Obesity rates and lifestyle interventions in America

¶ … Obesity

Over the last several decades, the obesity rates of the nation have been continually rising. This is because of improvements in: the standard of living, advances in technology, the lack of physical exercise and poor diet are all contributing to high levels. A good example of this can be seen with a study that was conducted by Harvard University. They determined that the nation has an obesity rate of 42%. In the future, they expect these numbers to climb even further with the overall rate of increases occurring at a much slower pace. These figures are illustrating how this trend has become a major epidemic that is affecting the health of tens of millions of adults and children. ("Obesity Rates in the U.S.")

To deal with these issues, there has been an effort to educate everyone about the dangers of obesity and how to avoid this condition. At the heart of most programs, is a focus on having obese people to help themselves by learning to change their lifestyle. To determine if this kind of approach is working requires: studying the scope of the problem and the impact that these programs are having. Together, these elements will offer specific insights about the effectiveness of this approach in pushing obese individuals to make significant changes.

The Current Obesity Problems

Like what was stated previously, the biggest causes of the obesity are lifestyle choices that the individual is making. This means that they are not exercising enough and they are filling their body up with foods that lack any kind of nutritional value. The combination of these factors has been shown to lead to a number of health related conditions to include: diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and certain kinds of cancer. Over the past 17 years, these rates have been rising exponentially. ("F as in Fat")

A good example of this can be seen with a study that was conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. They examined how the obesity rates were increasing across the entire country over the last 17 years. What they found, was that a total of 38 states have obesity rates that are accounting for 25% of the population. In 1995, (when the data was first available for every state) no one had obesity rates this high. These numbers are indicating how these amounts have increased between 90 to 200% (depending upon the state). The consequences of such large amounts of obese individuals in the general population are that health care costs will increase exponentially and productivity will decline. This will make it difficult for many people to deal with a host challenges they are facing on regular-based because of obesity related problems. ("F as in Fat")

To address these issues, scientists and public officials have been pushing obese individuals to become more active. At the heart of their basic strategy, is to have these people begin engaging in a total lifestyle transformation. This will often involve the person visiting a medical doctor, nutritionist and having some kind of support group. The problem with these kinds of programs is they do little to address the psychological impact of being obese on the individual. This is when they will have hang ups about changing their routines, because they feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. Once this happens, is the point that the person could revert back to same kind of destructive lifestyle as before. Moreover, the lack of motivation can occur from no immediate measurable progress (such as: not losing weight fast enough or slow transformations with their body). In these kinds of situations, the person who is trying to lose weight will only remain on the program for little while. At which point, they will begin to embrace their destructive habits from the past. This is when the person will gain even more weight. ("Coping and Support")

In addition, there has been an effort by the government to: improve labeling, changing the way fatty foods are prepared and increasing education. This is supposed to help give obese individuals the tools they need to make these kinds of lifestyle changes. Again, like with all other programs, there is no effective strategy for addressing the root causes of the problem with the individual. This makes any kind of initiatives much less effective over the long-term.

Conclusion

Clearly, the obesity problem is major challenge that public health officials have been continuing to deal with. The main focus of current initiatives in addressing these issues is: to have increased education / intervention programs, improved labeling and regulation of food preparation techniques. In general, these programs have failed because they are not dealing with the root causes of the problem. This makes any kind of efforts to have limited results (which causes the obesity rates to increase). To prevent the situation from becoming worse, an approach must be taken that: changes the way food is prepared, the kind of ingredients that are used and it needs to tackle the lingering psychological issues within the individual. Until this takes place, the chances are high that the current trends will become worse with: programs that offer no hope of addressing the individual and social causes of obesity.