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Averi Dickinson

Professor Lilley

English 101

29 Apr 2019

Why Americans Have Obesity and The Best Way They Can Overcome It

The United States is a country with a scary statistic: one in three adults is obese,

according to the Department of Health and Human Services. This appalling fact could be due to

fast food that is easily accessible almost anywhere in the country. In addition, Americans are

living more sedentary lifestyles and engaging in sedentary habits, which also leads to weight

gain. American obesity can be prevented and treated through exercise and lifestyle changes in

nutrition but is mainly caused by poor dietary decisions and food portion sizes rather than

physical inactivity.

Most people like you could agree that fast food restaurants and pre-packaged foods such

as chips and candy taste great but are nutritionally bad for them. Why are they still eating these

foods if they know that they are harmful to their health? McDonalds can be quick and easy to

visit when you are on the road and need a bite to eat in a pinch. Vending machines are in many

places, especially at rest areas where drivers can purchase a cheap snack and return to driving.

According to the New York Times, these foods have become even more popular in the past few

years, and do not seem to be going out of style. Between 2012 and 2017, fast food sales went up

22.7 percent and packaged food sales went up 8.8 percent (Richtel and Jacobs). People are not

choosing these foods because they think they are healthy; it’s just very convenient to grab a meal

with this style of eating. Additionally, the increase in sales shows that this food type
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consumption has gone up, therefore meaning that it is an increasing factor that contributes to

obesity.

Instead of visiting fast food restaurants and vending machines, you should pack your own

food and/or find a healthier alternative to eat. Find foods that are low in energy-density as

opposed to high energy-density. Energy density is a way of categorizing foods depending on

how many calories they have in comparison to the weight or bulk of the food itself (Fahey et al.

286). For example, you should eat berries with yogurt (a low energy-dense food) that would

total to 150 calories instead of eating 5 crackers (a high energy-dense food) that would total to

the same number of calories. Not only would you physically feel fuller, but you would mentally

feel fuller and hinder cravings.

Switching over to a healthier diet may be relatively easy for you to do. You could visit a

store on a nearby corner and buy a healthy snack. However, this isn’t always something

someone else could do where they live. America is known for having and wasting lots of food,

but there is a flip side to this: the country also has food deserts. These areas have little to no

restaurants or stores for people to eat right or buy necessities, let alone luxury items. In recent

news, an issue about dollar stores (most of which do not sell fresh foods/produce) are invading

these areas to sell to their occupants. An article published in Chicago Tribune provided more

information on the subject, interviewing people who lived in a food desert in North Tulsa,

Oklahoma: A woman named Jacqueline Wilson claimed that the nearest Walmart was 15 miles

away. She states, “‘We’ll just have to keep living on potato chips and doughnuts and pop.

That’s all we are offered on this side of town’” (qtd. in Siegel). This shows that dollar stores in

food deserts are both helpful and harmful at the same time. They are helpful for their

convenience and extremely low prices, but harmful because of the processed foods that they
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offer and the lack of healthful options they fail to supply. On top of this, many food deserts are

poor and impoverished, and the people living in them may not have the money to make long trips

to the grocery store to buy better quality (yet more expensive) groceries. With this in mind,

citizens are eating empty calories (foods that are temporarily filling but have no nutritional

value) which causes them to feel hungrier, less satisfied, and makes them feel the need to eat

more.

If the calorie count for the average American is set at around 2,000 calories per day, how

can you be exceeding this amount? You might be concerned with getting the most bang for their

buck, and so to cut production costs while increasing portion sizes, manufacturers cut corners on

the nutrition qualities. Highlighthealth.com, a website geared towards providing people with

credible and reliable information on health, reports Hershey’s chocolate recipe to have changed:

the cocoa butter used for creamy texture was replaced with vegetable oil. You might have tasted

the change if you are a Hershey’s chocolate fan, and you probably weren’t impressed with the

new flavor and texture. On top of that, studies have shown that flavonoids in cocoa benefit

cardiovascular health (Jessen). The same Hershey’s issue was covered by Today, which stated

that nutritionists agree cocoa butter won’t increase cholesterol levels and also preserves

chocolate’s antioxidant properties (Coffey). This shows that Hershey’s removed a healthfully

beneficial substance from their chocolates in order to deal with rising manufacturing costs. Fast

food restaurants strive to provide a satisfying amount of food for customers while keeping a low

production cost, and therefore provide you with a lot of low-quality food. As shown in figure

9.3, restaurant dishes today are much larger than they used to be; subsequently, people today are

physically larger than they used to be as well. For example, food portions in the 1950’s were

four times smaller than the average portion today. Additionally, Americans are now about 26
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pounds heavier as compared to the average weight in the 1950’s (see fig. 9.3). Simply put, bigger

portions equal bigger people and it isn’t doing anyone any favors.

