Obesity can be called as an epidemic in U.S.Obesity is like the
next step of being overweight, and far more dangerous to the health
of the people.Obesity among American adults in the 40 - 59 age
group is a true disaster.Over 41% of adults between 40 and 59 years
of age are obese as of the current statistics.The trend of obesity
has been steadily increasing in both children and adults despite
many public health efforts to improve nutrition and physical
activity.
Its a societal issue as well since there’s still a huge amount
of cheap, accessible, highly processed food available everywhere
almost anytime.People are exposed to junk food right at their homes
to workplaces and even in schools and colleges. A lifestyle change
is what is needed to overcome this problem and making instant
healthy food more readily accessible than instant junk food for
people to make choices only in healthy food.
And despite people doing more recreational activity these days,
the overall activity level, household activity and occupational
activity has decreased in recent years making people more sedentary
and lazy. Using laptops,ipads,iphones for work and leisure has had
major impact on health as well.
There has been serious backlash against certain advertisements,
magazines, etc., recently which display what people deem as
“unrealistic” portrayals of body size or shape. In turn, it is
argued that these unrealistic portrayals lead to things like
depression, self-deprecation, lack of self-esteem, and other
disorders like anorexia-nervosa, etc. This has an effect on many
individuals in society, and arguably, society altogether, thus
making it a social issue.
Government can also provide environments that encourage
physical activity and make other policy changes so it’s easier for
people to be healthy. In other words, governments have the
potential to change the social determinants of obesity.