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Hayden Schenck
English 1010
Dr. Jeffrey Greenwell
April 20, 2015

Obesity is Constantly Rising

A constant problem that we are seeing in our country is obesity. How does it feel
to be the most obese country in the world? I dont know about you but I do not like that
feeling at all. Thats why it is time we come together and find a solution for this terrible
problem. This subject is hard because you are talking about peoples bodies and how they
arent taking care of them. There is no easy way to say to someone that they are obese
which is why we need to make a plan so we can solve this problem through different
ways that will help all individuals from adults to their children. I have been researching
several different components that drive obesity. Can it be the thousands and thousands of
fast food restaurants, the strategy at which these fast food restaurants work with their
location and their propaganda, or the laziness of us Americans? There are a lot more fast
food restaurants when you compare today to 50 years ago. This is definitely part of the
problem but I think there is more to it. Something that came to my mind while
researching laziness in America was video games and social media. The times are
constantly changing. When I was a kid, which was about 12 years ago I noticed that my
friends and me were always outside playing games, riding bikes, and overall just being
active outside. Now a good percentage of these kids would rather stay inside and play
Call of Duty with their friends or their face is constantly stuck to an ipad playing games.

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This plays a major role in the factor of obesity growth through out the states. I have done
a lot of research on all of these subjects and you will know reasons why we have obesity,
what it does to our health, and what we can do to prevent it.
The first issue I would like to address is fast food restaurants. They are very
popular throughout the world but especially in the United States. Most Americans know
what a Big Mac is from Mcdonalds or what a Baconator is from Wendys. These are very
unhealthy calorie loaded burgers from both of these restaurants. They along with many
other fast food restaurants are well known in every town or city you go to. These fast
food restaurants are intelligent because most of them have a dollar menu! Everyone loves
a lot of food for not that much money so when you see that you can get a Mcdouble for
only a dollar you immediately buy a few because you realize you arent spending as
much money. Fast food restaurants know that, so they put a variety of food on the dollar
menu so they can attract your whole family. When poor families are struggling to put
food on the table, what is more promising than a full meal for their family from
Mcdonalds or Burger King? This is creating bad habits for young kids because if they
start eating this unhealthy at a young age they will be obese in their early years, which
will lead to a very unhealthy lifestyle. Another fact with fast food restaurants is their
locations. They purposely locate themselves next to schools so they can draw the
students attention. ("Fast Food Near Schools par. 2) Now that I brought
that up, you can probably notice that there is always several fast food
restaurants next to high schools. This is no accident. They know what
they are doing but is it their fault or should we take responsibility as
citizens?

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This brings me to my counterargument: are these fast food
restaurants to blame? I can see both sides but I do have to agree that
their strategies with location and prices do cause some obesity.
(Pruchno , par. 1) Blaming the fast food restaurants is an excuse for us
Americans. Yes, we could blame them for being close to our schools,
and yes, we can get mad at them for having cheap menus. At the end
of the day, they are all businesses trying to make money just like every
other business in this country. So my counterargument of it being the
restaurants, fault is a good one because it is easy to see both sides of
the equation but when we blame them it makes us look lazy. We need
to take responsibility for our own actions and not blame fast food
restaurants for our bad eating habits. This is not just for adults, but
also for children as well. It is vital that parents play a good role and not
let their kids make up excuses for being obese.
Parents do not realize how much control they have when it
comes to their childrens eating habits. First, children will follow your
example so if they see their parents eating fast food constantly, they
will naturally want fast food and even worse they will be eating it with
their parents a good chunk of the time. There has been lots of research
on child obesity because it has been so widespread in the last few
years. One study that drew my attention was how parents can
influence their kids telling your kid to eat healthy and that it is good for
them and to have a healthy lifestyle. If you are always telling them that