There are many ways you can avoid oversized portions. One way is to order the smaller

dish sizes on the menu. This way, you can still get what you would like to eat, but you are doing

yourself a favor in not eating as much of it. One website, organizeyourselfskinny.com, offers

other methods of portion control such as having either an alcoholic beverage or dessert, sharing

an entrée with a friend or family member, or just ordering some appetizers and splitting them

between everyone at the table (assuming there is a group of people you are with). You could

also eat half of a meal and then take the rest home to have as another meal later (“Portion

Control (Part 2): Portion Control in Restaurants”). Not only do these methods demonstrate how

to cut down portion size, but they are also much more cost effective than trying to eat a whole

meal by yourself. These methods are no problem, right?

Even though these portion control tactics seem simple, they may not be as easy to do as

you think. When watching what you eat, it is a necessity to understand the difference between

mindless and mindful eating. A chart on mindful eating from mindful.org says that mindless

eating is eating past your body’s signals to stop, when your emotions spark hunger, eating

randomly, and eating distractedly. Mindful eating is said to be when you listen to your body’s

signals to stop, eating when your body tells you it is hungry, eating at a scheduled time, and

eating with no distractions (fig. 1). In American culture, mindless eating is very common.

Television and other electronics keep us glued to our screens and while we are distracted

watching our favorite show, we end up ignoring our body’s signals to stop eating and just keep

eating anyways. Have you ever brought a half-gallon tub of ice cream to the couch, watched

some TV and then realized that you have already eaten half of the tub? This is just one example
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of mindless eating. According to mindful.org, six ways to practice mindful eating is to: (1) let

your body catch up to your brain, (2) know your body’s personal hunger signals, (3) develop

healthy eating environments, (4) understand your motivations, (5) connect more deeply with

your food, and (6) attend to your plate (Willard). Think about how many of these practices you

actually do right now. Do you eat sweets to feel better or relieve stress? Do you eat past when

you know you’re full? Ask yourself why you’re eating the next time you go grab food to better

understand the habits and triggers that affect you. In addition to these ways, when eating and

watching or working on something, it would be a good idea to portion out your food before you

sit down to your task in order to prevent overeating.

Along with poor nutrition and oversized food portions, people with obesity are not

getting enough exercise. Today, Americans are becoming less active than they used to be:

driving is chosen over walking, the elevator is chosen over stairs, and screen time is swapped out

for play time. This problem applies not only to adults, but to children as well. Let’s Move!, an

initiative set up by First Lady Michelle Obama for juvenile health lists reasons for childhood

obesity in America:

Thirty years ago, most people led lives that kept them at a healthy weight. Kids walked

to and from school every day, ran around at recess, participated in gym class, and played

for hours after school before dinner. Meals were home-cooked with reasonable portion

sizes and there was always a vegetable on the plate. Eating fast food was rare and

snacking between meals was an occasional treat. (“Learn the Facts”)

Ultimately, Let’s Move! depicts a time when children were exposed to more active lifestyle

norms. This could be compared to modern day where people are commonly sedentary and eat

unhealthy foods, showing the stark contrast between children’s normal daily activities and
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alluding to the reasons of why Americans are obese. Take into consideration your choices when

you’re confronted with a healthy or unhealthy decision such as riding a bike or taking a cab to

work.

Sedentary lifestyles are also causing creeping weight gain, which leads to chronic illness

and disease later in life such as cardiovascular disease. For example, the trucking industry has a

lot of obese employees because they are sitting in a truck all day, driving long distances. In a

simplified form, they drive, deliver, eat, sleep, and repeat. One story of a trucker named Kyle

who was extremely obese was shared through healthyeater.com and tells of his weight loss

journey which was done exclusively through a healthy diet and exercise. The website also

displays reviews and experiences from the thousands of people who have tried the method of

counting macro-calories, with most all of them being positive. In Kyle’s story, he mentions that

he would constantly eat; he spent around $120 per day just on fast food. His weight was so bad

that he “couldn’t walk or stand for more than two minutes at a time” (Healthyeater). Ultimately,

by watching how many calories he ate (and specifically what foods he put into his body) as well

as regular, progressive physical exercise Kyle was able to lose 270 pounds from his initial 500-

pound weight. You too could be one of the many people who have tried macro-counting to lose

weight and become healthier.

Aside from truckers, obesity runs in other careers as well, especially businessmen. I,

personally, know that my dad is overweight. His job as a field sales engineer for semiconductors

requires him to spend a lot of time in front of the computer , on the phone talking with

customers, and also in his car on the road attending trade shows and consulting with customers in

different states; he’s in a chair almost all the time. He has told me that when he is on the road,
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it is difficult to make healthy choices on food since there is rarely any time to sit down, relax,

and enjoy a meal. I remember he once said, “As a businessman you learn to eat whatever and

whenever you can on the road because you don’t know when you’re going to get your next

meal.” This is horrible to hear because I do not want my dad to struggling to eat healthily due to

the demands of his job. Recently, he has said to me, “My schedule is so varied, it’s impossible

to have regular exercise. I have to wake up early in the morning and I’ll get to a hotel late in the

night. There are odd hours in my work day, and when I’m finally done working, I don’t have the

energy to exercise.” The rigor of his job pushes him to make impulsive or on-the-spot decisions

about his nutrition, making the situation a 1-2 punch of being sedentary and eating poorly.

