OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OBESITY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
In the society today, more and more people are becoming obese. The cause for obesity is wide, taking foods with a lot of sugar, eating of the wrong foods, doing little or no exercise. At times the cause for obesity is very complex, such as people’s attitude, beliefs, and genetics. Research carried out by the World Health Organisation indicates that, about 1.5 billion in the world are obese (Salimath, 2007). Obesity has become a major cause of death which can be prevented. Obesity has been found to reduce the life expectancy; minimum obesity reduces the life expectancy by about 2- 5 years. Severe obesity reduces the life expectancy by about 5-20 years (Salimath, 2007). Obesity or excess weight have been found out to a major cause of about 40 different types of health problems according to the research carried out by the Health and Medical Research Foundation. Research also indicates that the United States of America is the leading country in the world with people who have excess weight. In America about 2/3 of the population has excess weight, out of that about 1/3 are obese (Salimath, 2007).
The number of people with excess weight is steadily rising as the years go by. Speaking from the perspective of an overweight person many do not regard themselves as having excess weight. Most of obese people do not acknowledge to being overweight, they refer to themselves as “big”. Many still do not the reason why they are gaining so much weight (Salimath, 2007). In the research I will look into the complications associated with obesity. Many obese people suffer from several health problems. I will also look into how the obese people think the society regards them.
Research Methods and design
My research is aimed at the people who have excess weight, and those who are already obese. Health problems associated with excess weight are very many, about 10% of the United States budget for health care is spent treating obesity. Research shows that obesity causes rising medical expenses, excessive family expenses, it is also the major cause of the rise of diabetes in the United States of America (Salimath, 2007). The figures are shocking. Obesity is having a toll on the health care expenses and also on the people of the United States of America.
To assist in the research I managed to interview ten people. The Johnson’s family which had four people (Johnson, his wife Tracy, the first born mike, and the little sister Mary). The others were John a mechanic, Mercy a bar attendant, Teddy a manager at a supermarket, Jacob who is jobless and living with a sister, Simon a petrol station attendant, and Lillian a house wife. I ended up choosing this group of people to help in my research as they all had excess weight, they had different types of Jobs, some of them were Jobless and still two of the people were in college. This I very significant as it will bring out the effects of obesity in different fields of life (Salimath, 2007).
I asked the people who had excess weight ten questions which reflected the effects of obesity in the day to day lives of the people. For instance I asked questions such as what do your daily activity entail? , what types of food do you take or what is the amount of the food do you take. The responses got from the questions enabled me to zero in on the probable cause of excessive weight of the people. From the interview most of the people saw the type of work they were doing as the source for their rapid weight gain. This will be seen in the course of the interview, my questions will be used to guide the research as the discussion will reveal how obesity has affected the lives of people.
The likely pros and cons in this type of research method used is that the sample size might be very small to make judgment on the effects of obesity. During the interview a managed to notice that some of the people I was interviewing gave brief answers on some questions, as if they wanted to “get rid” of me quickly. That makes me feel that somewhat the answers were not 100 % true. Some of the questions were too personal, so I had to skip some of them or rephrase. This experience made me doubt if the respondents were giving me answers that were true. I felt some respondents were giving me answers that they thought I wanted to hear, and in doing so they thought that they were offering “help” for me to finish the assignment. Some respondents tried to make their situations better by pretending they were very happy with their “big “nature. There are some respondents who were not able to answer the questions satisfactorily, and had to ask the question all over again. This made me feel that the answers given by the respondents were not valid.
Findings
My research revealed that most of the overweight people do not intentionally become obese; some of them are becoming obese because of the type of food they take (Salimath, 2007). In typical day of Lillian’s life, she wakes up in the morning prepares breakfast for the husband, the breakfast mainly is made up of cereals, fried eggs, and Lillian has to take a piece of cake too. After seeing her husband off to work Lillian goes back to her house and start sleeping on the couch while watching television. At around ten in the morning she walks across the street to a fast food joint and buys some French fries, and a soda. She goes back to the house and eats her food. Lillian does not have children, so she finds watching television a sure way of beating boredom. At around one in the afternoon she is hungry again and she prepares some fried meat and takes it with rice which is her favorite food. In Lillian’s case she is gaining a lot of weight due the lifestyle she is living, but the sad thing she is not aware of that. Research by the Medical research foundation shows that in the whole world, the Americans are the leading consumers of meat (Salimath, 2007). The problem is that the meat that is eaten in the United States is grown from hormones, antibiotics and also very cheap corn. Quality meat is very expensive to afford, thus most of the meat found in the fast food joints are the cheapest. Even though the meat is cheap, later the cost of treating the effects becomes very expensive (Salimath, 2007).
