Obesity Over the Last Several

¶ … 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.

The Impact of the Programs

The impact of anti-obesity programs is that they are doing little to address the problem. The biggest reason why these programs are not working is because of a one size fits all approach when it comes to weight loss and health. This is challenging, as the body will lose weight in different amounts and the results will not be obvious for a while. This causes the person, to feel that any kind of efforts to deal with these challenges is a waste of time (which eventually leads to the same type of destructive habits as in the past).

Evidence of this can be seen by looking no further than a study that was conducted by Cal Poly Tech. They found that most people are currently aware of the problems associated with poor diet. According to the lead researcher and economist on the project (Michael Marlow), there is a treasure trove of information about obesity and how to prevent it with him saying, "The massive (and growing) sales of diet books, health foods, and other weight loss products -- plus efforts by employers and insurance companies to create a slimmer risk pool -- as evidence that people are already well aware of the problem. They already have strong incentives to correct it, and are experimenting with a wide variety of strategies. Nobody's doing an especially good job at the moment, but that goes for government just as much (if not more) than individuals. Why ignore all the desperate private efforts at slimming down? Paternalists appear to disregard market attempts to deal with obesity, since its prevalence offers them latitude to overstate the effectiveness of interventions." ("Your Fat and You Know it ") This is important in showing how the current efforts to deal with obesity are failing to address the root causes of the problem.