Eric Nguyen

English 1102-H
Trina Sotirakopulos
8 December 2015
Obesity and its Solvable Issues
When thinking about the major threats to humanity, one usually thinks of war,
hatred, disease, and natural disasters; however, the biggest killer is hiding out of sight
from many. Kept hidden through advertising and ignorance, obesity threatens lives
indiscriminately amongst men, women, and children of all races. And while obesity and
malnutrition is a global issue, its larger impacts and effects stem from America. With the
largest distribution of fast foods and an alarmingly high obesity rate, Americans are at a
turning point in which life expectancy has decreased. However, this is not an issue that
cannot be helped; through various reforms in policy and on the social level, obesity can
be fought back. Amongst the various issues of society, obesity directly affects the health
of the population and if Americans do not actively fight back, the future generation will
suffer.
The top causes of human death such as heart disease and diabetes can be
traced back to their diets. In the cases of obesity, these threats are amplified
considerably. To better understand the scope of the issue, a 2011-12 survey taken by
the National Center for Health Statistics found that amongst 9120 Americans, "68.5% of
adults are overweight or obese, 34.9% are obese"(Ogden). The same study showed
that 31.8% of children and adolescents are overweight or obese; 16.9% are obese.

Those are alarmingly high numbers, particularly amongst the children. Childhood
obesity is a lot more harmful as it affects them during a time where their bodies are
developing. Also note that these American statistics are not the highest in the world, that
would be in Mexico due to an export of American diets. These rates have been
increasing in many places around the world for the past decade with no signs of
stopping.
America is the perfect habitat to grow obese with fast food and convenience
stores replacing groceries and organic foods. McDonalds alone has over 14,000
restaurants established in America compared to Canadas meek 1,400. Couple this with
the fact that America also has a large number of metropolitan cities, and the "food
desert" is created. These are areas in which a resident struggles to find groceries and
resorts to relying on cheap food found in convenience stores and fast food joints. A
finding by food journalist Mark Bittman has that "more than two million Americans in lowincome rural areas live 10 miles or more from a supermarket" (Bittman). Yet they could
live just down the street from a Walgreen's or 7-Eleven; it is literally a more practical
choice not to buy from grocery stores and save gas and time. Also, workers today live a
tight-scheduled day and come home exhausted, not wanting to cook. With this, it comes
no surprise that many opt to buy fast, prepared food instead of cooking a meal from
scratch.
Government has a surprisingly large influence on the diets of many Americans
and even beyond. For example, the government use of food stamps or SNAPs spreads
misinformation on what is and is not healthy. These stamps are promoting consumption
in the fight against anti-hunger, but are also promoting unhealthy food as everyday

meals. SNAP should be protected just as how alcoholic beverages have warning labels
on them, but "it must be adjusted to take into account the changes in agriculture,
marketing and diet that have occurred since SNAP was born 50 years ago, changes
that have led to the obesity crisis" (Bittman). If the government is going to spoon feed
their citizens food, there should be consideration to what is promoted. To those who do
not know better, they will continue buying these "approved" foods and consuming them,
leading to the issues of obesity we face today. Understandably, the equally important
issue of malnutrition and starvation are being fought back with SNAP, but even then, the
quality of food is preventing people from getting healthier. In the words of successful
chef Jamie Oliver, "You cant have one arm of the Government investing money in food
education and school lunches and then have another part promoting junk food "
(Garner). Jamie Oliver has been campaigning to fight child obesity for years and has
won several awards for his effort and published 4 recipe books with his healthy recipes.
His efforts reflect a lot of what is possible to be done to fight the threat of obesity. Feed
people, and feed them healthy meals that are balanced, organic, and nutritious. In an
age of luxurious consumption, it is getting difficult to achieve just that.
Also relating to government is the wealth distribution and the issue of poverty,
however poverty is not often associated with obesity. There is evidence to show that
poverty and obesity are correlated and can indirectly cause each other. A survey was
taken using an updated body mass index reference to define obesity between children
worldwide from 1988-1994. Participants were then categorized by family income, age,
and nationality. The results showed that in America, children who were in poverty
exhibited higher rates of obesity with 32% in America, 12.5% in Russia, and 4.8% in