My research revealed that some of the people who had excess weight were just ignorant, this can be proved from the discussion I had with the Johnson’s family over breakfast. It comprised of foods that were high in calories. The answers given to some of my questions were:
When I asked if they were not worried about the excess weight, Tracy answered by saying. “In our family there is a history of having people who are big in size; my mum insisted that when one appeared small in body size they were easily bullied in school. So we had to feed on food that increased our size and that is a belief that we hold so dear to our hearts. “Johnson also contributes to the discussion by saying “I used to be very small in size while growing up, and that lead to me being picked on by other kids at school, at first I thought they were just being mean but I later found out my small size was my major undoing, I do not want my children to undergo the treatment I went through because of my previous small size.” I went further to ask the family as a whole what they thought about the health complications related to obesity. Lillian answered “I have never heard any body from our family who has been hospitalized for being sick as a result of being big.” When I asked Mike and Mary what they thought about the excess weight, the two teenagers answered that they trusted their parent’s advice.
From the above example the Johnson family does not consider the issue of excess weight as a problem; they are intentionally taking foods that are high in calories so as to gain weight. The family does not look at the effects of obesity, thus they have put the issue of intimidation as a priority than their health.
My research revealed that the type of work also was a major cause of obesity in the United States of America. Some jobs that people were doing have lead people to eating fast foods such as French fries , Pizza as they easy to consume while working at the same time. Some kinds of Job were also “boring” or do not require a lot of movement, while some involves sitting down for along time. As a result of being idle some people tend to eat a lot of fast food. The fact is further emphasised by the research carried out by the Medical Research Foundation (Singh, 2008).
In a typical mikes working day, he has to wake up very early and do not have time to take breakfast at home, his clients at times come very early to have their vehicles’ repaired before going to work, some of the clients drop of their vehicles to be repaired on their way to work. At times there are so many vehicles that needs the attention that he has no time to relax and eat, in such incidences he orders for pizza , French fries and a soda which he takes while working. At times Mike has no time to eat while working in such cases he finishes his work and then orders for some fast food from a nearby fast food restaurant which mainly consists of food that is high on calories and fats. Being hungry Mike orders a lot of food not because he likes eating a lot of food but hunger drives him to do that (Singh, 2008).
From the example Mike gains a lot of weight not because he wants to or his job does not require a lot of movement to burn off the excess calories, but the job do not allow Mike to eat healthy (Singh, 2008). He eats what is convenient at the time as he has a lot of work that needs his attention.
Other jobs involve a lot of sitting down which drives some people to eat a lot. Teddy the supermarket supervisor spends a lot of time sitting down in the office doing at times nothing, he only occasionally looks at the monitor by his side which is connected to the surveillance cameras in the supermarket. To keep busy Teddy is forced to nimble away on snacks which contains a lot of calories, by the end of the day Mike takes in a lot of calories and fats which contributes to being overweight. In this example Teddy gains a lot of weight because of the nature of his job that allows him to take a lot of calories (Singh, 2008).
From my research idleness is a major cause for obesity, most people who have nothing to do at all tend to gain weight, this is based on the case of Jacob who is not working, and depends on the sister for support. Jacob’s daily activities begins at seven, he wakes up when his sister is going to work takes breakfast which contains a lot of sugary stuff. After breakfast Jacob goes and sits in front of the television flipping through the channels, and at the same time nibbling cookies which also contain a lot of sugar. At about one o’clock feeling hungry, he goes to the kitchen and prepares some sausages which he takes with meat and soda. Jacob ends up gaining a lot of weight as he does not involve himself in any activity (Singh, 2008).
Discussion and Conclusion
My research reveals that the rise of the number of obesity is as result of the pressure to perform at work, poor eating habits and at times beliefs (Singh, 2008). To cut down on the rising cases of obesity some organisations have even created web sites with information on how to cut down on excess weight. Programs have also been put in place to inform the public the problems associated with obesity. If we as a community can lend a hand in helping people to make informed choices on the type of food to give to our children then the problem of obesity will be cut down.Interview Questions
Obesity
Question 1: Do you consider yourself as obese? (If you do why)
Question 2: What is your regular working day like?
Question 3: Do you find your body size irritating?
Question 4: Do you know the problems associated with obesity (if you do can you name some)
Question 5: How do you think people look at you in terms of your weight?
Question 6: What is your favorite food?
Question 7: How much of that food can you take at one sitting?
Question 8: How regular do you exercise?
Question 9: Are you thinking of cutting down on the excess weight?
Question 10: Are you conversant in the ways that can be used to help one shed off excess weight?
Reference
Salimath, J., Tucker, O., Szomstein, S., & Rosenthal, R. J. (2007). P84. Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, 3(3), 327.
Singh, G. K., Kogan, M. D., & van Dyck, P. C. (2008). A Multilevel Analysis Of State And Regional Disparities In Childhood And Adolescent Obesity In The United States. Journal of Community Health, 33(2), 90-102.
