Obesity in the USA

Obesity in the USA

In the United Stated of America there is a problem with obesity. When compared to other countries, USA is ranked as the highest country with obesity problems. Other countries do not have the same problem. For example, the USA has an extremely higher number of obesity problems compared to China. Why are the numbers so different? What is that country doing different? What can we do as a country to better our self’s and health?
A question commonly asked is, who do we blame? We always blame the person who is overweight or the parents. Something that has drawn my attention is all the marketing the companies do. I have noticed many companies do not always advertise what they say. For example, the Lean Cuisine states that their product is healthy, fat free; they even advertise their brand by making the box with light colors to make you think is healthy, but they are not. Who should we blame? The person who is buying the healthy product or the company who is labeling their products fat free and is lying? What about the generic brand vs. the name brand? Which is better? I did some research on my own and I seen that the brand JIF, the peanut butter is not always better that the Kroger Natural peanut butter. The generic peanut butter simply has no preservatives which affects us while JIF has added other ingredients in order to make their product last longer on the shelves. Many products ignore the risk factors they put the public in danger of simply because they want more money in their pockets.
I am not trying to run these companies out of business but I do want people to be aware that not everything is true. I believe people should be well educated and not buy a product just because it says fat free. I also have noticed that in a lot of other fat free products they claim false statements involving ones health choices. It would be a good idea to pay attention and read the ingredients that are in that product. It will be then when people realize that some of the ingredients are not as healthy as the product appears.
I believe that if individuals were able to read the nutrition labels correctly, then obesity would not be a big problem. I believe America should educate their people by doing work shops and campaigns promoting eating healthy and perhaps exercising. America should also put a stop to all the false marketing companies are doing and make labels clear. This will prevent many illnesses because obesity also plays a big part in many diseases that individuals could obtain.
I believe that everyone should be careful on what they eat and be aware on the Nutrition Labels so America will have happy healthy individuals.

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Comments

[Gabriela Vallejo]

I believe that what you are saying is true. The United States definitely has a problem with obesity and something needs to be done and your idea of teaching people to read nutrition labels for themselves, instead of them believing what the corporation tells them, is a good way to start. I have often wondered why things like chips and candy have the fat free label when I know that they still make you fat. I guess they are just trying to deceive you and sadly it works on a lot of people. If we made people more conscious of the labels and what they mean then maybe people would give a second thought to what they eat.

[Natasha]

Childhood obesity is an epidemic right now. In the schools everywhere I look, I see more and more children who are over weight and just look miserable. Food is a giant part of the problem, probably the biggest part, however the another big part is the lack of physical activity at school and in the home. Children dont go outside and play anymore. They stay inside and play video games or just watch TV. At school, children only have PE twice a week if that. We cant control what happens at the home, but why was PE taken out of the school? PE should be put back in the school, especially now with the rise of childhood obesity.

[Janette]

As a future teacher I think this is a serious problem that we should all try to help and fix. Many children in schools are obese and that is sad to see because they get teased for it , their self-esteem is low and it is bad for their health. Instead of finding someone to blame we should be coming together to try and educate children and parents to become better consumers. We focus so much on teaching children different subjects but Health class is not offered until High School as an elective, by then the child might already have a bad habit and bad habits are hard to break. But if we start offering Health and Nutrition classes since young, then we will also be helping children grow up with good habits.