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and being a good influence it really does help drastically and can be
the difference between a healthy and obese kid. (Nyberg, et al. par. 3)
Having healthy children is important for this upcoming generation and
it is even more important that we find a way to prevent obesity.
Prevention is essential in the quest for healthy lifestyles. If we
can find a way that will prevent kids from becoming obese we will
change millions of lives. People are content with their lives and
continue to eat and let their children eat which ends badly for
everyone. While researching, I discovered people that also wanted to
solve this problem with prevention programs. These programs inform
children about obesity and how to live healthy lifestyles. (Novotny, et
al. par. 3) They want to start these programs when the children are
very young. If in school they would like to start these programs in
kindergarten. I have a quote that I found that shows how crucial it is
that we solve the obesity problem. Tom Vilsack says, The rise of
childhood obesity has placed the health of an entire generation at
risk. This quote tell me that a whole generation is at risk, and if we
can put these preventative programs into all school to educate the
children we are making a difference. (Novotny, et al. par. 3) We need to
prevent obesity because it is affecting more and more Americans
health every day.
Being healthy as we all know is what every individual wants. So
when you can control whether you are healthy or not, would you try

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your best to be healthy? Right now in the United States health issues
related to obesity are increasing. Being over weight is not healthy, but
sometimes people just think that they arent healthy and cant perform
tasks that they could if they lost a hundred pounds but the reality is a
lot more than that. Respiratory problems are skyrocketing in America
and this is due to obesity. People are also having asthma problems and
children are developing allergies earlier than normal. (Weinmayr,
Gudrun, par. 5) We need to recognize that this is not a joke. I have a
friend that is a little overweight and his family is even more
overweight. His dad is obese and last year almost died because he is
so overweight. He was in the hospital for a few days and they told him
that if he doesnt lose weight he will die. He was having respiratory
problems; his heart was getting to much pressure from his body
because he was so overweight. This just shows that it is not a joke to
be obese that it can potentially take your life. Obesity is a scary thing
but on the bright side, it is a problem that can be solved.
In concluding this research paper, I hope you can see how
serious obesity is. This is a real problem that is going on everyday here
in America. It is a time for us as citizens to step up and fix the problem
because being the most obese country in the entire world is
embarrassing and it needs to stop now. It will be hard because there
are so many different components that contribute to obesity, whether
it is the fast food restaurants, parents giving their children fast food

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from the time they are little, or even just being lazy. This has to stop
now! There are ways that we now know can change and help the
problem. We can implement prevention in all schools starting with kids
that are in kindergarten, educating them about healthy lifestyles and
how if you eat healthy you will feel and look better. Looks all in all dont
matter but having a healthy body inside and out does and we can
avoid many health problems if we stay away from obesity. Right now
the odds are against us because it is so hard to live a healthy lifestyle
in America but it is time that we step up because we have a golden
opportunity. This opportunity can save a whole generation of children. I
dont know about you but this excites me because to know that us
Americans have the chance to change our childrens lives and even
their childrens lives is incredible. Obesity stops now, we have all the
tools and research, and now we need to put it to the test and stop
obesity for good!

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Work Cited
"Fast Food Near Schools Means Fatter Kids." Romanian Journal Of Medical Practice 4.1
(2009): 44. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Novotny, Rachel, et al. "Systematic Review Of Prevalence Of Young Child Overweight

And Obesity In The United StatesAffiliated Pacific Region Compared With The
48 Contiguous States: The ChildrenS Healthy Living Program." American
Journal Of Public Health 105.1 (2015): e22-e35. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 24 Mar. 2015

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Nyberg, Gisela, et al. "Effectiveness Of A Universal Parental Support Programme To
Promote Healthy Dietary Habits And Physical Activity And To Prevent
Overweight And Obesity In 6-Year-Old Children: The Healthy School Start
Study, A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial." Plos ONE 10.2 (2015): 1-19.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Pruchno, Rachel, Maureen Wilson-Genderson, and Adarsh K. Gupta. "Neighborhood

Food Environment And Obesity In Community-Dwelling Older Adults:
Individual And Neighborhood Effects." American Journal Of Public Health
104.5 (2014): 924-929. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Mar. 2015.

Weinmayr, Gudrun, et al. "Overweight/Obesity And Respiratory And Allergic Disease In

Children: International Study Of Asthma And Allergies In Childhood (ISAAC)
Phase Two." Plos ONE 9.12 (2014): 1-20. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24
Mar. 2015.