Obesity | Teen Ink

Obesity

May 23, 2013
By Anonymous

About 25% of Americans are obese today which is about 70 million people. Obesity has become a trouble in America and something needs to be done to resolve the problem. Many critics say people should just do what makes them happy however with obesity come many things including disease, loss of money, and the rate that obesity is growing. We the people should try to do something to help this current crisis that is in America today.

With obesity there are many diseases that you are prone to. Some examples of these are cancer, diabetes, heart attack and strokes; these are only a few of the horrible affects. Diabetes has an unbelievable 80% of type two diabetes related to obesity. This is especially shocking because diabetes is one of the most preventable diseases out there. Heart disease is another disease associated with obesity; it is one of the biggest killers in America at the moment. For this there shouldn’t have to be a counterargument, millions and millions of lives could be getting saved if each person helped.

A huge burden of obesity in America is also the amount of money spent on the treatment of this. In just one year America spends about 62 million dollars on doctor and hospital visits for obesity, an even scarier number is that we spend an incredible 800 million just on the bills alone. Imagine what could be done with the extra money at our disposal. With other miscellaneous costs the total amount enters the billions. This is crazy to think that we use so much money for this and it can easily be treated.

The biggest question from all of this is how can we help the situation at hand? I think a great way to start is through exercise, education and diets. If we can take a break from technology and take a 10 minute walk or park their car farther away it could make a huge difference. Another helpful thing would be to really stress the importance on diet right now so kids can learn more about the topic. One thing that needs to change is the fact that junk and fast food is so cheap but the healthy foods are much more expensive. All these suggestions can greatly help the rate of obesity that is happening.

As previously stated obesity in America is getting out of hand and we need to do something to help. With the help of others a difference can be made. Just by doing some of the suggested actions the problem can get solved quickly and in an efficient way.



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