Those of you reading may have family or friends who are in this same situation, perhaps working

in an office cubicle or just sitting down most of the day. Encourage them to make healthy

decisions and to take a walk whenever they can.

Even though physical exercise is an essential part of healthy weight loss/weight

management, it cannot keep pace with the number of calories that an obese person regularly

consumes. For example, a customer orders a burrito from Chiptole with meat, cheese, salsa,

beans, and rice which is roughly 1,000 calories (Chipotle Mexican Grill). If that person ran 6

consecutive 10-minute miles (1 hour), they would only burn 600 calories. Most average people

cannot keep up that pace, and therefore it is much easier to watch how many calories you are

putting into your body as opposed to trying to work it all off. According to Fit and Well: Core

Concepts and Labs in Physical Fitness and Wellness, what someone can do for improved weight

loss and weight management is to exercise, especially in endurance training and resistance

training. Endurance training amplifies the rate that your body burns calories at rest depending on

the duration and intensity of the exercise, and resistance training builds more muscle, therefore
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increasing your own metabolic rate (the rate at which the body uses energy). Essentially,

increasing exercise betters physical fitness, helps to reduce excessive weight, and causes you to

burn more calories at rest (Fahey et al. 288). Even though exercise is not as important as

monitoring diet and daily caloric intake, it is still vital and beneficial to health.

There are many factors that contribute to American obesity: diet, portion sizes, lifestyle,

place of residence, job demands, and many more. However, there are also factors that people

can control to reduce their risk of obesity or reduce the risk of diseases linked with obesity.

These factors include people’s abilities to make informed choices about their foods, controlling

their eating habits, and getting physical activity whenever they can. There is certainly an

opportunity for every citizen in America to improve upon their eating or exercising habits, no

matter their background. Take my father, who tries to take daily walks and eat healthy foods

when he is home, away from being on the road. If the majority of people were to commit to

these improvements, there would be a healthier, happier and less heavy population.

Works Cited

Chipotle Mexican Grill. “Nutrition Calculator.” Chipotle. https://www.chipotle.com/nutrition-

calculator.htm. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

Coffey, Laura. “Chocoholics sour on new Hershey’s formula.” Today. 19 Sep. 2008,

https://www.today.com/food/chocoholics-sour-new-hersheys-formula-2D80555560.

Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

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Fahey, Thomas, et al. Fit & Well: Core Concepts and Labs in Physical Fitness and Wellness.

13th ed., McGraw-Hill, 2019, pp. 286, 288. Accessed 5 Apr. 2019.

Jessen, Walter. “Processed Food Makers Cut Corners As Prices Rise.” Highlight Health. 2 Sep.

2008, https://www.highlighthealth.com/food-and-nutrition/processed-food-makers-cut-

corners-as-prices-rise/. Accessed 8 Apr. 2019.

“Kyle’s Inspiring Extreme Weight Loss (270 lbs.) Without Surgery.” Healthyeater.

https://healthyeater.com/extreme-weight-loss-no-surgery. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.

“Learn the Facts.” Let’s Move!. 4 Jan. 2017.

https://letsmove.obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/learn-facts/epidemic-childhood-obesity.

Accessed 3 Apr. 2019.

“Portion Control (Part 2): Portion Control in Restaurants.” Organizeyourselfskinny.com. 13 Mar.

2014, https://organizeyourselfskinny.com/portion-control-part-2-portion-control-in-

restaurants/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2019.

President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition. “Importance of Physical Activity.”

HHS.gov. 26 Jan. 2017. https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/be-active/importance-of-physical-

activity/index.html. Accessed 3 Apr. 2019.

Richtel, Matt and Jacobs, Andrew. “American Adults Just Keep Getting Fatter.” The New York

Times. The New York Times Company. 23 Mar. 2018,

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03?23/health/obesity-us-adults.html. Accessed 28 Mar.

2019.
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Siegel, Rachel. “Do dollar stores help the poor with cheap, vital staples? Or block out grocers

and trigger food deserts?” Chicago Tribune. 18 Feb. 2019.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-dollar-stores-help-or-hindrance-

20190218-story.html. Accessed 4 Apr. 2019.

Willard, Christopher. “6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating.” Mindful. 17 Jan. 2019.

https://www.mindful.org/6-ways-practice-mindful-eating/. Accessed 5 Apr. 2019.

Figure 1: 6 Ways to Practice Mindful Eating

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Fig. 9.3 The new (ab)normal.