The content of this essay is about obesity, and how many scientists believe it is shortening peoples lives and others believing it’s actually increasing their lifespan. We’ve all watched the news and seen the footage of reporters telling us how the percentages of obese Americans have increased, but some researchers are questioning their findings. Is it possible that being “fat” may in fact lengthen your life or just not affect it all? Some researchers believe so, like Paul F. Campos who actually wrote a book called The Obesity Myth. People like Paul scoffed at the idea because he believed that family genetics was the main cause, and Katherine M. Flegal used statistics like more underweight people die every year than overweight people. This story deals with science because it’s all about how the body responds to unhealthy foods and family genetics, and also how some scientists disagree with each other because they use different facts to state their idea.
The author’s story was well written, showing the opinions and evidence these researchers show to support their ideas. But in my opinion, the author uses too many researchers and it loses you because you forget what one scientist believes in. I like all the facts and information, but every one of the different researcher’s information and opinions just may be too much. I’m going to be honest, reading this gave me a headache, but I was able to understand it enough to get the gist of it all. I caught myself going back in the paragraph and asking, “Who thought this and what’s their opinion?” Once I was done looking back, I was able to figure everything out and go on with the story. I’ve taken a lot of this information to heart, but this story wasn’t able to convince me that being overweight doesn’t affect your health, because I’ve witnessed people who’ve had problems that later have serious health issues later in their life. The facts were reasonable, but didn’t persuade me into believing something different.
The impression this essay gave me was good, due to the fact that it helped me open my eyes to see that there are so many different factors into obesity rather than just unhealthy eating habits. A lot of it is family genetics, but as the author states, exercising and trying to help their own health isn’t worth it to many Americans. Lack of exercise is huge, and this all has been stated before someway, somehow. This is a serious topic, but our country has warned us, and if we don’t change the way we eat and exercise, this number of obese Americans is going to keep rising.
Obesity is a concern to Americans everywhere, and it’s hit me close to home. My father, who is not obese but had unhealthy eating habits, had to have quadruple bypass surgery on his heart because some of his arteries were very clogged, as much as 95% clogged. A lot of this was family history, but with exercise and a change in eating habits, he probably wouldn’t have needed this surgery and could’ve lived life to the fullest without it. So don’t tell me that factors like that don’t affect peoples’ health, because it does, and a couple statistics will not change my mind. Americans need to watch their eating habits and exercise amount, enough said!