Many of us hear the word obese and can get a stereotypical image of a person who is sitting on a brown leather couch eating a Twinkie they bought earlier, sitting there with last week’s barbeque potato chip crumbs shoved between the couch cushions, while of course watching their favorite show series on Netflix. It is no secret that obesity is vastly increasing in the U.S and is killing almost as many people as heart disease (Surgeon General, "Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences,"). Obesity was rated the third most common killer in 2013 (Eric A. Finkelstein, MD, Justin G. Trogdon, PhD, Joel W. Cohen, PhD, and William Dietz, MD, PhD, "Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity:). Society blames the obese for their obesity.  Obese people are shut out from events and airlines making it difficult for obese people to fly. Obese persons suffer psychologically as well as physically because our society tends to equate beauty, intelligence, and even success with thinness (Prescription For Nutritional Healing James F. Balch M.D) Who’s to blame for obesity  the obese? Is it the prices put on healthy or organic foods? Is it limited time? Is it people’s food proportions? Is it peoples Calorie intake? Or is it how fast their metabolism is?

The definition of disease is a disorder of structure or function in a human body that produces specific signs or symptoms, or that effects a specific location (not a direct result from a psychical injury) (Wikipedia.com) Symptoms of obesity are the definition of disease. An obese person has a small metabolism which slows down their digestive system making them unable to burn all the calories they’ve eaten the previous day.  Obese people’s organs begin to malfunction, leading to other health issues (Prescription for Nutritional Healing James F. Balch M.D). Diseases can be genetic and passed down through ancestry genes as well as obesity, because both parents have two alleles (GB healthwatch) for each gene making you prone to inherit different combinations. This relates to my personal knowledge because my mother has six children, of the six, two are obese for their size relating to the fact that their dads aren’t obese but my mother is. Many people can relate to this situation and the percentage of kids that do inherit being obese from a parent shouldn’t be judged for genetic traits passed down. Furthermore obesity, meets the criteria of a disease because obesity deforms the human body and effects the metabolism cycle.  If obesity isn’t a disease then why does obesity have such high death rates attributed to it? Not all diseases kill you but what if you look at it like a what if scale? What if that person could’ve earned a specific amount of years to live considering the fact that they weren’t obese? 300,000 deaths were attributed to obesity in 2013, 3,000 deaths that could’ve maybe been prolonged or prevented (Surgeon General, "Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences,"). Obesity is a deadly disease.

Rightfully obesity in most common cases is a genetic trait from a disease whose symptoms affects the metabolism. These specific symptoms of various diseases predispose them to obesity, in which medications can’t fully help to eliminate the symptoms.  For example, a study of 247 people showed that women and men with down-syndrome tended to be more overweight than the typical population (Globaldownsyndrome.org). Research suggests that both the thyroid and a lower metabolic rate contribute to people with down-syndrome being overweight (Globaldownsyndrome.org). People with disabilities and who are in wheel chairs also tend to have muscle atrophy which causes them to be skinny (Assumptions about disability April, 28 2012 Askawheeler.blogspot.com)
Even though being obese in some cases can be genetic it can be argued that the food we put inside our bodies and the amount of calories we burn per day amount to factors of how people become obese. Many would say any diseases cure is obtainable; it just depends on the amount of effort obese people put towards dieting, exercising, and fat burning pills.

“Essentially, what they’re telling us is that the diatribe about diets is a bunch of overcooked baloney,” said Dr. David Katz (director of Yale Griffin Preventative Research Center) (NBC news) Dieting works for some people essentially, but dieting has been proved to not work long term. (NBC news 'Overcooked Baloney': Diets Don't Work for Long, Review Shows) Of course, we could all make losing weight simple by taking fat burning pills which are unhealthy for your body. They may be FDA approved, but even FDA approved drugs can carry harmful, even fatal side effects. Often those side effects take years after approval to be linked to the drug (Fitday article). A 2013 report stated that 31.8% of Americans are obese (Gallup, "Mississippians Most Obese, Montanans Least Obese," www.gallup.com), this puts us at the second fattest country following Mexico (Gallup, "Mississippians Most Obese, Montanans Least Obese," www.gallup.com,). We’ve become so obese because the average women thirty-one through fifty should consume 1,800 calories and the man 2,200.  Statistics show that women eat 1.7% more calories than recommended and men eat 22% more calories than recommended. Restaurant’s serve servings four times more than they did in the 1950’s (By Maggie Fox, Stacey Naggiar and Wonbo Woo USDA, "How Many Can I Have?," www.choosemyplate.gov accessed Apr. 21, 2014). Obesity accounts for 10% of deaths in America (Eric A. Finkelstein, MD, Justin G. Trogdon, PhD, Joel W. Cohen, PhD, and William Dietz, MD, PhD, "Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer-And Service-Specific Estimates," ). One tenth of anything is a lot in all honestly, that’s like saying for every 10 people you know one will die from obesity. Every disease you can think of has increased within the years. In 1994, all U.S sates had obesity rates as low as 19% and below (Rachel Rettner, "Is Obesity a Disease? Doctors Debate," www.livescience.com, June 27, 2012). By 2 010, no state reported an obesity rate under 19% (Rachel Rettner, "Is Obesity a Disease? Doctors Debate," www.livescience.com, June 27, 2012). By 2013 eleven states had obesity rates over 30% (Rachel Rettner, "Is Obesity a Disease? Doctors Debate," www.livescience.com, June 27, 2012).

However obesity, like other diseases disrupts the normal functioning body (this matches the definition of disease). People who are obese have excess adipose (or fat) tissue that causes the overproduction of leptin (molecule regulating food intake and energy), leading to abnormal food intake and no energy to want to burn it off. That’s inside your body!!! Genetics!! Exercise can’t stop this process of genetics, but it can help burn fat to keep it from piling up on the outside of your body. So I beg every reader to open their eyes and try to help decrease this disease by starting more fitness program for kids who are overweight, that way it can’t escalate to obesity. Eating healthier and eating the recommended portions along with using the food pyramid to create a variety of necessary foods and the nutrients each category offer. Eliminating red meats, sugar, artificially flavored drinks, this is how we can save people from becoming obese from being overweight.

Work Cited
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "The State of Food and Agriculture," www.fao.org, 2013
Surgeon General, "Overweight and Obesity: Health Consequences," www.surgeongeneral.com, Nov. 19, 2013
Eric A. Finkelstein, MD, Justin G. Trogdon, PhD, Joel W. Cohen, PhD, and William Dietz, MD, PhD, "Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer-And Service-Specific Estimates," Health Affairs, July 27, 2009
Gallup, "Mississippians Most Obese, Montanans Least Obese," www.gallup.com, Mar. 4, 2014
Rachel Rettner, "Is Obesity a Disease? Doctors Debate," www.livescience.com, June 27, 2012
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Obesity: Halting the Epidemic by Making Health Easier, At a Glance 2011," www.cdc.gov, May 26, 2011
            Assumptions about disability april, 28 2012 Askawheeler.blogspot.com
Dictionary.com (disease)
NBC news 'Overcooked Baloney': Diets Don't Work for Long, Review Shows
By  Maggie Fox, Stacey Naggiar and Wonbo Woo
USDA, "How Many Can I Have?," www.choosemyplate.gov (accessed Apr. 21, 2014)
Prescription for Nutritional Healing James F. Balch M.D published in 2000