One of the main things that contribute to obesity is a lack of proper nutrition. Children and adults today don’t receive the proper nutrition that their bodies need to thrive because most of the food they eat is unhealthy junk. Children at school don’t just eat sandwiches at lunchtime anymore, they expect sides and snacks too. Children want pudding, yogurt, juice, cookies, chips, and a bunch of other junk in their lunch boxes now, and their parents cater to them, because junk food is cheap, quick, and easy to get. The trend doesn’t get any better with adults either. Throughout the day adults are snacking on chips, candy, Twinkies, and donuts. When everyone gets home from work and school they order takeout or go and get fast food because they had a long day and no one feels like cooking. Because of these daily food choices no one really gets the proper nutrition that they are supposed to be getting.
Another factor that contributes to obesity is a lack of enough exercise. In schools there is not enough emphasis placed on children getting the proper amount of exercise required for their bodies to stay in good shape. Children aren’t even encouraged by their parents to go outside and play as much anymore. Most kids now a days stay inside spend a good chunk of their time on computer, playing video games, watching television, or using other electronics. Adults also don’t get the proper amount of fitness. Most of the day for adults is spent at work or running errands, so that doesn’t leave much time for fitness. Many adults that do have gym memberships
do not use them that often. A lot of people make resolutions at the beginning of the year to lose weight and they sign up for a gym membership but then by the end of January they stop using it, and give up on their goal. In order to stop this epidemic of obesity we can’t just get people to change what they eat, we need to teach them to value personal fitness.
One of the big things that contribute to obesity is the media that we intake. This is an underrated factor of obesity. Most people don’t realize that the media we take in is working against us. Companies pay for air time so that they can show us a bunch of junk and fast food commercials. If most of the media that people see is telling them to buy snacks, junk food, and fast food, that’s what they will feel most inclined to buy. It is harder for healthier food companies to advertise to people, because they don’t have as much money to spend on advertisements as the large companies do. A good solution to solve this problem would be for the smaller companies to think of more creative advertising options, such as social media advertising. Social media advertising is a good option because it is cheaper than other traditional forms of advertisement, and it will reach a larger volume of young people, because we are always on our phones anyway.
Another cause of obesity the goes almost virtually unnoticed is the way that we grow, raise, and prepare our food. The food that we eat today is nothing like the food our ancestors ate 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago. The food we eat today is full of hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics that our bodies cannot properly digest. Most of our food is also processed and genetically modified to meet production scales and timelines. Andrew W. Campbell, MD noted some of the things wrong with the way our food is grown:
Most of our dairy products contain hormones, which other countries prohibit. We cannot sell a block of cheese or a stick of butter to Canada because of this, or to the 28 countries of the European Union. We give diethylstilbestrol, a synthetic estrogen, to cattle before slaughter for human consumption. Most pork and cattle are given ractopamine, a β-agonist used to increase muscle mass: it is banned in the European Union, Russia, China, and other countries. We use 4 billion pounds of pesticides annually, many in agriculture. Many of these chemicals cannot be easily excreted and remain in our adipose tissue, muscle, bone, brain, lungs, and semen.
The way we grow and raise our food today is dangerous and detrimental to our health. The food that we eat is literally killing us.
Obesity is a big problem in society today, it can even be classified as an epidemic. Obesity can lead to other medical conditions, and it can cause preexisting medical conditions to become worse. One way to try to combat obesity is to educate people about what is in the food that they eat, so that they can make healthier diet choices. Another way is to educate more people about the benefits of personal fitness.
Food, Inc., is an American documentary that looks at the production of meat, grains, and vegetables. The main point is that most of our food industry is inhumane, and economically and environmentally unsustainable. The movie goes further by looking at the economic power that large corporations have. Back in the older days most families raised and provided food for themselves but today most of the food is mass produced for millions of people. This seems like a good idea economically but there are reasons that make this a negative decision. One of the reasons there are negative consequences is because corn is used in several products that you wouldn’t expect it to be used in and it is fed to animals whose diet is not supposed to include corn. The biggest issues that make mass production of food generally unhealthy are the improper and overuse of corn, and the wrongful treatment of animals that are to be slaughtered.
Corn is one of the most eaten and used vegetables. It was used mostly for edible purposes until the just maybe 30 years ago. In the movie it is stated the almost everything in the grocery store has some corn in it in some way, shape, or form. The most common way the corn is introduced into products is corn syrup. Even things like batteries have corn in them in some way. Even meat products have traces of corn in them because corn is cheaper to feed to animals than the food they are supposed to eat, they have traces of corn in their meat. This improper diet makes animals resistant to certain kinds of bacteria. According to the movie, about 30% of The United States land is used specifically for producing corn. The land that is used to grow corn could be used for producing other foods.
Even the mass production of meat causes issues. People used to just raise enough food for their families. But, according to Food, Inc., large food industries such as McDonalds and others alike control 80% of the beef industry. The goal of farming now is to make bigger food in larger quantities in shorter amounts of time. The issue is with how the animals are raised. They are cramped together and aren’t allowed to roam freely or get exercise. The animals are given food that they aren’t supposed to eat, and they are given artificial hormones and steroids to get bigger quicker. In Food, Inc., one example of inhumane treatment of animals is when the chickens are collected. The workers are shown kicking the chickens and shoving them in crammed cages with no care or concern. The animals are shown living in small, dark, cramped quarters, piled with their own bodily waste.
Works Cited
Campbell, Andrew W. “The Epidemic of Obesity.” Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 8-11. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=127382043&site=ehost-live.
Kenner, R., Kenner, R., Kenner, R., Pearce, R., Schlosser, E., Schlosser, E., . . . Adler, M. (Writers), & Pearce, R. (Director). (n.d.). Food, Inc. [Video file].