy consumption are two direct causes. People who eat high-fat and high-sugar regularly often get excess calories; and these calories will be stored in fat in their bodies. In all types of food, Fast food has an obvious negative impact on peoples’ weight gaining because it contains large amounts of energy. Similarly, lack of exercise is another direct cause. People’s work has been on a transition to mental work from manual work in contemporary society. The gradually reduced manual work is lessening people’s physical activity, which makes people more likely to be overweight. As a result, obesity becomes increasingly serious in the United States. Obesity has many negative impacts on both individuals and society. Diseases such as heart diseases and diabetes caused by obesity affected children’s growth physically, and depression and autism affected them mentally; and also make people are more likely to have health problems like CVDs, dementia. Additionally, obese people are often discriminated at work which leads them to have lower job opportunities and salaries and consequently family financial hardships. In the United States, obesity increases the national health expenditure and decreases the labour force. There is a long way to go to solve the problems caused by obesity. If the US government can legislate to limit the expansion of fast food industry and promote national fitness activities and build more fitness centres for free, the situation will be improved in the future.