China. These percentages are out of 6110 American participants, 6883 Russian, and
3028 Chinese (Wang). This same phenomenon took similar form in other countries, but
America has a significantly more frequent occurrence. Despite having the most
collective money in the world, America is far from having equal wealth distribution. The
top 1% own most of the nation's wealth while the poor class barely has enough to scrap
buy. Those poor people are then going to rely on fast food and such as previously
mentioned. All of this adds up to say that Americans are spending their money on
unhealthy food, being fed misinformation on nutritional diets, and unknowingly making
themselves fatter.
However severe the crisis of obesity may seem, it is not without its solutions. For
one, institutions can increase the availability of healthy, affordable foods. It is
understandable that students living on campus do not have time to cook or buy
groceries, but the quality of food in some campuses raise questions. In my own study, I
went to the cafeteria at College of Dupage in search of healthy foods $5 or below. The
list of the following food items match the price criteria:

A small vegetable salad

Yogurt/Parfait
Crudites (carrot and celery sticks with dip)
Water/carbonated drinks
Chips (+salsa)
Taco
6-inch sandwich at Subway
I also include vending machine items and also a bagel, coffee, or both at
Einstein's. While that does include a small variety of affordable foods, most of these
items are sides, not meant to be a standalone lunch. Students are going to school for
several hours and require food with nutritional substance. Of the options available, the

only ones that can be considered meals are possibly the Subway sandwich and the
bagel and coffee combo. However a small sandwich is too little and a bagel with
fattening cream cheese and caffeine is not a healthy daily diet. And in terms of the more
expensive menu options, while most of them are of adequate nutritional value, refer
again to the correlation between poverty and obesity. The goal is to get people to avoid
eating expensive and unhealthy meals. A simple solution, many would think, would be to
pack a lunch at home and bring it to school or work. But many adults do not know how
to cook, further greatening their reliance on buying food. Schools are not teaching kids
how to cook, often reserving cooking classes as an optional elective course. To those
working towards degrees/majors that do not require any cooking, they miss out on the
opportunity to learn to feed themselves properly.
Another important issue that needs to be resolved is the controversy of fatshaming, in other words, mocking people for their overweight body type. In reaction,
there has been a growing movement that overweight, along with all body types, is
beautiful. As heartwarming as the movement is, great care must be taken to not let it
overshadow health problems. Conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and
metabolism issues should not be overlooked as well. Together, people should be
comfortable with whatever body type he or she may have, as well as having enough
self-respect to take care of themselves. That being said, think back to the issue of
poverty being related to obesity. If one finds themselves unemployed and without
money, they are often sympathized for, yet overweight individuals are ridiculed.
Sympathy should not discriminate, because those who are denied it will never find the
will to change themselves. As journalist from James Madison University Alan Levinovitz

puts it, "Fat and poor, like skinny and rich, are adjectives that describe peoplepeople
who live, work, love, struggle, fail, and triumph" (Levinovitz). Obesity is a health issue,
just as any mental illness, disability, or harm, so it is unfair to treat it with any less
severity. The same goes for poverty, it is an unfortunate situation that many people find
themselves in. Just as how the poor cannot just stop being poor, the overweight cannot
just turn healthy overnight. Stop criticizing people for their health, and then progress can
be made to create a healthy population.
With so many issues today being about freedom, rights, and liberty, the health of
the population cannot be ignored. With such a direct threat to the lives of people, action
must be taken and awareness must be raised. As shown through the last ten years,
people are generally unaware of the situation and therefore clueless on how to fix it.
Obesity is a problem rooted in poverty, misinformation, and marketing business. To
make progress in reducing obesity rates requires better education on eating healthy as
well as economic rebalancing of wealth distribution. While the issue at hand is large in
scale, it is still within fixable possibility. By taking matters into their own hands, those
suffering from obesity can help save their lives as well as the lives of the future.